Search for spontaneous muon emission from lead nuclei

We describe a possible search for muonic radioactivity from lead nuclei using the base elements ("bricks" composed by lead and nuclear emulsion sheets) of the long-baseline OPERA neutrino experiment. We present the results of a Monte Carlo simulation concerning the expected event topologies and estimates of the background events. Using few bricks, we could reach a good sensitivity level.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Electron/pion separation with an Emulsion Cloud Chamber by using a Neural Network

We have studied the performance of a new algorithm for electron/pion separation in an Emulsion Cloud Chamber (ECC) made of lead and nuclear emulsion films. The software for separation consists of two parts: a shower reconstruction algorithm and a Neural Network that assigns to each reconstructed shower the probability to be an electron or a pion. The performance has been studied for the ECC of the OPERA experiment [1]. The $e/\pi$ separation algorithm has been optimized by using a detailed Monte Carlo simulation of the ECC and tested on real data taken at CERN (pion beams) and at DESY (electron beams). The algorithm allows to achieve a 90% electron identification efficiency with a pion misidentification smaller than 1% for energies higher than 2 GeV

Emulsion sheet doublets as interface trackers for the OPERA experiment

New methods for efficient and unambiguous interconnection between electronic counters and target units based on nuclear photographic emulsion films have been developed. The application to the OPERA experiment, that aims at detecting oscillations between mu neutrino and tau neutrino in the CNGS neutrino beam, is reported in this paper. In order to reduce background due to latent tracks collected before installation in the detector, on-site large-scale treatments of the emulsions ("refreshing") have been applied. Changeable Sheet (CSd) packages, each made of a doublet of emulsion films, have been designed, assembled and coupled to the OPERA target units ("ECC bricks"). A device has been built to print X-ray spots for accurate interconnection both within the CSd and between the CSd and the related ECC brick. Sample emulsion films have been extensively scanned with state-of-the-art automated optical microscopes. Efficient track-matching and powerful background rejection have been achieved in tests with electronically tagged penetrating muons. Further improvement of in-doublet film alignment was obtained by matching the pattern of low-energy electron tracks. The commissioning of the overall OPERA alignment procedure is in progress.Comment: 19 pages, 19 figure

Measurement of the atmospheric muon charge ratio with the OPERA detector

The OPERA detector at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory (LNGS) was used to measure the atmospheric muon charge ratio in the TeV energy region. We analyzed 403069 atmospheric muons corresponding to 113.4 days of livetime during the 2008 CNGS run. We computed separately the muon charge ratio for single and for multiple muon events in order to select different energy regions of the primary cosmic ray spectrum and to test the charge ratio dependence on the primary composition. The measured charge ratio values were corrected taking into account the charge-misidentification errors. Data have also been grouped in five bins of the "vertical surface energy". A fit to a simplified model of muon production in the atmosphere allowed the determination of the pion and kaon charge ratios weighted by the cosmic ray energy spectrum.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figure

First events from the CNGS neutrino beam detected in the OPERA experiment

The OPERA neutrino detector at the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS) was designed to perform the first detection of neutrino oscillations in appearance mode, through the study of nu_mu to nu_tau oscillations. The apparatus consists of a lead/emulsion-film target complemented by electronic detectors. It is placed in the high-energy, long-baseline CERN to LNGS beam (CNGS) 730 km away from the neutrino source. In August 2006 a first run with CNGS neutrinos was successfully conducted. A first sample of neutrino events was collected, statistically consistent with the integrated beam intensity. After a brief description of the beam and of the various sub-detectors, we report on the achievement of this milestone, presenting the first data and some analysis results.Comment: Submitted to the New Journal of Physic

Measurements of neutrino oscillation in appearance and disappearance channels by the T2K experiment with 6.6 x 10(20) protons on target

111 pages, 45 figures, submitted to Physical Review D. Minor revisions to text following referee comments111 pages, 45 figures, submitted to Physical Review D. Minor revisions to text following referee comments111 pages, 45 figures, submitted to Physical Review D. Minor revisions to text following referee commentsWe thank the J-PARC staff for superb accelerator performance and the CERN NA61/SHINE Collaboration for providing valuable particle production data. We acknowledge the support of MEXT, Japan; NSERC, NRC, and CFI, Canada; CEA and CNRS/IN2P3, France; DFG, Germany; INFN, Italy; National Science Centre (NCN), Poland; RSF, RFBR and MES, Russia; MINECO and ERDF funds, Spain; SNSF and SER, Switzerland; STFC, UK; and the U. S. Deparment of Energy, USA. We also thank CERN for the UA1/NOMAD magnet, DESY for the HERA-B magnet mover system, NII for SINET4, the WestGrid and SciNet consortia in Compute Canada, GridPP, UK, and the Emerald High Performance Computing facility in the Centre for Innovation, UK. In addition, participation of individual researchers and institutions has been further supported by funds from ERC (FP7), EU; JSPS, Japan; Royal Society, UK; and DOE Early Career program, USA

Social Internet of Things for Domotics: a Knowledge-based Approach over LDP-CoAP

Ambient Intelligence aims at simplifying the interaction of a user with her surrounding context, minimizing the effort needed to increase comfort and assistance. Nevertheless, especially in built and structured environments, current technologies and market solutions are often far from providing the required levels of automation, coordination and adaptivity. Devices should interact autonomously, should reach opportunistic decisions and take actions accordingly. In particular, user activities and profiles should be among the manifold implicit factors to be taken into account in that process. Home and Building Automation (HBA) is one of the most relevant scenarios suffering from the poorness of the allowed system intelligence, automation and adaptivity. Devices are logically associated through static profiles defined at system deployment stage. The large majority of solutions are proprietary and centralized, and require manual configuration. This paper proposes a novel semantic-based framework complying with the emerging Social Internet of Things paradigm. Infrastructured spaces can be intended as populated by device agents organized in social networks, interacting autonomously and sharing information, cooperating and orchestrating resources. A service-oriented architecture allows collaborative dissemination, discovery and composition of service/resource descriptions. The Semantic Web languages are adopted as knowledge representation layer and mobile-oriented implementations of non-monotonic inferences for semantic matchmaking are used to give decision capabilities to software agents. Finally, the Linked Data Platform (LDP) over the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) provides the knowledge organization and sharing infrastructure underpinning social object interactions. The framework has been implemented and tested in a home automation prototype integrating several communication protocols and off-the-shelf devices. Experiments advocate the effectiveness of the approach

Search for short baseline nu(e) disappearance with the T2K near detector

8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to PRD rapid communication8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to PRD rapid communicationWe thank the J-PARC staff for superb accelerator performance and the CERN NA61 collaboration for providing valuable particle production data. We acknowledge the support of MEXT, Japan; NSERC, NRC and CFI, Canada; Commissariat `a l’Energie Atomique and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique–Institut National de Physique Nucle´aire et de Physique des Particules, France; DFG, Germany; INFN, Italy; National Science Centre (NCN), Poland; Russian Science Foundation, RFBR and Ministry of Education and Science, Russia; MINECO and European Regional Development Fund, Spain; Swiss National Science Foundation and State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation, Switzerland; STFC, UK; and DOE, USA. We also thank CERN for the UA1/NOMAD magnet, DESY for the HERA-B magnet mover system, NII for SINET4, the WestGrid and SciNet consortia in Compute Canada, GridPP, UK. In addition participation of individual researchers and institutions has been further supported by funds from ERC (FP7), EU; JSPS, Japan; Royal Society, UK; DOE Early Career program, USA

Measurement of the electron neutrino charged-current interaction rate on water with the T2K ND280 pi(0) detector

10 pages, 6 figures, Submitted to PRDhttp://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.91.112010© 2015 American Physical Society11 pages, 6 figures, as accepted to PRD11 pages, 6 figures, as accepted to PRD11 pages, 6 figures, as accepted to PR

Influence of Heart Rate on Left and Right Ventricular Longitudinal Strain in Patients with Chronic Heart Failure

Over the past years, a number of studies have demonstrated the relevance of strain assessed by two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) in evaluating ventricular function. The aim of this study was to analyze changes in left (LV) and right ventricular (RV) longitudinal strain associated with variations of heart rate (HR) in participants with and without chronic heart failure (CHF). We enrolled 45 patients, 38 of these diagnosed with CHF and carrying an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, and seven patients with pacemakers and without CHF. The frequency of atrial stimulation was increased to 90 beats/min and an echocardiogram was performed at each increase of 10 beats/min. Global LV and RV longitudinal strain (LVGLS and RVGLS, respectively) and RV free wall longitudinal strain (RVfwLS) were calculated at each HR. When analyzed as continuous variables, significant reductions in LVGLS were detected at higher HRs, whereas improvements in both RVGLS and RVfwLS were observed. Patients with a worsening of LVGLS (76% overall) were more likely to present lower baseline LV function. Only a few patients (18% for RVGLS and 16% for RVfwLS) exhibited HR-related deteriorations of RV strain measures, which was associated with lower levels of baseline RV function and higher pulmonary systolic pressures. Finally, 21 (47%) and 25 (56%) participants responded with improvements in RVGLS and RVfwLS, respectively. Our findings revealed heterogeneous RV and LV responses to increases in HR. These findings might ultimately be used to optimize cardiac functionality in patients diagnosed with CHF