Program of the symposium
Sunday 4.6.2017
Welcome reception in Collegium Maius
(17:00 - 19:30)
17:00 ⟶ Welcome from the organizers 18:00 - 19:00 ⟶ Guided tour through Collegium Maius Monday 5.6.2017
Session no. 1 Applied physics: Medical Applications
08:30 - 09:00 COFFEE A PRIORI 09:00 - 09:30 Openning by Prof. dr hab. Stanislaw Kistryn, Prorector of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow
Prof. dr hab. Ewa Gudowska-Nowak, Dean of the Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science JU
Katarzyna Cyganik, representing Jaroslaw Gowin, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Science and Higher Education 09:30 - 10:00 Joel Karp (University of Pennsylvania, United States)
"Development of PET for Total-Body Imaging" (Abstract) Development of PET for Total-Body Imaging
The concept of a PET scanner with a long axial length has two key benefits; first, the sensitivity increases dramatically, by about 5x for single organ imaging to about 40x for whole body imaging, and second, this allows for the simultaneous study of temporal changes of biological processes in multiple organs throughout the body. These advantages lead to the possibility of measuring the bio-distribution of new radio-tracers and monitoring therapy with new drugs, and imaging with very low dose activities. Developing a long axial PET scanner is not a new idea, but the technical challenges related to both hardware and data processing, as well as the associated high cost have made this a difficult project to initiate. Recent funding from the NIH to UC Davis with the University of Pennsylvania as a partner has now made this possible. In this presentation we will discuss the progress towards building a proto-type total-body PET scanner based on the underlying technology of the digital SiPM detectors from Philips.
10:00 - 10:30 Craig Levin (Stanford University, USA)
"New directions to explore for <100 ps coincidence time resolution time-of-flight positron emission tomography" (Abstract) New directions to explore for <100 ps coincidence time resolution time-of-flight positron emission tomography
Time-of-flight (TOF) positron emission tomography (PET) enables a significant boost in reconstructed image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which can be used for better disease visualization and quantification, lower injected dose, and/or lower study duration. This SNR gain increases as the annihilation photon pair coincidence time resolution (CTR) improves. State-of-the-art commercially available clinical TOF-PET systems achieve ~325-400 ps FWHM CTR and have demonstrated associated clinical benefits. In this talk we describe new PET detector design concepts under investigation with the goal to advance CTR below 100 ps FWHM.
10:30 - 11:00 Paweł Olko (Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland)
"Proton radiotherapy in Europe" (Abstract) Proton radiotherapy in Europe
The basic factor which determines the success of radiotherapy is delivering the highest possible dose of ionizing radiation to the tumour volume while sparing the neighbouring critical organs and healthy tissues. Protons with energies from about 60 MeV to 250 MeV are useful for cancer treatment because of the phenomenon of the Bragg peak i.e. increasing of energy deposition the at the end of protons path in tissue and the well-defined range. Therefore, the unwanted doses to healthy organs, particularly the entrance dose, are minimal as compared to MV X-rays used in conventional radiotherapy. This is of particular importance to paediatric patients in whom the probability of later radiation-induced cancer should be minimized. The first proton treatment in Europe was performed in 1957 at the Svedberg Laboratory in Uppsala, Sweden. The higher numbers of patients in Europe were treated for eye tumours but the possibilities of treatment of deeply seated tumours were limited only to a few sites in Orsay (F), Villigen (CH) and St. Petersburg (RU). In the last decade the real boom in proton therapy started, with introducing of the new techniques and technologies, frequently a spin-off from nuclear physics research. In Europe between 2012 -2016 eight new modern proton therapy centres was put in operation and the next six is in the construction. In Krak??w, the Bronowice Cyclotron Centre with two rotating scanning gantries, eye treatment room and the experimental hall are fully operational since October 2015. The new accelerators allowed to minimize size and energy consumption of the dedicated medical accelerators. Active Pencil Beam Scanning eliminated application of mechanical collimators and compensators, which were expensive and produced unnecessary secondary neutrons. New detector developments, based on the position sensitive detectors, were applied for two-dimensional dosimetry and Quality Assurance of the proton beam. Since the uncertainty in beam range in patient remains one of the biggest problem of proton therapy, significant research concentrated on the development of methods for the range verification. Here, Positron Emission Tomography is applied for determination of activity of ?+ isotopes induced by proton beam. The research and development in nuclear physics will significantly contribute in the next years for the improvements of proton therapy and the outcome of the patient treatment.
11:00 - 11:30 COFFEE BREAK 11:30 - 12:00 Denis Dauvergne (Subatomic Physics and Cosmology Laboratory, Grenoble, France)
"Prompt-gamma monitoring of particle therapy: state of the art, remaining challenges and future trends" (Abstract) Prompt-gamma monitoring of particle therapy: state of the art, remaining challenges and future trends
The in vivo control of ion range during particle therapy remains one of the main challenges for the improvement of Quality Assurance of this highly conformal radiotherapy modality. Imaging of secondary radiations issued from nuclear reactions is the most widely explored way, since nuclear reactions occur all along the path of the primary beam, until very low residual energy. Besides PET imaging, the idea of using Prompt-Gamma (PG) arose nearly 15 years ago, with first experimental proof of principle in 2006. Since then, considerable efforts worldwide, including industrials, have been put forward to bring this technique to clinical translation. In addition to "conventional" PG profiles measurements with dedicated collimated or Compton cameras, new concepts have enriched the potential of PG to monitor treatments: the time distribution of detected PGs is found to be correlated to the range, the nature itself of PGs (the yields of various energy lines) depends both on the material traversed and on the beam energy. Even simpler, global counting of PGs emitted from the patient can be used to monitor the beam position and range, and the total energy deposited in the patient.?At a time when the first clinical trials including PG cameras are ongoing, remaining challenges are on the way to be tackled, in particular the need for reliable predictive models to be used during treatment planning with fast algorithms, and thus allowing direct and real-time comparison between measured and predicted yields.?Depending on the accelerator nature, the delivery mode, the ion species, and the type of tumor, future online monitoring devices may combine several detection modalities.
12:00 - 12:30 Stefaan Vandenberghe (Ghent University, Belgium)
"PET-MRI: a review of challenges and solutions in the development of integrated multimodality imaging" (Abstract) PET-MRI: a review of challenges and solutions in the development of integrated multimodality imaging
The integration of positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been an ongoing research topic for the last 20 years. This talk gives an overview of the different developments and the technical problems associated with combining PET and MRI in one system. After explaining the different detector concepts for integrating PET-MRI and minimising interference the limitations and advantages of different solutions for the detector and system are described for preclinical and clinical imaging systems. The different integrated PET-MRI systems are described in detail. Besides detector concepts and system integration the challenges and proposed solutions for attenuation correction and the potential for motion correction and resolution recovery are also discussed.
12:30 - 13:00 Szymon Niedźwiecki (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland)
"J-PET: a new technology for the whole-body PET imaging" (Abstract) J-PET: a new technology for the whole-body PET imaging
The Jagiellonian Positron Emission Tomograph (J-PET) is the first PET built from plastic scintillators. J-PET prototype consists of 192 detection modules arranged axially in three layers forming a cylindrical diagnostic chamber with the inner diameter of 85 cm and the axial field-of-view of 50 cm. An axial arrangement of long strips of plastic scintillators, their small light attenuation, superior timing properties, and relative ease of the increase of the axial field-of-view opens promising perspectives for the cost effective construction of the whole-body PET scanner, as well as construction of MR and CT compatible PET inserts. Present status of the development of the J-PET tomograph will be presented and discussed. [1] P. Moskal, Sz. Niedźwiecki et al. (J-PET Collaboration), Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 764 (2014) 317-321 [2] P. Moskal, ..., Sz. Niedźwiecki et al. (J-PET Collaboration), Nucl. Instr. and Meth. in Phys. Res. A 775 (2015) 54-62 [3] P. Moskal, ..., Sz. Niedźwiecki et al. (J-PET Collaboration), Phys. Med. Biol. 61 (2016) 2025-2047 [4] J. Smyrski, ..., Sz. Niedźwiecki et al. (J-PET Collaboration), Nucl. Instr. and Meth. in Phys. Res. A 851 (2017) 39-42 [5] L. Raczynski, ..., Sz. Niedźwiecki et al. (J-PET Collaboration), Phys. Med. Biol. (2017) in print.
13:00 - 14:30 LUNCH (in Collegium Novum)
Session no. 2 Fundamental physics: Exotic hadrons
14:30 - 15:00 Heinz Clement (University of Tuebingen, Germany)
"Dibaryons --- Fake or True?" (Abstract) Dibaryons --- Fake or True?
Dibaryons are thought to be six-quark objects, potentially constituting a new state of matter. A short review is given about the long-standing search for such objects, from the early days until present, when the first non-trivial dibaryon resonance has been established. Starting from the fifties the dibaryon search experienced many ups and downs, the dibaryon rush era followed by periods of big frustration and renewed start-ups. The first firm observation of a narrow dibaryon resonance gives new impact to this field. Having found one such species raises immediately the question, are there possibly more? Also whether the new state represents a molecule-like object or rather a compact hexaquark system, will be discussed.
15:00 - 15:30 Piotr Salabura (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland)
"Nuclear matter tomography with virtual photons" (Abstract) Nuclear matter tomography with virtual photons
Spectrum of photons emitted from thermalized system is described by Planck low . Most famous examples are background radiation from the Universe or photon emission of the sun. In relativistic heavy ion collisions for a short glimpse of time a hot and dense nuclear matter is created which properties resembles very much those expected for a thermalized and a fast expanding system. Photons, real and virtual converting into lepton pairs, are excellent penetrating probes to diagnose properties of such matter because of lack of strong final state interactions which dilute primary information. In the presentation it will be discussed what spectroscopy of virtual photons tells us about temperature, collision time and evolution of the such exotic nuclear matter. Furthermore, it will be argued that mass distribution of emitted virtual photons suggest melting of hadrons in the hot and dense nuclear matter created in early phase of heavy ion collision
15:30 - 16:00 Michal Praszalowicz (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland)
"On a possibility of baryonic exotica?" (Abstract) On a possibility of baryonic exotica?
Models based on chiral symmetry predict the baryonic states with exotic quantum?numbers (pentaquarks) that have relatively low masses and small widths. We shall?briefly review both theoretical and experimental status of a possibility?of exotica in the light sector. Next we shall show how to extend chiral?models to baryons with one heavy quark and show that one may expect exotic?states also in this case. Finally we shall try to interpret recently discovered?by the LHCb collaboration five Omega^*_c resonances in terms of regular and exotic?excitations of the ground state Omega_c.
16:00 - 16:30 COFFEE BREAK 16:30 - 17:00 Rajeev S. Bhalerao (Indian Institute of Science Education & Research Pune, India)
"Ultra-relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions and Quark-Gluon Plasma" (Abstract) Ultra-relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions and Quark-Gluon Plasma
I will present an overview of the field of quark-gluon plasma and ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions, where the nucleus is subjected to the extremes of temperature and pressure. I will describe the most important observables and their status in the current experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, CERN. I will highlight the important role the relativistic dissipative fluid dynamics is playing in describing the collective flow of the matter formed in these collisions.
17:00 - 17:30 Shigehiro Yasui (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan)
"Kondo effect of heavy hadron in nuclear matter" (Abstract) Kondo effect of heavy hadron in nuclear matter
To study charm hadrons in nuclei is an important topics in hadron physics. Such exotic states may be produced in high energy experimental facilities. In my talk, I will present the recent study of Kondo effect of heavy hadron in nuclear matter. Kondo effect has been known as impurity effect in condensed matter physics, as it exhibits a strongly coupled systems in low energy scale and influences several properties of matter at low temperature. As for Kondo effect in charm nuclear systems, I will show the possible realization of the Kondo effect by using perturbative treatment as well as by non-perturbative treatment. I will also discuss the application to Kondo effect in atomic nuclei.
17:30 - 18:00 Ken Suzuki (Stefan Meyer Institute for Subatomic Physics, Austria)
"Study of kaonic nuclear states with DISTO and Belle data" (Abstract) Study of kaonic nuclear states with DISTO and Belle data
A study of kaonic nuclear states is turning into a new phase with multiple new experimental results which became available recently, notably the E27 and E15 experiments at J-PARC. The mass of the claimed structure by the E27 experiment as a candidate of the so-called K-pp state in d(?+, K+) reaction at 1.69 GeV/c lies around 2.27 GeV/c^2, which is close to the X(2265) resonance which is seen in the DISTO data in p+p›KX reaction at 2.85 GeV, while the peak seen by the E15 experiment has certainly lower mass of around 2.33 GeV/c^2. In this paper, we will give an update on the DISTO data analysis on the X(2265) as well as an on-going analyses of ?(1405) using the Belle ?c›??? data to determine ?? scattering length, and to obtain a T=1 suppressed (and therefore more pure T=0) ?(1405).
18:00 - 19:00 Poster session 19:00 - 20:30 Classical Music Concert in Collegium Maius (? see details) Tuesday 6.6.2017
Session no. 3 Fundamental physics: Hadrons in nuclei
08:30 - 09:00 Volker Metag (Giessen University, Germany)
"Status of determining meson-nucleus potentials and the search for mesic states" (Abstract) Status of determining meson-nucleus potentials and the search for mesic states
An overview will be given on current experiments studying the meson-nucleus interaction to extract meson-nucleus potentials. The real part of the meson nucleus potential quantifies whether the interaction is attractive or repulsive while the imaginary part describes the meson absorption in nuclei. In most cases, the real part of the potential is determined by comparing measured meson momentum distributions or excitation functions with collision model or transport model calculations. The imaginary part is extracted from transparency ratio measurements. Results on K+, K0, K-, ?, ?’, ?, and ? mesons will be summarized. In view of these potential parameters, the criteria and chances for observing meson-nucleus bound states will be discussed. The most promising candidates appear to be the ? and ?’ meson.
09:00 - 09:30 Avraham Gal (The Hebrew University, Israel)
"Eta-meson onset of nuclear binding scenarios " (Abstract) Eta-meson onset of nuclear binding scenarios
Eta-NNN and Eta-NNNN bound states are explored within nuclear few-body precise calculations using realistic NN interactions and energy dependent Eta-N interactions derived from coupled-channel models of the N*(1535) nucleon resonance. A self consistency procedure is applied to deal with the energy dependence of the Eta-N sub-threshold input. It is found that the onset of binding Eta-3He requires a minimal value of Real-a(Eta-N) close to 1 fm, binding then slightly Eta-4He. The onset of binding Eta-4He requires a lower value of Re-a(Eta-N), but exceeding 0.7 fm. These results are also confirmed in a pion-less EFT approach at leading order (arXiv:1703.02861)
09:30 - 10:00 Satoru Hirenzaki (Nara Women's University, Japan)
"eta-nucleus interaction from the d+d reaction around the eta production threshold" (Abstract) eta-nucleus interaction from the d+d reaction around the eta production threshold
The eta mesic nucleus is considered to be one of the interesting exotic many body systems and has been studied since 1980's theoretically and experimentally. Recently, the formation of the eta mesic nucleus in the fusion reactions of the light nuclei such as d + d -> (eta + alpha) -> X has been proposed and the experiments have been performed by WASA-at-COSY. We have developed a theoretical model to evaluate the formation rate of the eta mesic nucleus in the fusion reactions and show the calculated results. We have found that the eta bound states could be produced in the reactions in cases with the strong attractive and small absorptive eta-nucleus interactions. We have compared our results with existing data of the d + d -> eta + alpha and the d + d -> 3He + N + pi reactions. We have found that the analyses by our theoretical model with the existing data can provide new information on the eta-nucleus interaction.
10:00 - 10:30 Eulogio Oset Baguena (The Instituto de F??sica Corpuscular, Spain)
"The eta 3He and rho B* B*bar systems" (Abstract) The eta 3He and rho B* B*bar systems
I shall present the results of an analysis of the p d -> eta 3He close to threshold deducing from there the existence of a resonant-like eta 3He amplitude below threshold [1]. Giving a jump in the energy regime I shall present the study of a three meson system with rho B* B*bar, which gives rise to a bound state with spin 3 [2]. [1] Xie, Liang, Oset, Moskal, Skurzok, Wilkin, PRC 95 (2017) 015202 [2] Bayar, Fernandez-Soler, Sun, Oset, EPJA 52 (2016) 106
10:30 - 11:00 COFFEE BREAK 11:00 - 11:30 Takatsugu Ishikawa (Research Center for Electron Photon Science, Thoku University, Japan)
"Low-energy scattering parameters between the eta meson and nucleon from eta photoproduction on the deuteron" (Abstract) Low-energy scattering parameters between the eta meson and nucleon from eta photoproduction on the deuteron
Among the two-body dynamics of the meson-nucleon systems, the interaction?between the eta meson and nucleon is not well known although?it has been found to be attractive. A new photoproduction experiment is?planned for the determination of the low-energy scattering parameters?between the eta meson and nucleon at the Research Center for Electron Photon?Science (ELPH), Tohoku University. The emitted proton is measured at 0?degrees?for eta photoproduction on the deuteron at the incident energy of 0.94 GeV,?which gives the zero relative momentum between the eta meson and neutron?in the final state. We will show the kinematics has a good resolving power?of the scattering length and effective range. We also present the current?status of the preparation for the new experiment.?
11:30 - 12:00 Magdalena Skurzok (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland)
"Search for the eta-mesic helium in proton-deuteron and deuteron-deuteron reactions" (Abstract) Search for the eta-mesic helium in proton-deuteron and deuteron-deuteron reactions
The existence of h-mesic nuclei in which the eta meson is bound in a nucleus by means of the strong interaction was postulated already in 1986 but it has not been yet confirmed experimentally. The discovery of this new kind of an exotic nuclear matter would be very important as it might allow for a better understanding of the h meson structure and its interaction with nucleons. The search for h-mesic helium is carried out with high statistics and high acceptance with the WASA detector, installed at the COSY accelerator in the Research Center Juelich. The search is conducted via the measurement of the excitation function for selected decay channels of the 4He-h and 3He-h systems. The talk will include description of the experimental method used at WASA and the status of the data analysis.
12:00 - 12:30 Yoshiki Tanaka (GSI, Germany)
"First results on the experimental search for ?' mesic nuclei with the 12C(p,d) reaction" (Abstract) First results on the experimental search for ?' mesic nuclei with the 12C(p,d) reaction
An especially large mass of the ?' meson compared with the other pseudoscalar mesons is theoretically understood by an interplay between UA(1) anomaly and chiral symmetry breaking. In nuclear medium, where chiral symmetry is expected to be partially restored, the mass of the ?' meson can be reduced. Since the reduction of the ?' mass induces an attractive ?'-nucleus potential, existence of ?' meson-nucleus bound states (?' mesic nuclei) is theoretically suggested. Such bound states, if observed, can be a unique testing ground for experimental investigation of in-medium meson properties. We performed missing-mass spectroscopy experiment of the 12C(p,d) reaction to search for ?' mesic nuclei. A 2.5 GeV proton beam from the synchrotron SIS-18 at GSI impinged on to a carbon target to produce ?' mesic nuclei via the 12C(p,d)11C???' reaction. The ejected deuterons were momentum-analyzed with the FRS spectrometer. We have obtained the excitation-energy spectrum of 11C around the ?' production threshold with a high statistical sensitivity and sufficiently small experimental resolution. Since no significant peak structure is observed in the spectrum, we determine upper limits for the formation cross sections as a function of the energy and the width of the assumed ?' mesic state. Then we discuss a constraint on ?'-nucleus potential which can be set by a comparison with theoretical predictions of the formation spectra. We also introduce experiments with extended sensitivity planned at GSI/FAIR in the near future.
12:30 - 13:00 Hajime Shimizu (Research Center for Electron Photon Science, Tohoku University, Japan)
"Photoproduction of eta’ mesons at SPring-8/LEPS2" (Abstract) Photoproduction of eta’ mesons at SPring-8/LEPS2
An experiment for eta’ meson photoproduction has been conducted at SPring-8 by utilizing a 2.4 GeV laser electron photon beam at the LEPS2 beam line. We try to get the spectral function of eta’ mesons propagating in the nuclear medium. For this purpose, an electromagnetic calorimeter, BGOegg, is employed to detect eta’ in gamma-gamma and also pi0pi0eta decay channels. The BGOegg calorimeter consisting of 1320 BGO crystals shows a good performance both in the energy and mass resolutions. A preliminary result for the experiment with a carbon target will be presented.
13:00 - 14:30 LUNCH (in Collegium Novum)
Session no. 4 Applied physics: Positrons in matter
14:30 - 15:00 Bozena Jasinska (Maria Curie Skłodowska University, Poland)
"New method of (human) body imaging with PET based on 3g/2g annihilation." (Abstract) New method of (human) body imaging with PET based on 3g/2g annihilation.
Positron emission tomography (PET) is a commonly recognized diagnostic method enabling imaging of the metabolism of chosen substances in the living organism. The PET imaging is based on an annihilation of the positron emitted by radiofarmaceutical with an electron from the body of the patient into two gamma quanta with energy of 511 keV each. One of the most important applications is imaging of patients tumour location and size and aiming at the search for the possible metastases as metabolism rate rises significantly in theese places and in effect the number of annihilating positrons. Method proposed here is based on a ratio of three gamma annihilation (from trapped ortho-positronium decay) and two gamma (produced in other processes). The idea is taken from Positron A annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy (PALS), technique applied in material investigation. It is known that in the dense matter, 30-40% of positrons create with an electron bound state (positronium) which can be trapped in free spaces between molecules. There exists correlation between the o-Ps lifetime value ?o-Ps and the free volume size; the larger is volume the longer is the lifetime value. On the other hand it is known that the longer is the lifetime value the larger fraction of ortho-positronium annihilate with emission of three gamma quanta. One can state the fraction of three gamma annihilation reflects free volume size than the cells structure. The f3?2??= N3????? can be determined experimentally as a ratio of the number of 3? and 2? events emitted from the patient during PET investigation. It is correlated with the free volume size and with the free volume concentration and thus may be used as a measure (morphometric indicator) of the degree of the tissue porosity in the investigated organism. From measurements performed until now in a few parts of animal meat it was stated the proposed method could distinguish between cells of different organs. Very preliminary results of human tumours investigation seems to confirm differentiation between healthy and affected tissues.
15:00 - 15:30 Ruggero Caravita (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research, Switzerland)
"Advances in positronium manipulations and laser studies in the AEgIS experiment" (Abstract) Advances in positronium manipulations and laser studies in the AEgIS experiment
Positronium (Ps), the unstable bound state of electron and positron, is a valuable system for neutral antimatter spectroscopic studies and for antihydrogen production. Forming a pulsed beam cold antihydrogen using charge-exchange with Rydberg Ps is the goal of the AEgIS collaboration, which aims to measuring gravity on neutral antimatter. The results achieved in producing, manipulating and studying Ps are presented. First, Ps has been produced with mesoporous silica targets in reflection geometry. The first spectroscopy of Ps n=3 state has been conducted; this yield as a byproduct a characterization of the Ps emission from reflection targets. Efficient laser excitation to Rydberg levels was then conducted, validating the proof-of-concept of AEgIS. Subsequently, production of Ps from a new class of transmission targets was also achieved, opening the possibility for future experiments. Finally, the long-lived metastable 23S state of Ps was observed combining laser excitation to 3 3P and spontaneous optical decay.
15:30 - 16:00 Jerzy Dryzek (Institute of Nuclear Physics PAS, Poland)
"Positron and Positronium as probes for studding of matter at atomic level" (Abstract) Positron and Positronium as probes for studding of matter at atomic level
The positron annihilation spectroscopy is based on the annihilation of positrons, which implanted with high energy into matter lose their energy in ionization and scattering processes. Finally, having thermal energy they randomly walk and annihilate with electrons. The positron electron annihilation with emission of two photons, terminates this process. Because of positron thermalization, only electron contribute to the momentum which is transformed to the photons. This provides information about the local environment of a positron and electron pair, which can be unfolded after detection of the annihilation photons. Angular correlation of the photons can give information about the Fermi surface, shape of the annihilation line is also sensitive to presence of open volume defects in the crystalline structure which occur in great amount for instance during plastic deformation. Positron lifetime is very convenient tool for detection of the defect type and size. In the molecular structures like polymers or broadly defined soft matter, the bound state of positron and electron can be formed. This state called Positronium is suitable for detection of free volume in these structures, or pores in the nanometer scale. Application of positron annihilation to studies of condensed matter and living organisms will be demonstrated. The phenomenon of positron annihilation in flight will be also considered. In this case only positrons at higher energy contribute to the annihilation process. This is seldom looked at because it adds to the background of the annihilation at rest in the positron spectroscopy. Some aspects of annihilation in flight will be also presented.
16:00 - 16:30 COFFEE BREAK 16:30 - 17:00 Beatrix Hiesmayr (University of Vienna, Austria)
"Entanglement Detection with J-PET" (Abstract) Entanglement Detection with J-PET
I give an overview what kind of entanglement can be expected from positronium decay and how it may be detected with the J-PET.
17:00 - 17:30 Grzegorz Karwasz (University Nicolaus Copernicus Toruń, Poland)
"Positronium formation in atoms and molecules – from experiment to modeling" (Abstract) Positronium formation in atoms and molecules – from experiment to modeling
Slowing down of positrons emitted from radioactive decays in matter goes via a number of inelastic collisions, like electronic excitation and ionization. Cross sections for these processes are known only in approximate way. Formation of positronium become efficient when the energy of positrons goes under some hundreds of eV. Surprisingly, recent experiments on total cross sections in atomic and molecular gases [1] showed that the cross section for positronium formation, say in Ar, H2, N2 can be easily deduced, within 10% uncertainty. We will link cross sections for positronium formation in simple molecular targets that have relevance to nuclear biophysics (H2O, benzene, cyclohexane), to measured probabilities of positronium formation in liquid phase. Some semiempirical analysis to predict cross sections for positron scattering will be also presented. [1] G.P. Karwasz, Eur. Phys. J. D 35 (2005) 267
17:30 - 18:00 Kenji Shu (The University of Tokyo, Japan)
"Toward a Realization of Bose-Einstein Condensation of Positronium" (Abstract) Toward a Realization of Bose-Einstein Condensation of Positronium
Since the realization of Bose-Einstein condensation of dilute atoms in 1995, BEC of anti-matter systems has never been observed. An anti-matter BEC is so unique system as a coherent anti-matter so that it is beneficial for examining the mystery of the asymmetry between mater and anti-mater by such as a precision measurement of a gravity effect on anti-matter. Positronium, a bound state of an electron and a positron, is the lightest atom. Its transition temperature of BEC is quite high compared to any other atoms because of its light mass. This Advantage makes positronium the best candidate of the first anti-matter BEC. There are two main challenges to make positronium atoms in BEC state – a creation of dense positronium atoms at once and cooling them into cryogenic temperature before most of them annihilate with lifetime as short as 142 nanoseconds. The contribution will introduce a current status of a Ps-BEC experiment in which new schemes to create dense positronium atoms and cool them are currently developed. A new result of cooling positronium atoms in cryogenic temperature will also be shown.
18:00 - 18:30 Grażyna Sznajd (Institute of Low Temperature and Structure Research, PAS, Poland)
"Positron Emission Tomography in solid state physics" (Abstract) Positron Emission Tomography in solid state physics
Measurements of electron-positron annihilation rays have found applications in both a medical diagnosis and in solid state physics. A similar equipment (located either close to or far from an investigated object) allows to study either the real or the momentum space (medical or physical investigations, respectively). Various mathematical methods of computed tomography and their applications to objects having the cubic and hexagonal symmetry are presented. Some examples of the Fermi surfaces as well as a unique opportunity of a visualization, from two-dimensional angular correlation of positron annihilation experimental data, of Bloch states are demonstrated.
Wednesday 7.6.2017
Session no. 5 Applied physics: Medical applications
08:30 - 09:00 Charalampos Tsoumpas (University of Leeds, United Kingdom)
"Image Reconstruction for PET Images with High Resolution" (Abstract) Image Reconstruction for PET Images with High Resolution
Positron emission tomography (PET) is a technology that facilitates positrons to detect molecules travelling inside our body, thus providing valuable information for the improved understanding of the biological processes. This information is relevant to the early diagnosis of disease since molecular changes precede structural changes. PET is encountered in many fields of medicine including neurology, oncology and cardiology. This presentation will focus on how image reconstruction techniques can help alongside with technological achievements improve the way we trace radiolabelled molecules inside our body. At the end of the talk, we will be discussing how these potential advances may shape the future clinical applications of this technology.
09:00 - 09:30 Ivo Rausch (Medical University of Vienna, Austria)
"PET/MRI and MRI based attenuation correction" (Abstract) PET/MRI and MRI based attenuation correction
Dual-modality magnetic resonance and positron emission tomography imaging (PET/MRI) was introduced for clinical use in 2010. In contrast to PET with computed tomography (PET/CT), it has the advantage of offering excellent soft tissue contrast and a wide array of functional, morphological and even metabolic clinical imaging protocols. However, the combination of PET and MRI has some inherent challenges, the most prominent being MRI based attenuation correction (AC). AC is a pre-requisite for quantitative assessment of PET images. In PET/CT the attenuation properties of the investigated tissue can be derived from the CT. Unfortunately, MRI information is not related to the attenuation properties of tissue. Thus, using the MRI information directly for AC is not possible. Several methods have been proposed to overcome this issue. This methods can be roughly categorized into segmentation based-, atlas based- and reconstruction based methods. However, just a subset of them made their way into clinical practice. Furthermore, issues like attenuation of bone or imaging artifacts remain.
09:30 - 10:00 Grzegorz Korcyl (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland)
"Online processing of tomographic data" (Abstract) Online processing of tomographic data
Data acquisition system of JPET prototype will be presented. The talk will mainly focus on procedures of data processing in the real time in the hardware resulting in significant data volume reduction and diagnostic images production by the electronics. The possibilities of real time tomographic image reconstruction will be explored.
10:00 - 10:30 Lech Raczynski (National Centre for Nuclear Research, Poland)
"Introduction of Total Variation regularization into Filtered Back-projection algorithm" (Abstract) Introduction of Total Variation regularization into Filtered Back-projection algorithm
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is currently a key technique in the medical imaging area, which allows to diagnose functions of the organism and to track tumor changes. Since its introduction to medical imaging applications, PET reconstruction has grown into a well-researched, highly-evolved field. The Filtered Back Projection (FBP) was the first PET reconstruction techniques and is still treated as the reference method for more advanced approaches. Since the inverse problem defined in FBP reconstruction is ill-posed, some form of regularization is required to constrain the resulting image to physically acceptable values. The most common form of regularizing image reconstruction is via apodizing functions. In this paper we extend the state-of-the-art FBP method and we propose to apply the concept of Total Variation regularization. The proposed method is tested using standard Derenzo phantom. We assess the performance of the new algorithm by comparing it to the FBP algorithm in terms of cross-correlation coefficient. We demonstrate that the proposed approach presents higher than FBP cross-correlation coefficient between reconstructed and real image of radiotracer distribution.
10:30 - 11:00 COFFEE BREAK
Session no. 6 Fundamental physics: Quantum times and unstable systems
11:00 - 11:30 Neelima Kelkar (University de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia)
"Electron Tunneling Times" (Abstract) Electron Tunneling Times
One of the strangest and counter-intuitive aspects of quantum mechanics is the existence of a finite probability for a particle to go from one region to another even if the regions are separated by a potential barrier and the kinetic energy of the particle is less than the height of the barrier. Attempts to understand this phenomenon led to the next natural question of how long does a particle need to tunnel a barrier. The tunneling time of an electron is extremely small and difficult to measure directly in an experiment. With no direct experiments to compare with, several theoretical time concepts and definitions of quantum times emerged over the last more than 60 years and the subject in general remained controversial. In more recent times however, there has been a renewed interest in the subject due to experiments involving ultra fast laser technology and other techniques such as field emission microscopy. A short history of the evolution of quantum time concepts and an account of recent experimental measurements followed by a discussion of the subtleties of tunneling times in solid state junctions will be presented.
11:30 - 12:00 Francesco Giacosa (Jan Kochanowski University, Kielce, Poland)
"Time evolution of an unstable quantum system" (Abstract) Time evolution of an unstable quantum system
Both in quantum mechanics and in quantum field theory an unstable quantum system is not described by an exponential decay law. Deviations exist and can be sizable at short and at long times, in turn showing that the system possesses a memory of its preparation time. We investigate these deviations as well as their possible influence on the lifetime when the effect of a the environment (such as measuring apparatus) is taken into account. In the end, the subtle and interesting link between decay law and a boost transformation is also addressed.
12:00 - 12:30 Mahir Hussein (University of Sao Paulo, Brasil)
"Dipole-dipole dispersion interactions between neutrons" (Abstract) Dipole-dipole dispersion interactions between neutrons
We investigate the long-range interactions between two neutrons utilizing recent data on the neutron static and dynamic electric and magnetic dipole polarizabilities. The resulting long-range potentials are used to make quantitative comparisons between the collisions of a neutron with a neutron and a neutron with a proton. We also assess the importance of the rst pion production threshold and rst excited state of the nucleon, the -resonance (J = + 3/2, I = 3/2). We found both dynamical ects to be quite relevant for distances r between 50 fm up to 103 fm in the nn system, the neutron-wall system and in the wall-neutron-wall system, reaching the expected asymptotic limit beyond that. Relevance of our ndings to the con nement of ultra cold neutrons inside bottles is discussed.
12:00 - 13:00 Krzysztof Urbanowski (University of Zielona Gora, Institute of Physics, Poland)
"The true face of quantum decay processes: Unstable systems in rest and in motion" (Abstract) The true face of quantum decay processes: Unstable systems in rest and in motion
From fundamental principles it follows that the modulus of the survival amplitude, $|a(t)|$, can not have an exponential form: Khalfin in 1957 assuming that the spectrum of the Hamiltonian of the system considered is bounded from below and using the integral representation of $a(t)$ as the Fourier transform of the energy distribution function, $\omega(E)$ proved that $|a(t)| \to 0$ as $t \to \infty$ slower that any exponential function of time $t$ [1]. Nevertheless results of numerical model calculations presented in the literature show that the survival probability ${\cal P}(t) = |a(t)|^{2}$ has the exponential form starting from times much smaller than the lifetime $\tau$ up to times $t\gg \tau$, and that ${\cal P}(t)$ exhibits inverse power--law behavior at the late time region for times longer than the so--called crossover time $T\gg \tau$ (The crossover time $T$ is the time when the late time deviations of ${\cal P}(t)$ from the exponential form begin to dominate). This effect was confirmed experimentally not long ago [2]. This is why physicists believe that the survival probability has the exponential form for times much smaller than $T$ and that nonexponential deviations manifests itself only for suitable long times. More detailed analysis of the problem shows that in fact the survival probability ${\cal P}(t)$ can not take that exponential form at any time interval including times smaller than the lifetime $\tau$: The exponential form of ${\cal P}(t)$ for $t < \tau$ and $t \sim \tau$ obtained numerically for models of quantum unstable systems is only a better or worse approximation. In fact for times $t \sim \tau$ and for the later times the form of ${\cal P}(t)$ looks as a composition of an oscillating function and exponential function, that is it has an oscillating form. The amplitude of these oscillations is very small for $t \ll \tau$ and grows with increasing time and depends on the model considered, that is on the properties of the energy distribution function, $\omega(E)$. One of the consequences of this effect is that the instantaneous energy (mass) of the unstable system can not be constant in time. We also study the survival probability of moving relativistic unstable particles. We show that assumption that velocity of such particles is constant leads to the wrong result contrary to claims of authors of [3]. Following [4] we assume that particles move with definite momentum $\vec{p} \neq 0$ and we found decay curves of such particles for the quantum mechanical models considered. These model studies show that late time deviations of the survival probability of these particles from the exponential--like form of the decay law, that is the transition times region between exponential--like and non-expo\-nen\-tial form of the survival probability, should occur much earlier than it follows from the classical standard approach resolving itself into replacing time $t$ by $t/\gamma$ (where $\gamma$ is the relativistic Lorentz factor) in the formula for the survival probability and that the survival probabilities should tend to zero as $t\rightarrow \infty$ much slower than one would expect using classical time dilation relation. We show that analogously to the particles decaying in the rest system fluctuations of ${\cal P}(t)$ take also place in the case of moving particles, but the amplitude of these fluctuations is larger than that in the the case of decays in the rest system.
13:00 - 14:30 LUNCH (in Collegium Novum)
Session no. 7 Fundamental physics: Strange matter
14:30 - 15:00 Catalina Oana Curceanu (Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Italy)
"Low-energy kaon-nuclei interaction studies at DAFNE (SIDDHARTA2 and AMADEUS)" (Abstract) Low-energy kaon-nuclei interaction studies at DAFNE (SIDDHARTA2 and AMADEUS)
The low-energy QCD, the theory describing the strong interaction, is still missing important experimental results in order to allow a deeper understanding. Among these experimental results, the low-energy kaon-nucleon/nuclei interaction studies are playing a key-role, with important consequences going from particle and nuclear physics to astrophysics (equation of state of neutron stars). Combining the excellent quality kaon beam delivered by the DAFNE collider in Frascati (Italy) with new experimental techniques, as fast and very precise X ray detectors, like the Silicon Drift Detectors, and with the high acceptance charged and neutral particles KLOE detector, we performed unprecedented measurements in the low-energy strangeness sector in the framework of SIDDHARTA and AMADEUS Collaborations. The kaonic atoms, as kaonic hydrogen and kaonic deuterium, provide the isospin dependent kaon-nucleon scattering lengths from the measurement of X rays emitted in the de-excitation process to the fundamental 1s level of the initially excited formed atom. The most precise kaonic hydrogen measurement was performed by the SIDDHARTA collaboration, which realized, as well, the first exploratory measurement for kaonic deuterium ever. Presently, a major upgrade of the setup, SIDDHARTA-2 is being realized to perform in the near future a precise measurement of kaonic deuterium and of other exotic atoms. The kaon–nuclei interactions are being studied by the AMADEUS collaboration for kaon momenta up to 100 MeV/c by using the KLOE data from 2002-2005 and from an AMADEUS dedicated run in 2012 with a pure carbon target. Preliminary results for the interaction of negatively charged kaons with various type of nuclei will be shown, and future plans to realize a dedicated setup discussed. The experiments at the DAFNE collider represents an opportunity which is unique in the world to, finally, unlock the secrets of the QCD in the strangeness sector and understand the role of strangeness in the Universe, from nuclei to the stars.
15:00 - 15:30 Johann Zmeskal (Stefan Meyer Institute for Subatomic Physics, Austria)
"KAONIC DEUTERIUM AT J-PARC - PROBING LOW-ENERGY QCD " (Abstract) KAONIC DEUTERIUM AT J-PARC - PROBING LOW-ENERGY QCD
For exotic hydrogen atoms, a detectable energy shift of the ground state, with respect to the pure QED value, as well as a broadening of the ground state level can be observed. By measuring these observables the determination of the s-wave kaon-nucleon scattering length at zero energy will be possible, which is a sensitive measure of the chiral and isospin symmetry breaking pattern in QCD. Although the importance of kaonic deuterium X-ray spectroscopy has been well recognized for more than 30 years, no experimental results were obtained so far, due to the difficulty of the X-ray measurement. Now there are two projects underway to perform a kaonic deuterium X-ray measurement: the SIDDHARTA-2 experiment at LNF-INFN and the E57 experiment at J-PARC. The status of the K-d experiment E57 at J-PARC will be discussed as well as the results of a first test measurement performed at the J-PARC K1.8 BR.
15:30 - 16:00 Laura Fabbietti (Technische Universit??t M??nchen, Germany)
"Hadrons interaction and consequences for neutron stars" (Abstract) Hadrons interaction and consequences for neutron stars
Many physicists would like to know what is inside neutron stars (NS). Others would be already very happy if they could understand how two and three baryons interact with better accuracy than available today. The two things are intertwined since the two and three body hadron interaction determines the equation of state, hence how pressure and energy depend on density, for every hadron system. Different hypotheses can be made about the content of NS. The scenarios vary from pure dense neutron matter, to mixtures of neutrons and strange hadrons up to quark matter. Each hypothesis, provided that the interaction among the constituents is well known, leads to an equation of state and to a precise mass to radius relationship for the NS. This way, observations of masses and radii for NS can test different hypotheses. A new method is proposed to exploit particle production at accelerator experiments to substitute scattering experiments among different hadron species. This idea can also open up the possibility of studying three body interactions among hadrons. First results from the HADES and ALICE collaborations, two experiments at very different beam energies, will be shown and the potential of the method will be discussed.
16:00 - 16:30 COFFEE BREAK 16:30 - 17:00 Sławomir Wycech (National Centre for Nuclear Research, Poland)
"Gamov states of $\Sigma^+$ hyperons in nuclei" (Abstract) Gamov states of $\Sigma^+$ hyperons in nuclei
The nuclear capture of K studied by FINUDA [1] in reaction $K^{-} ^{6}Li \to \Sigma^{\pm}\pi^{\mp} A'$ observed an unexpected low momentum peak in the spectrum of the final $\Sigma^+$ hyperons. Such a peak does not exist in the $\Sigma^-$ emission. Recent studies of AMADEUS find similar effects in Carbon. These are observed with $\Sigma^-$ captures from atomic as well as from flight states. We, [2], interpret it as the effect of Gamov states formed by the hyperon and the residual nuclei. Such states are quasi-localized in space with radii larger than (expected) hyper-nuclear radii but smaller than radii of (inaccessible) $\Sigma^-$ hyperonic atoms in 1S states. The experimental and theoretical consequences of this discovery will be presented. First, to create Gamov state the nuclear potential has to be attractive and close to the binding situation. Such conditions are likely in He and many other nuclei. The Gamov state happens at energies of few hundred KeV but widths of such states states are in MeV region. The shape of hyperon momentum distribution yields information on the strength od hyperon attraction. Its magnitude depends on the strength of nuclear absorption ( Sigma $->$ Lambda conversion processes). The former are fairly simple to interpret, the latter are not. The Gamov states are a substitute for apparently nonexistent $\Sigma$ hypernuclei. [1] M. Angelo for FINUDA arXiv 1109.6594v1, Phys.Lett. B704 (2011) 474-480 [2] K. Pisciccia and S. Wycech Web of Science 2016 ( Meson 16, Krakow)
17:00 - 17:30 Takayasu Sekihara (Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Japan)
"On the structure observed in the in-flight 3He(K^-, p)n reaction at J-PARC" (Abstract) On the structure observed in the in-flight 3He(K^-, p)n reaction at J-PARC
Recently, a peak structure was observed near the K^- p p threshold in the in-flight 3He (K^- , Lambda p) n reaction of the E15 experiment at J-PARC. This peak could be a signal of the lightest kaonic nuclei, that is, the Kbar N N (I=1/2) state, which has been intensively studied both experimentally and theoretically in the last decade. In this contribution we theoretically investigate what is the origin of the peak structure observed in the E15 experiment at J-PARC. Since the peak exists near the K^- p p threshold, we expect two scenarios to produce the peak. One is that the Lambda(1405) is generated but it does not correlate with p, and the uncorrelated Lambda(1405)-p system subsequently decays into Lambda p. The other is that the Kbar N N quasi-bound state is indeed generated and decays into Lambda p. We calculate the Lambda p invariant mass spectrum of the reaction with these two scenarios and compare it with the experimental one to interpret the experimental peak structure.
17:30 - 18:00 Kristian Piscicchia (Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Italy)
"AMADEUS results and future plan" (Abstract) AMADEUS results and future plan
The AMADEUS experiment deals with the investigation of the low energy interaction of negative kaons in light nuclear targets, with strong impact on the non-perturbative strangeness QCD sector. We take advantage of the low momentum ($p_Ksim$127 MeV/c) almost monochromatic charged kaons produced by the DA$Phi$NE collider. The analysis focuses on the study of K$^-$ hadronic capture in the materials of the KLOE detector. The experimental data corresponds to the 1.64 fb$^-1$ luminosity of the 2004-2005 KLOE data taking campaign, which contains high statistics samples of K$^-$ nuclear captures (both at-rest and in-flight) in H, ${}^4$He, {}^9$Be and {}^12$C. The results obtained in the analyses of the hyperon-pion correlated events to explore the behaviour of Y$^*$ resonances in nuclear medium, and the analyses of hyperon-proton, deuteron, and triton correlations, searching for possible $K^-$-multi nucleon bound states, will be presented.
20:00 - 23:00 Conference Dinner Thursday 8.6.2017
Session no. 8 Applied physics: Hadrontherapy
09:00 - 09:30 Aleksandra K. Biegun (KVI-CART, University of Groningen, The Netherlands)
"Proton radiography in proton radiotherapy treatment " (Abstract) Proton radiography in proton radiotherapy treatment
The novel proton radiography imaging technique has a big potential to be used in determining directly proton energy losses (proton stopping powers, PSPs) in various tissues in the patient. The uncertainty of PSPs, currently obtained from translation of X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) images, needs to be minimized from 3-6% or higher [1-5] to less than 1%, which is crucial to make an accurate treatment plan with a proton beam. With the Geant4 Monte Carlo toolkit we simulate a proton radiography detection system (similar to the one that we have used in the real experiment with AGOR) with two position sensitive detectors, and a residual energy detector. A complex phantom filled with 11, also tissue-like, materials is placed between the two position detectors. We irradiate the phantom with various proton beam energies relevant in clinics (70-250 MeV) and study energy loss and scattering angle radiographs. Protons passing through different materials in the phantom lose energy. The energy loss calculated as a difference between the proton beam energy and proton residual energy recorded in the energy detector is used to create a radiography image of the phantom. The multiple Coulomb scattering of a proton traversing different materials causes blurring of the radiography image. To improve the image quality and identify each material in the phantom clearly, we select protons with small scattering angles. The selection of protons traveling in a straight line has been considered in order to accurately distinguish neighboring materials. Applying a scattering angle cut of 8.7 mrad results in correct identification of the phantom materials. A good quality of the proton radiography image, in which different materials can be recognized accurately, and in combination with X-ray CT can lead to more accurate relative stopping powers predictions. References [1] Schneider W., Bortfeld T., Schlegel W.: Correlation between CT numbers and tissue parameters needed for Monte Carlo simulations of clinical dose distributions, Phys. Med. Biol. 45 (2000) 459 478 [2] Cirrone, G. et al.: The Italian project for a proton imaging device, Nuclear Instr and Meth in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 576 (2007) 194-197 [3] Paganetti, H.: Range uncertainties in proton therapy and the role of Monte Carlo simulations, Phys. Med. Biol. 57 (2012) R99-R117 [4] Schuemann, J. et al., Site-specific range uncertainties caused by dose calculation algorithms for proton therapy, Phys. Med. Biol., vol. 59, 2014. [5] Knopf, A-C., Lomax, A.: In vivo proton range verification: a review, Phys. Med. Biol. 58 (2013) R131-R160
09:30 - 10:00 Guillaume Landry (Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany)
"Next generation imaging for ion beam therapy treatment planning" (Abstract) Next generation imaging for ion beam therapy treatment planning
The treatment of cancer with ion beams relies on the complete stopping of ions at their end of range. This is responsible for both the conformity of ion beam therapy dose distributions as well as related to their uncertainties. Errors in relative stopping power to water (RSP) obtained from x-ray conventional single energy computed tomography (SECT) account for a significant portion of safety margins employed clinically. Next generation imaging is being developed aiming at reducing these uncertainties. Currently dual energy computed tomography (DECT) and proton computed tomography (pCT) show promise by imaging the linear photon attenuation coefficient at two x-ray energies and the RSP directly, respectively. The improved RSP accuracy may eventually yield reduced safety margins. Furthermore the additional tissue composition information available from DECT shows promise in improving aspects of in-room beam monitoring, which is crucial to tackle non-RSP uncertainties related to patient positioning or organ motion.
10:00 - 10:30 Antoni Rucinski (Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland)
"GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo code for fast dose recalculation in proton beam therapy" (Abstract) GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo code for fast dose recalculation in proton beam therapy
GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo code for fast dose recalculation in proton beam therapy Proton therapy has rapidly grown in the past thirty years and it has become a superior alternative to conventional radiotherapy for certain clinical indications. Proton therapy offers high dose selectivity due to the protons’ distinct depth dose profile which potentially allows to deliver high dose to the tumor while sparing healthy surrounding tissue. Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, which take explicitly into account all the details in the interaction of particles with human tissues, are considered to be the most reliable tool to reproduce the complexity of mixed field irradiation in a non-homogeneous environment. The advent of general-purpose programming GPU cards prompted the development of trimmed-down MC-based dose engines, which can significantly reduce the plan recalculation time with respect to standard MC codes on CPU hardware. In this contribution, a GPU-accelerated MC treatment planning system (TPS), Fred (Schiavi et al. 2017, submitted to PMB) developed by the University of Rome will be presented. The results of its validation against the FLUKA MC code will be shown for lateral and depth-dose distributions of proton pencil beams as well as for patient dose distributions. The actual status of the implementation in Fred of the experimentally measured physical beam model data used for treatment planning at the Bronowice Cyclotron Center (CCB) in Krakow will be reported. Different proton radiobiological models available in the literature are currently being implemented in Fred to bring biologically optimized treatment planning for proton therapy closer to the clinical practice. This work will allow to refine and compare pre-defined as well as user-defined radiobiological models and the related biological dose towards an improved patient treatment at CCB.
10:30 - 11:00 COFFEE BREAK 11:00 - 11:30 Fiedler Fine (Institute of Radiation Physics, Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany)
"Prompt Gamma Imaging in Hadron Therapy" (Abstract) Prompt Gamma Imaging in Hadron Therapy
Radiation therapy is an important treatment modality in cancer therapy. New radiation species, like protons and light ions have the potential to increase tumor conformality of irradiation. Because of the way these particles deposit energy on their path through tissue they allow for an increased dose deposition in the tumor volume and reduce the damage of the surrounding normal tissue. Such high precision radiotherapy treatment requires efficient quality assurance techniques. Small changes in the irradiated volume will lead to a mismatch of the deposited dose maximum and the tumor. This causes missing dose in the tumor volume and potential damage to healthy tissue. Therefore, a non-invasive, in-situ dose verification system is highly desirable. Beside a large experience with monitoring ion irradiation by Positron Emission Tomography another approach is based on measuring the prompt gamma rays following nuclear deexcitation. Several methods are under development or have been even used for patient cases. The talk will give an overview on the methods and will focus on Compton camera development.
11:30 - 12:00 Aleksandra Wrońska (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland)
"Experimental verification of key cross sections for prompt-gamma imaging in proton therapy" (Abstract) Experimental verification of key cross sections for prompt-gamma imaging in proton therapy
Results of a precision investigation of the prompt-gamma emission from phantoms irradiated with a proton beam will be presented. Measurements were conducted with a novel setup allowing precise selection of the investigated depth in the phantom, featuring three different materials composed of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, differing by their stoichometric ratios. We studied details of the dependence of prompt-gamma yields on beam energy, detection angle and elemental composition of irradiated phantom. The analysis was focused on the most pronounced transitions: 4.44 MeV in C-12 and 6.13 MeV in O-16. The results are presented in form of spectroscopically resolved profiles of the prompt-gamma yield as a function of depth. We compare the profiles obtained under various irradiation conditions, with emphasis on the shape of the distal fall-off. The results are also compared to calculations including different cross-section models. Obtained profiles are in agreement with the results of calculations exploiting published cross-section data, but the comparison with the TALYS model shows discrepancies. Consequences for prompt-gamma imaging are discussed.
12:00 - 12:30 Mattia Fontana (Institut de Physique Nucleaire de Lyon (IPNL), France)
"Versatile Compton camera for high energy gamma rays: Monte Carlo comparison with Anger camera for medical imaging" (Abstract) Versatile Compton camera for high energy gamma rays: Monte Carlo comparison with Anger camera for medical imaging
Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) is at present one of the major techniques for non-invasive diagnostics in nuclear medicine. Almost the whole clinical routine is based on collimated cameras, originally proposed by Anger. Due to the presence of mechanical collimation, detection efficiency and energy acceptance are limited by the system geometrical features. In order to overcome these limitations, the application of Compton cameras for SPECT is being investigated for several years. A Compton camera prototype is at present under development by our collaboration, for high energy gamma detection in ion beam therapy monitoring and nuclear medicine. We propose in this study to compare our detector to a commercial Anger device, the GE Healthcare Infinia system, through Monte Carlo simulations (GATE v7.1 and Geant4 9.6 respectively). Given the possible introduction of new radio-emitters at higher energies intrinsically allowed by the Compton camera detection principle, the detectors are exposed to point-like sources at increasing primary gamma energies, from actual isotopes already proposed for SPECT applications. The detector performances are studied in terms of radial event distribution, detection efficiency and final image, obtained by gamma transmission analysis for the Anger system, and with an iterative LM-MLEM algorithm for the Compton reconstruction. The Compton camera prototype is also characterized in terms of rate of random coincidences and at different energy resolutions. Although the rate of random coincidences appears to be close to 50% at clinical source activities, preliminary results show for the Compton camera a detection efficiency increased of a factor greater than an order of magnitude, associated with an enhanced spatial resolution for energies beyond 500 keV. We discuss then the proven advantages of Compton camera application with particular focus on dose delivered to the patient, examination time and spatial uncertainties.
12:30 - 14:00 LUNCH (in Collegium Novum)
Session no. 9 Applied physics: Radioactive nuclei in living organisms
14:00 - 14:30 Ewa Stępień (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland)
"Use of systemic approach in radiation biology" (Abstract) Use of systemic approach in radiation biology
Various biological systems are characterized with different radiation sensitivity to different damaging factors. The basic idea justified in theoretical and experimental models, confirms “the target theory”. The principle of a target theory assumes that radiation sensitivity correlates with chemical and morphological characteristics, the size and type of the sensitive structure. The target of enzymes was shown to be the entire molecule, for viruses or bacteria, the total deoxy- or ribonucleic acids (DNA or RNA) strands, in the higher Eukaryotic cells, the specific of arrangements of DNA chromosomes and epigenetic modifications reinforce the system in the target complexity. In my lecture, I would like to introduce the new theoretical and experimental framework for understanding the complexity of biological systems, what we currently know about the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms regulating metabolic and genetic response to radiation on the cellular level with highlighting the differences between a normal and a cancer cell.
14:30 - 15:00 Caterina Monini (Universit?? Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France)
"NanOxTM , a new multiscale model to predict ion RBE in hadrontherapy" (Abstract) NanOxTM , a new multiscale model to predict ion RBE in hadrontherapy
Hadrontherapy is becoming an increasingly attractive modality for cancer treatment due to the favourable depth-dose profile of ions and high relative biological effectiveness (RBE) in the tumor region. Since RBE depends on multiple parameters related both to the irradiation beam and the cell properties, biophysical models are essential to comply with the demands of a clinical environment. NanOxTM addresses some of the flaws in the models currently implemented in the treatment planning systems, and exhibits many innovative features. The model takes into account the fully stochastic nature of ionizing radiation by considering dose fluctuations both at nanometric and micrometric scales, and introduces the concept of chemical dose. The latter represents the induction of cell death by “non-local” events as the accumulation of cellular oxidative stress or sub-lethal lesions induced by radical species. Such “non-local” events are complementary to the “local” events, which take place at a very localized scale and are considered as lethal since can singly cause cell death. NanOxTM predictions for V79 and HSG cell lines irradiated by photons, protons and carbon ions are in good agreement with the experimental data. The model is able to describe the effectiveness of ions, including the overkill effect at high LET values. Moreover, the typical shoulder in cell survival curves is reproduced owing to the introduction of the chemical dose which varies with LET. The promising results obtained with NanOxTM stress its potential in the context of hadrontherapy, and may lead in the future to apply it to neutron beam therapy or photoactivation of nanoparticles. Despite a rigorous mathematical approach, its implementation remains simple and compatible with the constraints of clinical application. The model relies in fact on the fit of a reduced set of parameters, and its pragmatic architecture facilitates improvements and optimizations.
15:00 - 15:30 Mateusz Sitarz (Heavy Ion Laboratory, Warsaw University, Poland)
"Research on the production of the medical radioisotopes at Heavy Ion Laboratory" (Abstract) Research on the production of the medical radioisotopes at Heavy Ion Laboratory
Many radioactive isotopes are commonly used in medicine, both in diagnosis and therapy. However, steady development of nuclear medicine demands the application of new medical radioisotopes. The convenient properties of those isotopes usually come with a price of a difficult production technology or troublesome chemistry. During the presentation I will mainly discuss the first part – the research on the production of upcoming medical radioisotopes, and I will outline the second one. Particularly interesting nowadays are radioisotopes of scandium (Sc). 43Sc is a promising PET radioisotope; 44Sc can be used in three-photon PET, while 44mSc/44Sc serves as in-vivo generator. Their production routes and efficiencies were studied in HIL with 32 MeV ? (U-200P cyclotron) and 16 MeV p (PETtrace cyclotron) beams. Additionally, ß- emitting 47Sc has a therapeutic effect and can work simultaneously with previously mentioned diagnostic Sc radioisotopes in a theranostic pair. Its production was studied using 28 MeV proton beam (C30 cyclotron) in NCNR in Świerk. Our results indicate that with the use of cyclotrons all Sc radioisotopes can be produced with intensities and purities acceptable for clinical applications.
15:30 - 16:00 Marek Pruszyński (Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology, Poland)
"Scandium radionuclides in nuclear medicine application" (Abstract) Scandium radionuclides in nuclear medicine application
Development of radiometal-based radiopharmaceuticals increased rapidly in the past decade, particularly for oncologic imaging purposes. There are several positron emitting radionuclides, like 11C (t1/2 = 20.3 min), 18F (t1/2 = 110 min), 68Ga (t1/2 = 68 min), 64Cu (t1/2 = 12.7 h) or 89Zr (t1/2 = 78.4 h) that are currenty used in medical application. However, these radionuclides have some limitations, mostly short half-life, high cost of production, relatively low positron branching ratio, complicated organic chemistry or co-emission of high gammas or ß- that contribute to additional unnecessary dose delivered to patients. Recently, several scandium radionuclides were proposed as an alternative for PET imaging using radio-metalated peptides and other small-molecular-weight biomolecules. 44Sc decays by the emission of low-energy positrons (Eß+av = 632 keV, I = 94.3%) comparable to 68Ga, but with a half-life (t1/2 = 3.97 h) that is almost four-fold longer. Due to the co-emission of photon with energy of 1157 keV and a characteristic emission time of few picoseconds it was proposed as a unique candidate for the new method of 3?-coincidence imaging, a method that substantially improves the spatial resolution of PET techniques. However, also due to these high-energy ?-rays (E? = 1157 keV, I = 99.9%; 1499 keV, I = 0.9%) special care has to be taken into consideration with regard to radiation dose to the patients and clinical staff. The alternative can be 43Sc (t1/2 = 3.89 h, I = 88.1%), which has similar properties to 44Sc, but co-emitted ?-rays are much lower (E? = 373 keV, I = 23%). The long-lived isomer 44mSc (t1/2 = 58.6 h) decays by internal transition (98.8%) to the ground state 44Sc with the main ?-emission 271 keV. The 44mSc/44Sc tandem is considered to be used as an in vivo generator for short-lived 44Sc. Another scandium radionuclide, 47Sc (t1/2 = 3.35 d) with its moderate energy of ß- emissions (162 keV) may be useful for targeted radiotherapy of small tumors. Additionally, its photon emission of 159 keV (68%) is ideal for imaging of radiopharmaceutical accumulation in vivo on SPECT cameras. 44Sc can be obtained from 44Ti/44Sc generator; however, 44Ti (t1/2 = 60 y) can be produced only at a small number of facilities in the world, with limited yields and at very high costs. Therefore, cyclotron production of 44Sc by proton irradiation of natural calcium targets was proposed as an inexpensive alternative. Recently, utilization of enriched 44Ca targets was proposed to increase radionuclide purity of the produced 44Sc using a low-energy cyclotrons (e.g. < 16 MeV). Similarly, the deuteron beams were used to produce the 44m,gSc isomeric pair by the ARRONAX group. 43Sc can be produced either by the 43Ca(p,n), or 42Ca(d,n) reactions, but unfortunately the cost of enriched calcium targets is prohibitive. A more promising method of 43Sc production is alpha irradiation of a natural calcium target via the 40Ca(?,p) and 40Ca(?,n) channels. The high amount of therapeutic 47Sc can be obtained in nuclear reactor in the 47Ti(n,p)47Sc reaction and also in cyclotron via the 44Ca(?,p)47Sc channel with an isotopically enriched 44Ca target. The wide availability of scandium radionuclides with diverse nuclear properties in terms of decay half-lives and emitted particles, makes it ideal for the development of “theranostic” probes, where the same molecules labeled with two different scandium radionuclides could be used for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals of 44Sc based on short peptides (e.g. octreotide with affinity to receptors on neuroendocrine tumors or Glu-NH-CO-NH-Lys(Ahx) for prostate cancer) or small proteins (e.g. affibodies or nanobodies with affinity to HER2 receptors on breast and ovarian carcinomas) were already pre-clinically tested. Correspondingly, studies on labeling of monoclonal antibodies or their fragments with 47Sc and potential of these radiopharmaceuticals for targeted radiotherapy are ongoing. This lecture will present an overview on production of scandium radionuclides and their radiopharmaceuticals based on our experience from the Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology and research performed by other groups all over the world. This work was supported by the National Science Center Poland under grant 2013/09/D/ST4/03791 and National Center for Applied Research of Poland Nr PBS3/A9/28/2015.
16:00 - 16:30 COFFEE BREAK 16:30 - 17:00 Jean Pierre Cussonneau (Subatech, France)
"3 gamma medical imaging with a liquid xenon Compton camera and Scandium-44 radionuclide" (Abstract) 3 gamma medical imaging with a liquid xenon Compton camera and Scandium-44 radionuclide
The development of a liquid xenon Compton camera called XEMIS2 (XEnon Medical Imaging System) is a step forward to a new type of medical imaging based on scandium-44 radionuclide emitting two annihilation g-rays and a third high energy g-ray simultaneously. The single phase TPC (Time Projection Chamber) under construction, containing nearly 200 kg of xenon, is designed to measure every Compton interaction in the active area with a sub-millimeter position resolution and a good energy resolution of 4% on 511 keV photopeak. The intersection of the Compton cone from the 3rd g-ray with the line of response from the annihilation g-rays allows to localize with ~1 cm precision the radionuclide along this line. The large field of view of such a liquid xenon camera associated to the 3 gamma imaging technique will provide a good quality image with low injected activity. XEMIS2 will be installed at the Nantes University Hospital in order to demonstrate its capability to image small animals injected with only 20 kBq and 20 mn acquisition time. To achieve this performance, a precise measurement of the ionization signal is provided by a pixelized anode, shielded by a Frisch Grid and read out by a low noise front end electronics. In addition, a new cryogenic subsystem and a new purification loop have been tested, allowing safe recovery of xenon in liquid phase at flow rates of about tons/hour.
17:00 - 17:30 Daria Kamińska (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland)
"3-gamma tomography with J-PET" (Abstract) 3-gamma tomography with J-PET
Prospects of using the J-PET detector [1,2,3] for multi-photon positron emission tomography imaging will be presented. Following cases will be discussed: improving the standard TOF-PET spatial resolution by using information from de-excitation photon and imaging technique based on ortho-positronium annihilation into three-photons. The novelty of the latter technique in medical application is based on the fact that the properties of ortho-positronium atom depend strongly on the size of the free volumes between molecules and thus they are connected with the morphology of the cells and may be used as an indicator of the stage of development of metabolic disorders [4]. Possibilities of multi-photon and positronium imaging with J-PET will be presented and discussed. Part of the presentation will be based on the recent results of simulations [5,6]. References [1] P. Moskal et al., Phys. Med. Biol. 61 (2016) 2025 [2] P. Moskal et al., Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 764 (2014) 317 [3] P. Moskal et al., Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 775 (2015) 54 [4] P. Moskal et al., patent application: PCT/EP2014/068378 (2013) [5] A. Gajos et al., Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 819 (2016) 54 [6] D. Kamińska et al., Eur. Phys. J. C 76 (2016) 445
18:30 - 20:00
Public lecture in Collegium Novum Main Aula "Would it matter if matter is the same as antimatter?" Prof. Dr. Walter Oelert
(Supervisory Professor at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany)
In 1995 Prof. Walter Oelert and his group has created and observed at CERN eleven antihydrogen atoms. These were first anti-matter atoms registered in the laboratory by human kind!
(? see details)
Friday 9.6.2017
Session no. 10 Applied physics: New detection technologies
08:30 - 09:00 Ihor Kadenko (Department of Nuclear Physics, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine)
"New direction in Nuclear Physics originated from the neutron activation technique application" (Abstract) New direction in Nuclear Physics originated from the neutron activation technique application
The neutron activation technique is still one of the powerful instruments to solve both research and practical tasks in Nuclear Physics. Last ten years Department of Nuclear Physics, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, runs the project dealing with the determination of neutron-induced reaction cross-sections with application of in-home designed and manufactured neutron generator NG-300 and the neutron-activation technique. In this talk the main results of reaction cross-section measurements on Tb, Er, Yb, Lu, Ta nuclei for (n,x) reactions with 2.5??14 MeV incident neutrons were presented and discussed. It is also shown how the absolutely new direction may appear to address one of the fundamental problems in Nuclear Physics, unsolved during last 70 years.
09:00 - 09:25 Michał Silarski (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland)
"Neutron Actvation Analysis in an underwater environment: Status of the SABAT project" (Abstract) Neutron Actvation Analysis in an underwater environment: Status of the SABAT project
The Neutron Activation Analysis plays an exceptional role in the modern nuclear engineering, especially in view of hazardous substances and threads detection. However, in the aquatic environment, there are still many problems to be solved for effective usage of this technique. We present status of SABAT, one of the projects aiming at the construction of an underwater device for non-invasive thread detection based on the NAA.
09:25 - 09:50 Anzori Georgadze (Kiev Institute for Nuclear Research, Ukraine)
"Monte Carlo simulation of active neutron interrogation system developed for detection of illicit materials." (Abstract) Monte Carlo simulation of active neutron interrogation system developed for detection of illicit materials.
Nowadays, the current threat of international terrorism is set to a severe level, demanding worldwide enhanced security. Radioactive materials that could be fashioned into a radiation dispersal device typically emit gamma rays, while fissile materials such as uranium and plutonium emit both neutrons and gamma rays via spontaneous or induced fission. Therefore, the detection and identification of hazardous materials has become increasingly important. We present the results of GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulation of an active neutron interrogation system based on highly segmented neutron/gamma-ray detector and pulsed neutron generator. This system is capable of detecting and imaging radioactive and special nuclear materials, explosives and drugs. The segmented scintillation detector works as a scatter camera, allowing selection of a neutron or gamma ray events that undergo multiple interaction in detector blocks for radioactive source localization. The detector consist of blocks made of plastic scintillator which are working as a scatter and blocs of CsI, used as an absorber, which has to be efficient to detect the characteristic gamma radiation for the identification. In addition, covering of plastic scintillation blocks with Gd containing film will allow detection of scattered-neutron recoils which provide a tomographic image. Because of this imaging capability background events can be significantly rejected, decreasing the number of events required for high confidence detection and thereby greatly improving its sensitivity. A scatter imager for the detection of shielded radiological materials has been conceptualized, simulated, and refined to maximize sensitivity while minimizing cost.
09:50 - 10:15 Vahagn Ivanyan (AANSL(Yerevan Physics Institute), Armenia)
"GEANT4 simulations of a beam shaping assembly design and optimization for thermal/epithermal neutrons" (Abstract) GEANT4 simulations of a beam shaping assembly design and optimization for thermal/epithermal neutrons
The possibility of obtaining thermal/epithermal neutron beams using external protons from cyclotron C18/18 is studied based on GEANT4 simulations. The design and optimization characteristics of the beam shaping assembly for neutron flux from thick 9Be target have studied by GEANT4 program. To obtain the thermal/epithermal neutron beam appropriate materials for moderator and reflector with optimal thicknesses were determined. In this model of the GEANT4 simulation included two programs for physics lists. These are the one of the most important parts of the creation the correct model, which will as much as possible closer to the future experiment. The formed beam of thermal/epithermal neutron beams will be used not only in fundamental research but also for practical purposes, in particular, to explore the possibility of applying it in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT).
10:15 - 10:35 COFFEE BREAK 10:35 - 11:00 Erika De Lucia (Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Italy)
"KLOE-2 Inner Tracker: the First Cylindrical GEM Detector" (Abstract) KLOE-2 Inner Tracker: the First Cylindrical GEM Detector
KLOE-2 at the e$^+$e$^-$ DA$Phi$NE collider, is the main experiment of the INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (LNF) and is the first high-energy experiment using the GEM technology with a cylindrical geometry, a novel idea developed at LNF exploiting the kapton properties to build a light and compact tracking system. The experiment is the continuation of KLOE, upgraded with state-of-the-art technology to improve its discovery potential, with a new physics program mainly focused on the study of K short, $eta$ and $eta^{ }$ decays as well as on kaon interferometry, test of discrete symmetries, and search for physics beyond the Standard Model. Four concentric cylindrical triple-GEM detectors compose the Inner Tracker which has been inserted around the interaction region and before the inner wall of the pre-existing KLOE Drift Chamber, at distances from 130 mm to 205 mm, to improve the resolution on decay vertices close to the interaction point (IP) reconstructed from low-momentum charged secondaries. State-of-the-art solutions have been expressly developed or tuned for this project: single-mask GEM etching, multi-layer XV patterned readout circuit, PEEK spacer grid, GASTONE front-end board, a custom 64-channel ASIC with digital output, and the Global Interface Board for data collection, with a configurable FPGA architecture and Gigabit Ethernet. Alignment and calibration of a cylindrical GEM detector was never done before and represents one of the challenging activities of the experiment. The first set of alignment and calibration parameters obtained with cosmic-ray muons has been used with Bhabha scattering events to validate the integrated tracking using both Inner Tracker and Drift Chamber information, exploiting the Kalman filter technique. Data taking campaign started in November 2014, reached 3.5 fb$^{-1}$ integrated luminosity and is presently ongoing with the aim of collecting more than 5 fb$^{-1}$ by March 2018. The Inner Tracker detector operation, calibration and performance will be presented.
11:00 - 11:25 Agnieszka Obłąkowska-Mucha (AGH University of Science and Technology, Poland)
"Silicon Detectors for High Luminosity Colliders (on behalf of RD50?Collaboration)" (Abstract) Silicon Detectors for High Luminosity Colliders (on behalf of RD50?Collaboration)
The particle radiation levels achieved in forthcoming high luminosity?experiments influence the properties of silicon trackers beyond the?limits of the detectors currently employed. All silicon central trackers?are being studied in ATLAS, CMS and LHCb, with extremely radiation hard?silicon sensors to be employed on the innermost layers. Within the RD50?Collaboration, a massive R&D program is underway across experimental?boundaries to develop silicon sensors with sufficient radiation?tolerance. We will present results of several detector technologies and?silicon materials at radiation levels corresponding to HL-LHC fluences.?The experimental techniques for defects characterisation and radiation?monitoring methods will also be presented.?
11:25 - 11:50 Alessandro Scordo (Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Italy)
"VOXES, a new high resolution X-ray spectrometer for low yield measurements in high background environments" (Abstract) VOXES, a new high resolution X-ray spectrometer for low yield measurements in high background environments
The VOXES projects goal is to realise the first prototype of a high resolution and high precision X-ray Spectrometer, using Highly Annealed Pyrolitic Graphite (HAPG) crystals combined with fast and triggerable position detectors. ?The aim is to deliver a cost effective system having an energy resolution at the level of eV for X rays energies from about 2 keV up to tens of keV, able to perform sub-eV precision measurements, able to work also in high background environments. ?VOXES will compete in performances with the newly developed Transition Edge Sensors (TES), which achieve eV resolution measurements for X rays of few keV, with the drawback that TES have high costs, extremely reduced active area, rather long recovery time and are difficult to be handled, due to the massive cryogenic system needed. ?The VOXES system will be qualified by performing measurements of exotic atoms at the PSI laboratory and/or DAFNE and/or J-PARC laboratories. There are many applications of the proposed spectrometer, going from fundamental physics (precision measurements of exotic atoms at DAFNE collider and J-PARC; precision measurement of the K - mass, solving the existing puzzle; quantum mechanics tests) to synchrotron radiation and X-FEL applications, astronomy, medicine and industry.
11:50 - 12:10 COFFEE BREAK 12:10 - 12:35 Giancarlo Sportelli (Universit?? di Pisa, Italy)
"Development of data acquisition systems for dedicated PET and PET/MR applications" (Abstract) Development of data acquisition systems for dedicated PET and PET/MR applications
In PET, we usually refer to data acquisition system as the part that in the imaging pipeline stands between the PET detectors and the image reconstruction software. Its main role is to interpret the raw output of the photosensors and to store the LOR data for further processing. Data acquisition systems are generally subject to a wide variety of application-specific constraints. New dedicated PET applications and multimodal PET/MRI embodiments introduced recently new types of constraints and required new approaches to the design of data acquisition systems. In this presentation, the acquisition systems of three dedicated PET systems developed at the University of Pisa will be discussed. The involved applications will be PET monitoring in hadron therapy and PET/MRI imaging for brain studies. The focus of the discussion will be on the relationship between the application-specific constraints, the available design choices that derived from them and the technological evolution followed. The latest results obtained with each system will be also reviewed and discussed.
12:35 - 13:00 Mihael Makek (Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Croatia)
"Performance of scintillation pixel detectors with MPPC read-out and digital signal processing" (Abstract) Performance of scintillation pixel detectors with MPPC read-out and digital signal processing
We have investigated properties of pixelated arrays of LFS and CeBr3 scintilators. Two arrays of 4x4 pixels with dimensions of 3 mm x 3 mm x 20 mm were read out by multi-pixel photon counter (MPPC) arrays with the corresponding size of elements of 3 mm x 3 mm. The amplified signals were acquired using fast 3.2 GS/s digitizers and stored for offline analysis. We have also performed extensive GEANT4 simulations of the scintillation pixel arrays tuned to reproduce the observed energy spectra. We will present measurements of detector performance including energy and time resolution as well as detection efficiencies evaluated from the simulation. Based on the simulation results we will also discuss the prospects of building larger systems using these scintillation materials.
13:00 - 13:25 Anna Wieczorek (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland)
"Novel plastic scintillators for the hybrid J-PET/MR tomograph" (Abstract) Novel plastic scintillators for the hybrid J-PET/MR tomograph
A novel plastic scintillator, referred to as J-PET scintillator, has been developed at the Jagiellonian University. The novelty of the concept lies in application of 2-(4-styrylphenyl)benzoxazole as a wavelength shifter. To date, the substance has not been used as a scintillator dopant. The novel scintillator and use of 2-(4-styrylphenyl)benzoxazole are a subject of patent application [1]. The chemical compound shifts the maximum of emission spectrum towards longer wavelengths making the scintillator more suitable for detectors based on new generation photoelectric converters, silicon photomultipliers. They are becoming more popular because of larger quantum efficiency in comparison to vacuum photomultipliers, smaller sizes and insensitivity to magnetic field. Light yield of the developed scintillator is similar to light yield of BC-420 plastic scintillator, manufactured by Saint-Gobain [2]. Emission spectrum of novel scintillators is broaden and better adjusted to silicon photomultipliers in comparison to BC-420. The shape of J-PET emission spectrum is favorable also from the point of view of the absorption coefficient, which decreases with increasing wavelength. Rise and decay times of the novel scintillator are comparable with corresponding parameters of commercial scintillators. Properties of the novel J-PET scintillator in view of application in hybrid J-PET/MR tomograph will be presented [3]. Comparison of J-PET scintillator to state-of-the-art commercial plastic scintillators will be shown as well. References: [1] Wieczorek A., Danel A., Uchacz T., Moskal P., (2015) patent application: Use of 2-(4-styrylphenyl benzoxazole) and plastic scintillator, PCT/PL2015/050022 [2] http://www.crystals.saint-gobain.com/products/plastic-scintillators [3] Moskal, P., (2014) patent: A hybrid TOF-PET/MRI tomograph, US 20160209483 A1
13:25 - 14:45 LUNCH (in Collegium Novum)
Session no. 11 Fundamental physics: Exotic atoms
14:45 - 15:15 Ryugo Hayano (The University of Tokyo, Japan)
"The antiprotonic helium" (Abstract) The antiprotonic helium
Antiprotonic helium is an exotic 3-body neutral system consisting of a helium nucleus, an electron, and an antiproton. At CERN s antiproton decelerator (AD), we (ASACUSA collaboration) has been working on the precision spectroscopy of this interesting system, with which we have succeeded to determine the antiproton-to-electron mass ration as precise as the proton-to-electron mass ratio.
15:15 - 15:45 Kenta Itahashi (Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science, RIKEN, Japan)
"Status and plans of pionic atoms spectroscopy at RIBF " (Abstract) Status and plans of pionic atoms spectroscopy at RIBF
We report present status and future plans of pionic atom spectroscopy at RIBF. We have conducted the spectroscopy by measuring missing mass of Sn(d,3He) reactions near the pion emission threshold. We observed peak structures assigned to 1s and 2p pion bound states formation. Elaborate analysis showed reaction-angle dependence of the formation cross sections. The measured data have been analyzed to deduce pion-nucleus interaction, which leads to setting constraints in the evaluated chiral condensate at normal nuclear density.
15:45 - 16:15 Leonid Afanasyev (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia)
"Study of hadronic hydrogen-like atoms in DIRAC experiment at PS CERN" (Abstract) Study of hadronic hydrogen-like atoms in DIRAC experiment at PS CERN
Production of hadronic hydrogen-like atoms at high energy collisions and method of their observation are considered. Main results of DIRAC experiment on observation and lifetime measurement of atoms formed by pairs of charged pion-pion and pion-Kaon are presented.
16:15 - 16:45 Walter Oelert (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany)
"ELENA: antiproton decelerator at CERN" (Abstract) ELENA: antiproton decelerator at CERN
ELENA (the Extra Low ENergy Antiproton ring) is a CERN project aiming to construct a small 30 m circumference synchrotron to further decelerate anti-protons from the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) from 5.3 MeV down to 100 keV. Controlled deceleration in a synchrotron equipped with an electron cooler to reduce the emittances in all three planes will allow the existing AD experiments to increase substantially their anti-proton capture efficiencies and render new experiments possible. In that sense ELENA is an upgrade of the AD at CERN and is devoted to experiments for physics using low energy anti-protons. Features of the ring and advantages for the experiments will be presented.
16:45 - 17:00 Closing of the Conference 19:15 Departure from Auditorium Maximum to BARNPARTY (? see details)
Welcome reception in Collegium Maius (17:00 - 19:30) | |
| 17:00 | ⟶ Welcome from the organizers |
| 18:00 - 19:00 | ⟶ Guided tour through Collegium Maius |
Session no. 1 | |
| 08:30 - 09:00 | COFFEE A PRIORI |
| 09:00 - 09:30 | Openning by Prof. dr hab. Stanislaw Kistryn, Prorector of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow Prof. dr hab. Ewa Gudowska-Nowak, Dean of the Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science JU Katarzyna Cyganik, representing Jaroslaw Gowin, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Science and Higher Education |
| 09:30 - 10:00 | Joel Karp (University of Pennsylvania, United States) "Development of PET for Total-Body Imaging" Development of PET for Total-Body ImagingThe concept of a PET scanner with a long axial length has two key benefits; first, the sensitivity increases dramatically, by about 5x for single organ imaging to about 40x for whole body imaging, and second, this allows for the simultaneous study of temporal changes of biological processes in multiple organs throughout the body. These advantages lead to the possibility of measuring the bio-distribution of new radio-tracers and monitoring therapy with new drugs, and imaging with very low dose activities. Developing a long axial PET scanner is not a new idea, but the technical challenges related to both hardware and data processing, as well as the associated high cost have made this a difficult project to initiate. Recent funding from the NIH to UC Davis with the University of Pennsylvania as a partner has now made this possible. In this presentation we will discuss the progress towards building a proto-type total-body PET scanner based on the underlying technology of the digital SiPM detectors from Philips. |
| 10:00 - 10:30 | Craig Levin (Stanford University, USA) "New directions to explore for <100 ps coincidence time resolution time-of-flight positron emission tomography" New directions to explore for <100 ps coincidence time resolution time-of-flight positron emission tomographyTime-of-flight (TOF) positron emission tomography (PET) enables a significant boost in reconstructed image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which can be used for better disease visualization and quantification, lower injected dose, and/or lower study duration. This SNR gain increases as the annihilation photon pair coincidence time resolution (CTR) improves. State-of-the-art commercially available clinical TOF-PET systems achieve ~325-400 ps FWHM CTR and have demonstrated associated clinical benefits. In this talk we describe new PET detector design concepts under investigation with the goal to advance CTR below 100 ps FWHM. |
| 10:30 - 11:00 | Paweł Olko (Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland) "Proton radiotherapy in Europe" Proton radiotherapy in EuropeThe basic factor which determines the success of radiotherapy is delivering the highest possible dose of ionizing radiation to the tumour volume while sparing the neighbouring critical organs and healthy tissues. Protons with energies from about 60 MeV to 250 MeV are useful for cancer treatment because of the phenomenon of the Bragg peak i.e. increasing of energy deposition the at the end of protons path in tissue and the well-defined range. Therefore, the unwanted doses to healthy organs, particularly the entrance dose, are minimal as compared to MV X-rays used in conventional radiotherapy. This is of particular importance to paediatric patients in whom the probability of later radiation-induced cancer should be minimized. The first proton treatment in Europe was performed in 1957 at the Svedberg Laboratory in Uppsala, Sweden. The higher numbers of patients in Europe were treated for eye tumours but the possibilities of treatment of deeply seated tumours were limited only to a few sites in Orsay (F), Villigen (CH) and St. Petersburg (RU). In the last decade the real boom in proton therapy started, with introducing of the new techniques and technologies, frequently a spin-off from nuclear physics research. In Europe between 2012 -2016 eight new modern proton therapy centres was put in operation and the next six is in the construction. In Krak??w, the Bronowice Cyclotron Centre with two rotating scanning gantries, eye treatment room and the experimental hall are fully operational since October 2015. The new accelerators allowed to minimize size and energy consumption of the dedicated medical accelerators. Active Pencil Beam Scanning eliminated application of mechanical collimators and compensators, which were expensive and produced unnecessary secondary neutrons. New detector developments, based on the position sensitive detectors, were applied for two-dimensional dosimetry and Quality Assurance of the proton beam. Since the uncertainty in beam range in patient remains one of the biggest problem of proton therapy, significant research concentrated on the development of methods for the range verification. Here, Positron Emission Tomography is applied for determination of activity of ?+ isotopes induced by proton beam. The research and development in nuclear physics will significantly contribute in the next years for the improvements of proton therapy and the outcome of the patient treatment. |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | COFFEE BREAK |
| 11:30 - 12:00 | Denis Dauvergne (Subatomic Physics and Cosmology Laboratory, Grenoble, France) "Prompt-gamma monitoring of particle therapy: state of the art, remaining challenges and future trends" Prompt-gamma monitoring of particle therapy: state of the art, remaining challenges and future trendsThe in vivo control of ion range during particle therapy remains one of the main challenges for the improvement of Quality Assurance of this highly conformal radiotherapy modality. Imaging of secondary radiations issued from nuclear reactions is the most widely explored way, since nuclear reactions occur all along the path of the primary beam, until very low residual energy. Besides PET imaging, the idea of using Prompt-Gamma (PG) arose nearly 15 years ago, with first experimental proof of principle in 2006. Since then, considerable efforts worldwide, including industrials, have been put forward to bring this technique to clinical translation. In addition to "conventional" PG profiles measurements with dedicated collimated or Compton cameras, new concepts have enriched the potential of PG to monitor treatments: the time distribution of detected PGs is found to be correlated to the range, the nature itself of PGs (the yields of various energy lines) depends both on the material traversed and on the beam energy. Even simpler, global counting of PGs emitted from the patient can be used to monitor the beam position and range, and the total energy deposited in the patient.?At a time when the first clinical trials including PG cameras are ongoing, remaining challenges are on the way to be tackled, in particular the need for reliable predictive models to be used during treatment planning with fast algorithms, and thus allowing direct and real-time comparison between measured and predicted yields.?Depending on the accelerator nature, the delivery mode, the ion species, and the type of tumor, future online monitoring devices may combine several detection modalities. |
| 12:00 - 12:30 | Stefaan Vandenberghe (Ghent University, Belgium) "PET-MRI: a review of challenges and solutions in the development of integrated multimodality imaging" PET-MRI: a review of challenges and solutions in the development of integrated multimodality imagingThe integration of positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been an ongoing research topic for the last 20 years. This talk gives an overview of the different developments and the technical problems associated with combining PET and MRI in one system. After explaining the different detector concepts for integrating PET-MRI and minimising interference the limitations and advantages of different solutions for the detector and system are described for preclinical and clinical imaging systems. The different integrated PET-MRI systems are described in detail. Besides detector concepts and system integration the challenges and proposed solutions for attenuation correction and the potential for motion correction and resolution recovery are also discussed. |
| 12:30 - 13:00 | Szymon Niedźwiecki (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland) "J-PET: a new technology for the whole-body PET imaging" J-PET: a new technology for the whole-body PET imagingThe Jagiellonian Positron Emission Tomograph (J-PET) is the first PET built from plastic scintillators. J-PET prototype consists of 192 detection modules arranged axially in three layers forming a cylindrical diagnostic chamber with the inner diameter of 85 cm and the axial field-of-view of 50 cm. An axial arrangement of long strips of plastic scintillators, their small light attenuation, superior timing properties, and relative ease of the increase of the axial field-of-view opens promising perspectives for the cost effective construction of the whole-body PET scanner, as well as construction of MR and CT compatible PET inserts. Present status of the development of the J-PET tomograph will be presented and discussed. [1] P. Moskal, Sz. Niedźwiecki et al. (J-PET Collaboration), Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 764 (2014) 317-321 [2] P. Moskal, ..., Sz. Niedźwiecki et al. (J-PET Collaboration), Nucl. Instr. and Meth. in Phys. Res. A 775 (2015) 54-62 [3] P. Moskal, ..., Sz. Niedźwiecki et al. (J-PET Collaboration), Phys. Med. Biol. 61 (2016) 2025-2047 [4] J. Smyrski, ..., Sz. Niedźwiecki et al. (J-PET Collaboration), Nucl. Instr. and Meth. in Phys. Res. A 851 (2017) 39-42 [5] L. Raczynski, ..., Sz. Niedźwiecki et al. (J-PET Collaboration), Phys. Med. Biol. (2017) in print. |
| 13:00 - 14:30 | LUNCH (in Collegium Novum) |
Session no. 2 | |
| 14:30 - 15:00 | Heinz Clement (University of Tuebingen, Germany) "Dibaryons --- Fake or True?" Dibaryons --- Fake or True?Dibaryons are thought to be six-quark objects, potentially constituting a new state of matter. A short review is given about the long-standing search for such objects, from the early days until present, when the first non-trivial dibaryon resonance has been established. Starting from the fifties the dibaryon search experienced many ups and downs, the dibaryon rush era followed by periods of big frustration and renewed start-ups. The first firm observation of a narrow dibaryon resonance gives new impact to this field. Having found one such species raises immediately the question, are there possibly more? Also whether the new state represents a molecule-like object or rather a compact hexaquark system, will be discussed. |
| 15:00 - 15:30 | Piotr Salabura (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland) "Nuclear matter tomography with virtual photons" Nuclear matter tomography with virtual photonsSpectrum of photons emitted from thermalized system is described by Planck low . Most famous examples are background radiation from the Universe or photon emission of the sun. In relativistic heavy ion collisions for a short glimpse of time a hot and dense nuclear matter is created which properties resembles very much those expected for a thermalized and a fast expanding system. Photons, real and virtual converting into lepton pairs, are excellent penetrating probes to diagnose properties of such matter because of lack of strong final state interactions which dilute primary information. In the presentation it will be discussed what spectroscopy of virtual photons tells us about temperature, collision time and evolution of the such exotic nuclear matter. Furthermore, it will be argued that mass distribution of emitted virtual photons suggest melting of hadrons in the hot and dense nuclear matter created in early phase of heavy ion collision |
| 15:30 - 16:00 | Michal Praszalowicz (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland) "On a possibility of baryonic exotica?" On a possibility of baryonic exotica?Models based on chiral symmetry predict the baryonic states with exotic quantum?numbers (pentaquarks) that have relatively low masses and small widths. We shall?briefly review both theoretical and experimental status of a possibility?of exotica in the light sector. Next we shall show how to extend chiral?models to baryons with one heavy quark and show that one may expect exotic?states also in this case. Finally we shall try to interpret recently discovered?by the LHCb collaboration five Omega^*_c resonances in terms of regular and exotic?excitations of the ground state Omega_c. |
| 16:00 - 16:30 | COFFEE BREAK |
| 16:30 - 17:00 | Rajeev S. Bhalerao (Indian Institute of Science Education & Research Pune, India) "Ultra-relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions and Quark-Gluon Plasma" Ultra-relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions and Quark-Gluon PlasmaI will present an overview of the field of quark-gluon plasma and ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions, where the nucleus is subjected to the extremes of temperature and pressure. I will describe the most important observables and their status in the current experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, CERN. I will highlight the important role the relativistic dissipative fluid dynamics is playing in describing the collective flow of the matter formed in these collisions. |
| 17:00 - 17:30 | Shigehiro Yasui (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan) "Kondo effect of heavy hadron in nuclear matter" Kondo effect of heavy hadron in nuclear matterTo study charm hadrons in nuclei is an important topics in hadron physics. Such exotic states may be produced in high energy experimental facilities. In my talk, I will present the recent study of Kondo effect of heavy hadron in nuclear matter. Kondo effect has been known as impurity effect in condensed matter physics, as it exhibits a strongly coupled systems in low energy scale and influences several properties of matter at low temperature. As for Kondo effect in charm nuclear systems, I will show the possible realization of the Kondo effect by using perturbative treatment as well as by non-perturbative treatment. I will also discuss the application to Kondo effect in atomic nuclei. |
| 17:30 - 18:00 | Ken Suzuki (Stefan Meyer Institute for Subatomic Physics, Austria) "Study of kaonic nuclear states with DISTO and Belle data" Study of kaonic nuclear states with DISTO and Belle dataA study of kaonic nuclear states is turning into a new phase with multiple new experimental results which became available recently, notably the E27 and E15 experiments at J-PARC. The mass of the claimed structure by the E27 experiment as a candidate of the so-called K-pp state in d(?+, K+) reaction at 1.69 GeV/c lies around 2.27 GeV/c^2, which is close to the X(2265) resonance which is seen in the DISTO data in p+p›KX reaction at 2.85 GeV, while the peak seen by the E15 experiment has certainly lower mass of around 2.33 GeV/c^2. In this paper, we will give an update on the DISTO data analysis on the X(2265) as well as an on-going analyses of ?(1405) using the Belle ?c›??? data to determine ?? scattering length, and to obtain a T=1 suppressed (and therefore more pure T=0) ?(1405). |
| 18:00 - 19:00 | Poster session |
| 19:00 - 20:30 | Classical Music Concert in Collegium Maius (? see details) |
Session no. 3 | |
| 08:30 - 09:00 | Volker Metag (Giessen University, Germany) "Status of determining meson-nucleus potentials and the search for mesic states" Status of determining meson-nucleus potentials and the search for mesic statesAn overview will be given on current experiments studying the meson-nucleus interaction to extract meson-nucleus potentials. The real part of the meson nucleus potential quantifies whether the interaction is attractive or repulsive while the imaginary part describes the meson absorption in nuclei. In most cases, the real part of the potential is determined by comparing measured meson momentum distributions or excitation functions with collision model or transport model calculations. The imaginary part is extracted from transparency ratio measurements. Results on K+, K0, K-, ?, ?’, ?, and ? mesons will be summarized. In view of these potential parameters, the criteria and chances for observing meson-nucleus bound states will be discussed. The most promising candidates appear to be the ? and ?’ meson. |
| 09:00 - 09:30 | Avraham Gal (The Hebrew University, Israel) "Eta-meson onset of nuclear binding scenarios " Eta-meson onset of nuclear binding scenariosEta-NNN and Eta-NNNN bound states are explored within nuclear few-body precise calculations using realistic NN interactions and energy dependent Eta-N interactions derived from coupled-channel models of the N*(1535) nucleon resonance. A self consistency procedure is applied to deal with the energy dependence of the Eta-N sub-threshold input. It is found that the onset of binding Eta-3He requires a minimal value of Real-a(Eta-N) close to 1 fm, binding then slightly Eta-4He. The onset of binding Eta-4He requires a lower value of Re-a(Eta-N), but exceeding 0.7 fm. These results are also confirmed in a pion-less EFT approach at leading order (arXiv:1703.02861) |
| 09:30 - 10:00 | Satoru Hirenzaki (Nara Women's University, Japan) "eta-nucleus interaction from the d+d reaction around the eta production threshold" eta-nucleus interaction from the d+d reaction around the eta production thresholdThe eta mesic nucleus is considered to be one of the interesting exotic many body systems and has been studied since 1980's theoretically and experimentally. Recently, the formation of the eta mesic nucleus in the fusion reactions of the light nuclei such as d + d -> (eta + alpha) -> X has been proposed and the experiments have been performed by WASA-at-COSY. We have developed a theoretical model to evaluate the formation rate of the eta mesic nucleus in the fusion reactions and show the calculated results. We have found that the eta bound states could be produced in the reactions in cases with the strong attractive and small absorptive eta-nucleus interactions. We have compared our results with existing data of the d + d -> eta + alpha and the d + d -> 3He + N + pi reactions. We have found that the analyses by our theoretical model with the existing data can provide new information on the eta-nucleus interaction. |
| 10:00 - 10:30 | Eulogio Oset Baguena (The Instituto de F??sica Corpuscular, Spain) "The eta 3He and rho B* B*bar systems" The eta 3He and rho B* B*bar systemsI shall present the results of an analysis of the p d -> eta 3He close to threshold deducing from there the existence of a resonant-like eta 3He amplitude below threshold [1]. Giving a jump in the energy regime I shall present the study of a three meson system with rho B* B*bar, which gives rise to a bound state with spin 3 [2]. [1] Xie, Liang, Oset, Moskal, Skurzok, Wilkin, PRC 95 (2017) 015202 [2] Bayar, Fernandez-Soler, Sun, Oset, EPJA 52 (2016) 106 |
| 10:30 - 11:00 | COFFEE BREAK |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | Takatsugu Ishikawa (Research Center for Electron Photon Science, Thoku University, Japan) "Low-energy scattering parameters between the eta meson and nucleon from eta photoproduction on the deuteron" Low-energy scattering parameters between the eta meson and nucleon from eta photoproduction on the deuteronAmong the two-body dynamics of the meson-nucleon systems, the interaction?between the eta meson and nucleon is not well known although?it has been found to be attractive. A new photoproduction experiment is?planned for the determination of the low-energy scattering parameters?between the eta meson and nucleon at the Research Center for Electron Photon?Science (ELPH), Tohoku University. The emitted proton is measured at 0?degrees?for eta photoproduction on the deuteron at the incident energy of 0.94 GeV,?which gives the zero relative momentum between the eta meson and neutron?in the final state. We will show the kinematics has a good resolving power?of the scattering length and effective range. We also present the current?status of the preparation for the new experiment.? |
| 11:30 - 12:00 | Magdalena Skurzok (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland) "Search for the eta-mesic helium in proton-deuteron and deuteron-deuteron reactions" Search for the eta-mesic helium in proton-deuteron and deuteron-deuteron reactionsThe existence of h-mesic nuclei in which the eta meson is bound in a nucleus by means of the strong interaction was postulated already in 1986 but it has not been yet confirmed experimentally. The discovery of this new kind of an exotic nuclear matter would be very important as it might allow for a better understanding of the h meson structure and its interaction with nucleons. The search for h-mesic helium is carried out with high statistics and high acceptance with the WASA detector, installed at the COSY accelerator in the Research Center Juelich. The search is conducted via the measurement of the excitation function for selected decay channels of the 4He-h and 3He-h systems. The talk will include description of the experimental method used at WASA and the status of the data analysis. |
| 12:00 - 12:30 | Yoshiki Tanaka (GSI, Germany) "First results on the experimental search for ?' mesic nuclei with the 12C(p,d) reaction" First results on the experimental search for ?' mesic nuclei with the 12C(p,d) reactionAn especially large mass of the ?' meson compared with the other pseudoscalar mesons is theoretically understood by an interplay between UA(1) anomaly and chiral symmetry breaking. In nuclear medium, where chiral symmetry is expected to be partially restored, the mass of the ?' meson can be reduced. Since the reduction of the ?' mass induces an attractive ?'-nucleus potential, existence of ?' meson-nucleus bound states (?' mesic nuclei) is theoretically suggested. Such bound states, if observed, can be a unique testing ground for experimental investigation of in-medium meson properties. We performed missing-mass spectroscopy experiment of the 12C(p,d) reaction to search for ?' mesic nuclei. A 2.5 GeV proton beam from the synchrotron SIS-18 at GSI impinged on to a carbon target to produce ?' mesic nuclei via the 12C(p,d)11C???' reaction. The ejected deuterons were momentum-analyzed with the FRS spectrometer. We have obtained the excitation-energy spectrum of 11C around the ?' production threshold with a high statistical sensitivity and sufficiently small experimental resolution. Since no significant peak structure is observed in the spectrum, we determine upper limits for the formation cross sections as a function of the energy and the width of the assumed ?' mesic state. Then we discuss a constraint on ?'-nucleus potential which can be set by a comparison with theoretical predictions of the formation spectra. We also introduce experiments with extended sensitivity planned at GSI/FAIR in the near future. |
| 12:30 - 13:00 | Hajime Shimizu (Research Center for Electron Photon Science, Tohoku University, Japan) "Photoproduction of eta’ mesons at SPring-8/LEPS2" Photoproduction of eta’ mesons at SPring-8/LEPS2An experiment for eta’ meson photoproduction has been conducted at SPring-8 by utilizing a 2.4 GeV laser electron photon beam at the LEPS2 beam line. We try to get the spectral function of eta’ mesons propagating in the nuclear medium. For this purpose, an electromagnetic calorimeter, BGOegg, is employed to detect eta’ in gamma-gamma and also pi0pi0eta decay channels. The BGOegg calorimeter consisting of 1320 BGO crystals shows a good performance both in the energy and mass resolutions. A preliminary result for the experiment with a carbon target will be presented. |
| 13:00 - 14:30 | LUNCH (in Collegium Novum) |
Session no. 4 | |
| 14:30 - 15:00 | Bozena Jasinska (Maria Curie Skłodowska University, Poland) "New method of (human) body imaging with PET based on 3g/2g annihilation." New method of (human) body imaging with PET based on 3g/2g annihilation.Positron emission tomography (PET) is a commonly recognized diagnostic method enabling imaging of the metabolism of chosen substances in the living organism. The PET imaging is based on an annihilation of the positron emitted by radiofarmaceutical with an electron from the body of the patient into two gamma quanta with energy of 511 keV each. One of the most important applications is imaging of patients tumour location and size and aiming at the search for the possible metastases as metabolism rate rises significantly in theese places and in effect the number of annihilating positrons. Method proposed here is based on a ratio of three gamma annihilation (from trapped ortho-positronium decay) and two gamma (produced in other processes). The idea is taken from Positron A annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy (PALS), technique applied in material investigation. It is known that in the dense matter, 30-40% of positrons create with an electron bound state (positronium) which can be trapped in free spaces between molecules. There exists correlation between the o-Ps lifetime value ?o-Ps and the free volume size; the larger is volume the longer is the lifetime value. On the other hand it is known that the longer is the lifetime value the larger fraction of ortho-positronium annihilate with emission of three gamma quanta. One can state the fraction of three gamma annihilation reflects free volume size than the cells structure. The f3?2??= N3????? can be determined experimentally as a ratio of the number of 3? and 2? events emitted from the patient during PET investigation. It is correlated with the free volume size and with the free volume concentration and thus may be used as a measure (morphometric indicator) of the degree of the tissue porosity in the investigated organism. From measurements performed until now in a few parts of animal meat it was stated the proposed method could distinguish between cells of different organs. Very preliminary results of human tumours investigation seems to confirm differentiation between healthy and affected tissues. |
| 15:00 - 15:30 | Ruggero Caravita (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research, Switzerland) "Advances in positronium manipulations and laser studies in the AEgIS experiment" Advances in positronium manipulations and laser studies in the AEgIS experimentPositronium (Ps), the unstable bound state of electron and positron, is a valuable system for neutral antimatter spectroscopic studies and for antihydrogen production. Forming a pulsed beam cold antihydrogen using charge-exchange with Rydberg Ps is the goal of the AEgIS collaboration, which aims to measuring gravity on neutral antimatter. The results achieved in producing, manipulating and studying Ps are presented. First, Ps has been produced with mesoporous silica targets in reflection geometry. The first spectroscopy of Ps n=3 state has been conducted; this yield as a byproduct a characterization of the Ps emission from reflection targets. Efficient laser excitation to Rydberg levels was then conducted, validating the proof-of-concept of AEgIS. Subsequently, production of Ps from a new class of transmission targets was also achieved, opening the possibility for future experiments. Finally, the long-lived metastable 23S state of Ps was observed combining laser excitation to 3 3P and spontaneous optical decay. |
| 15:30 - 16:00 | Jerzy Dryzek (Institute of Nuclear Physics PAS, Poland) "Positron and Positronium as probes for studding of matter at atomic level" Positron and Positronium as probes for studding of matter at atomic levelThe positron annihilation spectroscopy is based on the annihilation of positrons, which implanted with high energy into matter lose their energy in ionization and scattering processes. Finally, having thermal energy they randomly walk and annihilate with electrons. The positron electron annihilation with emission of two photons, terminates this process. Because of positron thermalization, only electron contribute to the momentum which is transformed to the photons. This provides information about the local environment of a positron and electron pair, which can be unfolded after detection of the annihilation photons. Angular correlation of the photons can give information about the Fermi surface, shape of the annihilation line is also sensitive to presence of open volume defects in the crystalline structure which occur in great amount for instance during plastic deformation. Positron lifetime is very convenient tool for detection of the defect type and size. In the molecular structures like polymers or broadly defined soft matter, the bound state of positron and electron can be formed. This state called Positronium is suitable for detection of free volume in these structures, or pores in the nanometer scale. Application of positron annihilation to studies of condensed matter and living organisms will be demonstrated. The phenomenon of positron annihilation in flight will be also considered. In this case only positrons at higher energy contribute to the annihilation process. This is seldom looked at because it adds to the background of the annihilation at rest in the positron spectroscopy. Some aspects of annihilation in flight will be also presented. |
| 16:00 - 16:30 | COFFEE BREAK |
| 16:30 - 17:00 | Beatrix Hiesmayr (University of Vienna, Austria) "Entanglement Detection with J-PET" Entanglement Detection with J-PETI give an overview what kind of entanglement can be expected from positronium decay and how it may be detected with the J-PET. |
| 17:00 - 17:30 | Grzegorz Karwasz (University Nicolaus Copernicus Toruń, Poland) "Positronium formation in atoms and molecules – from experiment to modeling" Positronium formation in atoms and molecules – from experiment to modelingSlowing down of positrons emitted from radioactive decays in matter goes via a number of inelastic collisions, like electronic excitation and ionization. Cross sections for these processes are known only in approximate way. Formation of positronium become efficient when the energy of positrons goes under some hundreds of eV. Surprisingly, recent experiments on total cross sections in atomic and molecular gases [1] showed that the cross section for positronium formation, say in Ar, H2, N2 can be easily deduced, within 10% uncertainty. We will link cross sections for positronium formation in simple molecular targets that have relevance to nuclear biophysics (H2O, benzene, cyclohexane), to measured probabilities of positronium formation in liquid phase. Some semiempirical analysis to predict cross sections for positron scattering will be also presented. [1] G.P. Karwasz, Eur. Phys. J. D 35 (2005) 267 |
| 17:30 - 18:00 | Kenji Shu (The University of Tokyo, Japan) "Toward a Realization of Bose-Einstein Condensation of Positronium" Toward a Realization of Bose-Einstein Condensation of PositroniumSince the realization of Bose-Einstein condensation of dilute atoms in 1995, BEC of anti-matter systems has never been observed. An anti-matter BEC is so unique system as a coherent anti-matter so that it is beneficial for examining the mystery of the asymmetry between mater and anti-mater by such as a precision measurement of a gravity effect on anti-matter. Positronium, a bound state of an electron and a positron, is the lightest atom. Its transition temperature of BEC is quite high compared to any other atoms because of its light mass. This Advantage makes positronium the best candidate of the first anti-matter BEC. There are two main challenges to make positronium atoms in BEC state – a creation of dense positronium atoms at once and cooling them into cryogenic temperature before most of them annihilate with lifetime as short as 142 nanoseconds. The contribution will introduce a current status of a Ps-BEC experiment in which new schemes to create dense positronium atoms and cool them are currently developed. A new result of cooling positronium atoms in cryogenic temperature will also be shown. |
| 18:00 - 18:30 | Grażyna Sznajd (Institute of Low Temperature and Structure Research, PAS, Poland) "Positron Emission Tomography in solid state physics" Positron Emission Tomography in solid state physicsMeasurements of electron-positron annihilation rays have found applications in both a medical diagnosis and in solid state physics. A similar equipment (located either close to or far from an investigated object) allows to study either the real or the momentum space (medical or physical investigations, respectively). Various mathematical methods of computed tomography and their applications to objects having the cubic and hexagonal symmetry are presented. Some examples of the Fermi surfaces as well as a unique opportunity of a visualization, from two-dimensional angular correlation of positron annihilation experimental data, of Bloch states are demonstrated. |
Session no. 5 | |
| 08:30 - 09:00 | Charalampos Tsoumpas (University of Leeds, United Kingdom) "Image Reconstruction for PET Images with High Resolution" Image Reconstruction for PET Images with High ResolutionPositron emission tomography (PET) is a technology that facilitates positrons to detect molecules travelling inside our body, thus providing valuable information for the improved understanding of the biological processes. This information is relevant to the early diagnosis of disease since molecular changes precede structural changes. PET is encountered in many fields of medicine including neurology, oncology and cardiology. This presentation will focus on how image reconstruction techniques can help alongside with technological achievements improve the way we trace radiolabelled molecules inside our body. At the end of the talk, we will be discussing how these potential advances may shape the future clinical applications of this technology. |
| 09:00 - 09:30 | Ivo Rausch (Medical University of Vienna, Austria) "PET/MRI and MRI based attenuation correction" PET/MRI and MRI based attenuation correctionDual-modality magnetic resonance and positron emission tomography imaging (PET/MRI) was introduced for clinical use in 2010. In contrast to PET with computed tomography (PET/CT), it has the advantage of offering excellent soft tissue contrast and a wide array of functional, morphological and even metabolic clinical imaging protocols. However, the combination of PET and MRI has some inherent challenges, the most prominent being MRI based attenuation correction (AC). AC is a pre-requisite for quantitative assessment of PET images. In PET/CT the attenuation properties of the investigated tissue can be derived from the CT. Unfortunately, MRI information is not related to the attenuation properties of tissue. Thus, using the MRI information directly for AC is not possible. Several methods have been proposed to overcome this issue. This methods can be roughly categorized into segmentation based-, atlas based- and reconstruction based methods. However, just a subset of them made their way into clinical practice. Furthermore, issues like attenuation of bone or imaging artifacts remain. |
| 09:30 - 10:00 | Grzegorz Korcyl (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland) "Online processing of tomographic data" Online processing of tomographic dataData acquisition system of JPET prototype will be presented. The talk will mainly focus on procedures of data processing in the real time in the hardware resulting in significant data volume reduction and diagnostic images production by the electronics. The possibilities of real time tomographic image reconstruction will be explored. |
| 10:00 - 10:30 | Lech Raczynski (National Centre for Nuclear Research, Poland) "Introduction of Total Variation regularization into Filtered Back-projection algorithm" Introduction of Total Variation regularization into Filtered Back-projection algorithmPositron Emission Tomography (PET) is currently a key technique in the medical imaging area, which allows to diagnose functions of the organism and to track tumor changes. Since its introduction to medical imaging applications, PET reconstruction has grown into a well-researched, highly-evolved field. The Filtered Back Projection (FBP) was the first PET reconstruction techniques and is still treated as the reference method for more advanced approaches. Since the inverse problem defined in FBP reconstruction is ill-posed, some form of regularization is required to constrain the resulting image to physically acceptable values. The most common form of regularizing image reconstruction is via apodizing functions. In this paper we extend the state-of-the-art FBP method and we propose to apply the concept of Total Variation regularization. The proposed method is tested using standard Derenzo phantom. We assess the performance of the new algorithm by comparing it to the FBP algorithm in terms of cross-correlation coefficient. We demonstrate that the proposed approach presents higher than FBP cross-correlation coefficient between reconstructed and real image of radiotracer distribution. |
| 10:30 - 11:00 | COFFEE BREAK |
Session no. 6 | |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | Neelima Kelkar (University de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia) "Electron Tunneling Times" Electron Tunneling TimesOne of the strangest and counter-intuitive aspects of quantum mechanics is the existence of a finite probability for a particle to go from one region to another even if the regions are separated by a potential barrier and the kinetic energy of the particle is less than the height of the barrier. Attempts to understand this phenomenon led to the next natural question of how long does a particle need to tunnel a barrier. The tunneling time of an electron is extremely small and difficult to measure directly in an experiment. With no direct experiments to compare with, several theoretical time concepts and definitions of quantum times emerged over the last more than 60 years and the subject in general remained controversial. In more recent times however, there has been a renewed interest in the subject due to experiments involving ultra fast laser technology and other techniques such as field emission microscopy. A short history of the evolution of quantum time concepts and an account of recent experimental measurements followed by a discussion of the subtleties of tunneling times in solid state junctions will be presented. |
| 11:30 - 12:00 | Francesco Giacosa (Jan Kochanowski University, Kielce, Poland) "Time evolution of an unstable quantum system" Time evolution of an unstable quantum systemBoth in quantum mechanics and in quantum field theory an unstable quantum system is not described by an exponential decay law. Deviations exist and can be sizable at short and at long times, in turn showing that the system possesses a memory of its preparation time. We investigate these deviations as well as their possible influence on the lifetime when the effect of a the environment (such as measuring apparatus) is taken into account. In the end, the subtle and interesting link between decay law and a boost transformation is also addressed. |
| 12:00 - 12:30 | Mahir Hussein (University of Sao Paulo, Brasil) "Dipole-dipole dispersion interactions between neutrons" Dipole-dipole dispersion interactions between neutronsWe investigate the long-range interactions between two neutrons utilizing recent data on the neutron static and dynamic electric and magnetic dipole polarizabilities. The resulting long-range potentials are used to make quantitative comparisons between the collisions of a neutron with a neutron and a neutron with a proton. We also assess the importance of the rst pion production threshold and rst excited state of the nucleon, the -resonance (J = + 3/2, I = 3/2). We found both dynamical ects to be quite relevant for distances r between 50 fm up to 103 fm in the nn system, the neutron-wall system and in the wall-neutron-wall system, reaching the expected asymptotic limit beyond that. Relevance of our ndings to the con nement of ultra cold neutrons inside bottles is discussed. |
| 12:00 - 13:00 | Krzysztof Urbanowski (University of Zielona Gora, Institute of Physics, Poland) "The true face of quantum decay processes: Unstable systems in rest and in motion" The true face of quantum decay processes: Unstable systems in rest and in motionFrom fundamental principles it follows that the modulus of the survival amplitude, $|a(t)|$, can not have an exponential form: Khalfin in 1957 assuming that the spectrum of the Hamiltonian of the system considered is bounded from below and using the integral representation of $a(t)$ as the Fourier transform of the energy distribution function, $\omega(E)$ proved that $|a(t)| \to 0$ as $t \to \infty$ slower that any exponential function of time $t$ [1]. Nevertheless results of numerical model calculations presented in the literature show that the survival probability ${\cal P}(t) = |a(t)|^{2}$ has the exponential form starting from times much smaller than the lifetime $\tau$ up to times $t\gg \tau$, and that ${\cal P}(t)$ exhibits inverse power--law behavior at the late time region for times longer than the so--called crossover time $T\gg \tau$ (The crossover time $T$ is the time when the late time deviations of ${\cal P}(t)$ from the exponential form begin to dominate). This effect was confirmed experimentally not long ago [2]. This is why physicists believe that the survival probability has the exponential form for times much smaller than $T$ and that nonexponential deviations manifests itself only for suitable long times. More detailed analysis of the problem shows that in fact the survival probability ${\cal P}(t)$ can not take that exponential form at any time interval including times smaller than the lifetime $\tau$: The exponential form of ${\cal P}(t)$ for $t < \tau$ and $t \sim \tau$ obtained numerically for models of quantum unstable systems is only a better or worse approximation. In fact for times $t \sim \tau$ and for the later times the form of ${\cal P}(t)$ looks as a composition of an oscillating function and exponential function, that is it has an oscillating form. The amplitude of these oscillations is very small for $t \ll \tau$ and grows with increasing time and depends on the model considered, that is on the properties of the energy distribution function, $\omega(E)$. One of the consequences of this effect is that the instantaneous energy (mass) of the unstable system can not be constant in time. We also study the survival probability of moving relativistic unstable particles. We show that assumption that velocity of such particles is constant leads to the wrong result contrary to claims of authors of [3]. Following [4] we assume that particles move with definite momentum $\vec{p} \neq 0$ and we found decay curves of such particles for the quantum mechanical models considered. These model studies show that late time deviations of the survival probability of these particles from the exponential--like form of the decay law, that is the transition times region between exponential--like and non-expo\-nen\-tial form of the survival probability, should occur much earlier than it follows from the classical standard approach resolving itself into replacing time $t$ by $t/\gamma$ (where $\gamma$ is the relativistic Lorentz factor) in the formula for the survival probability and that the survival probabilities should tend to zero as $t\rightarrow \infty$ much slower than one would expect using classical time dilation relation. We show that analogously to the particles decaying in the rest system fluctuations of ${\cal P}(t)$ take also place in the case of moving particles, but the amplitude of these fluctuations is larger than that in the the case of decays in the rest system. |
| 13:00 - 14:30 | LUNCH (in Collegium Novum) |
Session no. 7 | |
| 14:30 - 15:00 | Catalina Oana Curceanu (Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Italy) "Low-energy kaon-nuclei interaction studies at DAFNE (SIDDHARTA2 and AMADEUS)" Low-energy kaon-nuclei interaction studies at DAFNE (SIDDHARTA2 and AMADEUS)The low-energy QCD, the theory describing the strong interaction, is still missing important experimental results in order to allow a deeper understanding. Among these experimental results, the low-energy kaon-nucleon/nuclei interaction studies are playing a key-role, with important consequences going from particle and nuclear physics to astrophysics (equation of state of neutron stars). Combining the excellent quality kaon beam delivered by the DAFNE collider in Frascati (Italy) with new experimental techniques, as fast and very precise X ray detectors, like the Silicon Drift Detectors, and with the high acceptance charged and neutral particles KLOE detector, we performed unprecedented measurements in the low-energy strangeness sector in the framework of SIDDHARTA and AMADEUS Collaborations. The kaonic atoms, as kaonic hydrogen and kaonic deuterium, provide the isospin dependent kaon-nucleon scattering lengths from the measurement of X rays emitted in the de-excitation process to the fundamental 1s level of the initially excited formed atom. The most precise kaonic hydrogen measurement was performed by the SIDDHARTA collaboration, which realized, as well, the first exploratory measurement for kaonic deuterium ever. Presently, a major upgrade of the setup, SIDDHARTA-2 is being realized to perform in the near future a precise measurement of kaonic deuterium and of other exotic atoms. The kaon–nuclei interactions are being studied by the AMADEUS collaboration for kaon momenta up to 100 MeV/c by using the KLOE data from 2002-2005 and from an AMADEUS dedicated run in 2012 with a pure carbon target. Preliminary results for the interaction of negatively charged kaons with various type of nuclei will be shown, and future plans to realize a dedicated setup discussed. The experiments at the DAFNE collider represents an opportunity which is unique in the world to, finally, unlock the secrets of the QCD in the strangeness sector and understand the role of strangeness in the Universe, from nuclei to the stars. |
| 15:00 - 15:30 | Johann Zmeskal (Stefan Meyer Institute for Subatomic Physics, Austria) "KAONIC DEUTERIUM AT J-PARC - PROBING LOW-ENERGY QCD " KAONIC DEUTERIUM AT J-PARC - PROBING LOW-ENERGY QCDFor exotic hydrogen atoms, a detectable energy shift of the ground state, with respect to the pure QED value, as well as a broadening of the ground state level can be observed. By measuring these observables the determination of the s-wave kaon-nucleon scattering length at zero energy will be possible, which is a sensitive measure of the chiral and isospin symmetry breaking pattern in QCD. Although the importance of kaonic deuterium X-ray spectroscopy has been well recognized for more than 30 years, no experimental results were obtained so far, due to the difficulty of the X-ray measurement. Now there are two projects underway to perform a kaonic deuterium X-ray measurement: the SIDDHARTA-2 experiment at LNF-INFN and the E57 experiment at J-PARC. The status of the K-d experiment E57 at J-PARC will be discussed as well as the results of a first test measurement performed at the J-PARC K1.8 BR. |
| 15:30 - 16:00 | Laura Fabbietti (Technische Universit??t M??nchen, Germany) "Hadrons interaction and consequences for neutron stars" Hadrons interaction and consequences for neutron starsMany physicists would like to know what is inside neutron stars (NS). Others would be already very happy if they could understand how two and three baryons interact with better accuracy than available today. The two things are intertwined since the two and three body hadron interaction determines the equation of state, hence how pressure and energy depend on density, for every hadron system. Different hypotheses can be made about the content of NS. The scenarios vary from pure dense neutron matter, to mixtures of neutrons and strange hadrons up to quark matter. Each hypothesis, provided that the interaction among the constituents is well known, leads to an equation of state and to a precise mass to radius relationship for the NS. This way, observations of masses and radii for NS can test different hypotheses. A new method is proposed to exploit particle production at accelerator experiments to substitute scattering experiments among different hadron species. This idea can also open up the possibility of studying three body interactions among hadrons. First results from the HADES and ALICE collaborations, two experiments at very different beam energies, will be shown and the potential of the method will be discussed. |
| 16:00 - 16:30 | COFFEE BREAK |
| 16:30 - 17:00 | Sławomir Wycech (National Centre for Nuclear Research, Poland) "Gamov states of $\Sigma^+$ hyperons in nuclei" Gamov states of $\Sigma^+$ hyperons in nucleiThe nuclear capture of K studied by FINUDA [1] in reaction $K^{-} ^{6}Li \to \Sigma^{\pm}\pi^{\mp} A'$ observed an unexpected low momentum peak in the spectrum of the final $\Sigma^+$ hyperons. Such a peak does not exist in the $\Sigma^-$ emission. Recent studies of AMADEUS find similar effects in Carbon. These are observed with $\Sigma^-$ captures from atomic as well as from flight states. We, [2], interpret it as the effect of Gamov states formed by the hyperon and the residual nuclei. Such states are quasi-localized in space with radii larger than (expected) hyper-nuclear radii but smaller than radii of (inaccessible) $\Sigma^-$ hyperonic atoms in 1S states. The experimental and theoretical consequences of this discovery will be presented. First, to create Gamov state the nuclear potential has to be attractive and close to the binding situation. Such conditions are likely in He and many other nuclei. The Gamov state happens at energies of few hundred KeV but widths of such states states are in MeV region. The shape of hyperon momentum distribution yields information on the strength od hyperon attraction. Its magnitude depends on the strength of nuclear absorption ( Sigma $->$ Lambda conversion processes). The former are fairly simple to interpret, the latter are not. The Gamov states are a substitute for apparently nonexistent $\Sigma$ hypernuclei. [1] M. Angelo for FINUDA arXiv 1109.6594v1, Phys.Lett. B704 (2011) 474-480 [2] K. Pisciccia and S. Wycech Web of Science 2016 ( Meson 16, Krakow) |
| 17:00 - 17:30 | Takayasu Sekihara (Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Japan) "On the structure observed in the in-flight 3He(K^-, p)n reaction at J-PARC" On the structure observed in the in-flight 3He(K^-, p)n reaction at J-PARCRecently, a peak structure was observed near the K^- p p threshold in the in-flight 3He (K^- , Lambda p) n reaction of the E15 experiment at J-PARC. This peak could be a signal of the lightest kaonic nuclei, that is, the Kbar N N (I=1/2) state, which has been intensively studied both experimentally and theoretically in the last decade. In this contribution we theoretically investigate what is the origin of the peak structure observed in the E15 experiment at J-PARC. Since the peak exists near the K^- p p threshold, we expect two scenarios to produce the peak. One is that the Lambda(1405) is generated but it does not correlate with p, and the uncorrelated Lambda(1405)-p system subsequently decays into Lambda p. The other is that the Kbar N N quasi-bound state is indeed generated and decays into Lambda p. We calculate the Lambda p invariant mass spectrum of the reaction with these two scenarios and compare it with the experimental one to interpret the experimental peak structure. |
| 17:30 - 18:00 | Kristian Piscicchia (Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Italy) "AMADEUS results and future plan" AMADEUS results and future planThe AMADEUS experiment deals with the investigation of the low energy interaction of negative kaons in light nuclear targets, with strong impact on the non-perturbative strangeness QCD sector. We take advantage of the low momentum ($p_Ksim$127 MeV/c) almost monochromatic charged kaons produced by the DA$Phi$NE collider. The analysis focuses on the study of K$^-$ hadronic capture in the materials of the KLOE detector. The experimental data corresponds to the 1.64 fb$^-1$ luminosity of the 2004-2005 KLOE data taking campaign, which contains high statistics samples of K$^-$ nuclear captures (both at-rest and in-flight) in H, ${}^4$He, {}^9$Be and {}^12$C. The results obtained in the analyses of the hyperon-pion correlated events to explore the behaviour of Y$^*$ resonances in nuclear medium, and the analyses of hyperon-proton, deuteron, and triton correlations, searching for possible $K^-$-multi nucleon bound states, will be presented. |
| 20:00 - 23:00 | Conference Dinner |
Session no. 8 | |
| 09:00 - 09:30 | Aleksandra K. Biegun (KVI-CART, University of Groningen, The Netherlands) "Proton radiography in proton radiotherapy treatment " Proton radiography in proton radiotherapy treatmentThe novel proton radiography imaging technique has a big potential to be used in determining directly proton energy losses (proton stopping powers, PSPs) in various tissues in the patient. The uncertainty of PSPs, currently obtained from translation of X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) images, needs to be minimized from 3-6% or higher [1-5] to less than 1%, which is crucial to make an accurate treatment plan with a proton beam. With the Geant4 Monte Carlo toolkit we simulate a proton radiography detection system (similar to the one that we have used in the real experiment with AGOR) with two position sensitive detectors, and a residual energy detector. A complex phantom filled with 11, also tissue-like, materials is placed between the two position detectors. We irradiate the phantom with various proton beam energies relevant in clinics (70-250 MeV) and study energy loss and scattering angle radiographs. Protons passing through different materials in the phantom lose energy. The energy loss calculated as a difference between the proton beam energy and proton residual energy recorded in the energy detector is used to create a radiography image of the phantom. The multiple Coulomb scattering of a proton traversing different materials causes blurring of the radiography image. To improve the image quality and identify each material in the phantom clearly, we select protons with small scattering angles. The selection of protons traveling in a straight line has been considered in order to accurately distinguish neighboring materials. Applying a scattering angle cut of 8.7 mrad results in correct identification of the phantom materials. A good quality of the proton radiography image, in which different materials can be recognized accurately, and in combination with X-ray CT can lead to more accurate relative stopping powers predictions. References [1] Schneider W., Bortfeld T., Schlegel W.: Correlation between CT numbers and tissue parameters needed for Monte Carlo simulations of clinical dose distributions, Phys. Med. Biol. 45 (2000) 459 478 [2] Cirrone, G. et al.: The Italian project for a proton imaging device, Nuclear Instr and Meth in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 576 (2007) 194-197 [3] Paganetti, H.: Range uncertainties in proton therapy and the role of Monte Carlo simulations, Phys. Med. Biol. 57 (2012) R99-R117 [4] Schuemann, J. et al., Site-specific range uncertainties caused by dose calculation algorithms for proton therapy, Phys. Med. Biol., vol. 59, 2014. [5] Knopf, A-C., Lomax, A.: In vivo proton range verification: a review, Phys. Med. Biol. 58 (2013) R131-R160 |
| 09:30 - 10:00 | Guillaume Landry (Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany) "Next generation imaging for ion beam therapy treatment planning" Next generation imaging for ion beam therapy treatment planningThe treatment of cancer with ion beams relies on the complete stopping of ions at their end of range. This is responsible for both the conformity of ion beam therapy dose distributions as well as related to their uncertainties. Errors in relative stopping power to water (RSP) obtained from x-ray conventional single energy computed tomography (SECT) account for a significant portion of safety margins employed clinically. Next generation imaging is being developed aiming at reducing these uncertainties. Currently dual energy computed tomography (DECT) and proton computed tomography (pCT) show promise by imaging the linear photon attenuation coefficient at two x-ray energies and the RSP directly, respectively. The improved RSP accuracy may eventually yield reduced safety margins. Furthermore the additional tissue composition information available from DECT shows promise in improving aspects of in-room beam monitoring, which is crucial to tackle non-RSP uncertainties related to patient positioning or organ motion. |
| 10:00 - 10:30 | Antoni Rucinski (Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland) "GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo code for fast dose recalculation in proton beam therapy" GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo code for fast dose recalculation in proton beam therapyGPU-accelerated Monte Carlo code for fast dose recalculation in proton beam therapy Proton therapy has rapidly grown in the past thirty years and it has become a superior alternative to conventional radiotherapy for certain clinical indications. Proton therapy offers high dose selectivity due to the protons’ distinct depth dose profile which potentially allows to deliver high dose to the tumor while sparing healthy surrounding tissue. Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, which take explicitly into account all the details in the interaction of particles with human tissues, are considered to be the most reliable tool to reproduce the complexity of mixed field irradiation in a non-homogeneous environment. The advent of general-purpose programming GPU cards prompted the development of trimmed-down MC-based dose engines, which can significantly reduce the plan recalculation time with respect to standard MC codes on CPU hardware. In this contribution, a GPU-accelerated MC treatment planning system (TPS), Fred (Schiavi et al. 2017, submitted to PMB) developed by the University of Rome will be presented. The results of its validation against the FLUKA MC code will be shown for lateral and depth-dose distributions of proton pencil beams as well as for patient dose distributions. The actual status of the implementation in Fred of the experimentally measured physical beam model data used for treatment planning at the Bronowice Cyclotron Center (CCB) in Krakow will be reported. Different proton radiobiological models available in the literature are currently being implemented in Fred to bring biologically optimized treatment planning for proton therapy closer to the clinical practice. This work will allow to refine and compare pre-defined as well as user-defined radiobiological models and the related biological dose towards an improved patient treatment at CCB. |
| 10:30 - 11:00 | COFFEE BREAK |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | Fiedler Fine (Institute of Radiation Physics, Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany) "Prompt Gamma Imaging in Hadron Therapy" Prompt Gamma Imaging in Hadron TherapyRadiation therapy is an important treatment modality in cancer therapy. New radiation species, like protons and light ions have the potential to increase tumor conformality of irradiation. Because of the way these particles deposit energy on their path through tissue they allow for an increased dose deposition in the tumor volume and reduce the damage of the surrounding normal tissue. Such high precision radiotherapy treatment requires efficient quality assurance techniques. Small changes in the irradiated volume will lead to a mismatch of the deposited dose maximum and the tumor. This causes missing dose in the tumor volume and potential damage to healthy tissue. Therefore, a non-invasive, in-situ dose verification system is highly desirable. Beside a large experience with monitoring ion irradiation by Positron Emission Tomography another approach is based on measuring the prompt gamma rays following nuclear deexcitation. Several methods are under development or have been even used for patient cases. The talk will give an overview on the methods and will focus on Compton camera development. |
| 11:30 - 12:00 | Aleksandra Wrońska (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland) "Experimental verification of key cross sections for prompt-gamma imaging in proton therapy" Experimental verification of key cross sections for prompt-gamma imaging in proton therapyResults of a precision investigation of the prompt-gamma emission from phantoms irradiated with a proton beam will be presented. Measurements were conducted with a novel setup allowing precise selection of the investigated depth in the phantom, featuring three different materials composed of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, differing by their stoichometric ratios. We studied details of the dependence of prompt-gamma yields on beam energy, detection angle and elemental composition of irradiated phantom. The analysis was focused on the most pronounced transitions: 4.44 MeV in C-12 and 6.13 MeV in O-16. The results are presented in form of spectroscopically resolved profiles of the prompt-gamma yield as a function of depth. We compare the profiles obtained under various irradiation conditions, with emphasis on the shape of the distal fall-off. The results are also compared to calculations including different cross-section models. Obtained profiles are in agreement with the results of calculations exploiting published cross-section data, but the comparison with the TALYS model shows discrepancies. Consequences for prompt-gamma imaging are discussed. |
| 12:00 - 12:30 | Mattia Fontana (Institut de Physique Nucleaire de Lyon (IPNL), France) "Versatile Compton camera for high energy gamma rays: Monte Carlo comparison with Anger camera for medical imaging" Versatile Compton camera for high energy gamma rays: Monte Carlo comparison with Anger camera for medical imagingSingle Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) is at present one of the major techniques for non-invasive diagnostics in nuclear medicine. Almost the whole clinical routine is based on collimated cameras, originally proposed by Anger. Due to the presence of mechanical collimation, detection efficiency and energy acceptance are limited by the system geometrical features. In order to overcome these limitations, the application of Compton cameras for SPECT is being investigated for several years. A Compton camera prototype is at present under development by our collaboration, for high energy gamma detection in ion beam therapy monitoring and nuclear medicine. We propose in this study to compare our detector to a commercial Anger device, the GE Healthcare Infinia system, through Monte Carlo simulations (GATE v7.1 and Geant4 9.6 respectively). Given the possible introduction of new radio-emitters at higher energies intrinsically allowed by the Compton camera detection principle, the detectors are exposed to point-like sources at increasing primary gamma energies, from actual isotopes already proposed for SPECT applications. The detector performances are studied in terms of radial event distribution, detection efficiency and final image, obtained by gamma transmission analysis for the Anger system, and with an iterative LM-MLEM algorithm for the Compton reconstruction. The Compton camera prototype is also characterized in terms of rate of random coincidences and at different energy resolutions. Although the rate of random coincidences appears to be close to 50% at clinical source activities, preliminary results show for the Compton camera a detection efficiency increased of a factor greater than an order of magnitude, associated with an enhanced spatial resolution for energies beyond 500 keV. We discuss then the proven advantages of Compton camera application with particular focus on dose delivered to the patient, examination time and spatial uncertainties. |
| 12:30 - 14:00 | LUNCH (in Collegium Novum) |
Session no. 9 | |
| 14:00 - 14:30 | Ewa Stępień (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland) "Use of systemic approach in radiation biology" Use of systemic approach in radiation biologyVarious biological systems are characterized with different radiation sensitivity to different damaging factors. The basic idea justified in theoretical and experimental models, confirms “the target theory”. The principle of a target theory assumes that radiation sensitivity correlates with chemical and morphological characteristics, the size and type of the sensitive structure. The target of enzymes was shown to be the entire molecule, for viruses or bacteria, the total deoxy- or ribonucleic acids (DNA or RNA) strands, in the higher Eukaryotic cells, the specific of arrangements of DNA chromosomes and epigenetic modifications reinforce the system in the target complexity. In my lecture, I would like to introduce the new theoretical and experimental framework for understanding the complexity of biological systems, what we currently know about the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms regulating metabolic and genetic response to radiation on the cellular level with highlighting the differences between a normal and a cancer cell. |
| 14:30 - 15:00 | Caterina Monini (Universit?? Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France) "NanOxTM , a new multiscale model to predict ion RBE in hadrontherapy" NanOxTM , a new multiscale model to predict ion RBE in hadrontherapyHadrontherapy is becoming an increasingly attractive modality for cancer treatment due to the favourable depth-dose profile of ions and high relative biological effectiveness (RBE) in the tumor region. Since RBE depends on multiple parameters related both to the irradiation beam and the cell properties, biophysical models are essential to comply with the demands of a clinical environment. NanOxTM addresses some of the flaws in the models currently implemented in the treatment planning systems, and exhibits many innovative features. The model takes into account the fully stochastic nature of ionizing radiation by considering dose fluctuations both at nanometric and micrometric scales, and introduces the concept of chemical dose. The latter represents the induction of cell death by “non-local” events as the accumulation of cellular oxidative stress or sub-lethal lesions induced by radical species. Such “non-local” events are complementary to the “local” events, which take place at a very localized scale and are considered as lethal since can singly cause cell death. NanOxTM predictions for V79 and HSG cell lines irradiated by photons, protons and carbon ions are in good agreement with the experimental data. The model is able to describe the effectiveness of ions, including the overkill effect at high LET values. Moreover, the typical shoulder in cell survival curves is reproduced owing to the introduction of the chemical dose which varies with LET. The promising results obtained with NanOxTM stress its potential in the context of hadrontherapy, and may lead in the future to apply it to neutron beam therapy or photoactivation of nanoparticles. Despite a rigorous mathematical approach, its implementation remains simple and compatible with the constraints of clinical application. The model relies in fact on the fit of a reduced set of parameters, and its pragmatic architecture facilitates improvements and optimizations. |
| 15:00 - 15:30 | Mateusz Sitarz (Heavy Ion Laboratory, Warsaw University, Poland) "Research on the production of the medical radioisotopes at Heavy Ion Laboratory" Research on the production of the medical radioisotopes at Heavy Ion LaboratoryMany radioactive isotopes are commonly used in medicine, both in diagnosis and therapy. However, steady development of nuclear medicine demands the application of new medical radioisotopes. The convenient properties of those isotopes usually come with a price of a difficult production technology or troublesome chemistry. During the presentation I will mainly discuss the first part – the research on the production of upcoming medical radioisotopes, and I will outline the second one. Particularly interesting nowadays are radioisotopes of scandium (Sc). 43Sc is a promising PET radioisotope; 44Sc can be used in three-photon PET, while 44mSc/44Sc serves as in-vivo generator. Their production routes and efficiencies were studied in HIL with 32 MeV ? (U-200P cyclotron) and 16 MeV p (PETtrace cyclotron) beams. Additionally, ß- emitting 47Sc has a therapeutic effect and can work simultaneously with previously mentioned diagnostic Sc radioisotopes in a theranostic pair. Its production was studied using 28 MeV proton beam (C30 cyclotron) in NCNR in Świerk. Our results indicate that with the use of cyclotrons all Sc radioisotopes can be produced with intensities and purities acceptable for clinical applications. |
| 15:30 - 16:00 | Marek Pruszyński (Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology, Poland) "Scandium radionuclides in nuclear medicine application" Scandium radionuclides in nuclear medicine applicationDevelopment of radiometal-based radiopharmaceuticals increased rapidly in the past decade, particularly for oncologic imaging purposes. There are several positron emitting radionuclides, like 11C (t1/2 = 20.3 min), 18F (t1/2 = 110 min), 68Ga (t1/2 = 68 min), 64Cu (t1/2 = 12.7 h) or 89Zr (t1/2 = 78.4 h) that are currenty used in medical application. However, these radionuclides have some limitations, mostly short half-life, high cost of production, relatively low positron branching ratio, complicated organic chemistry or co-emission of high gammas or ß- that contribute to additional unnecessary dose delivered to patients. Recently, several scandium radionuclides were proposed as an alternative for PET imaging using radio-metalated peptides and other small-molecular-weight biomolecules. 44Sc decays by the emission of low-energy positrons (Eß+av = 632 keV, I = 94.3%) comparable to 68Ga, but with a half-life (t1/2 = 3.97 h) that is almost four-fold longer. Due to the co-emission of photon with energy of 1157 keV and a characteristic emission time of few picoseconds it was proposed as a unique candidate for the new method of 3?-coincidence imaging, a method that substantially improves the spatial resolution of PET techniques. However, also due to these high-energy ?-rays (E? = 1157 keV, I = 99.9%; 1499 keV, I = 0.9%) special care has to be taken into consideration with regard to radiation dose to the patients and clinical staff. The alternative can be 43Sc (t1/2 = 3.89 h, I = 88.1%), which has similar properties to 44Sc, but co-emitted ?-rays are much lower (E? = 373 keV, I = 23%). The long-lived isomer 44mSc (t1/2 = 58.6 h) decays by internal transition (98.8%) to the ground state 44Sc with the main ?-emission 271 keV. The 44mSc/44Sc tandem is considered to be used as an in vivo generator for short-lived 44Sc. Another scandium radionuclide, 47Sc (t1/2 = 3.35 d) with its moderate energy of ß- emissions (162 keV) may be useful for targeted radiotherapy of small tumors. Additionally, its photon emission of 159 keV (68%) is ideal for imaging of radiopharmaceutical accumulation in vivo on SPECT cameras. 44Sc can be obtained from 44Ti/44Sc generator; however, 44Ti (t1/2 = 60 y) can be produced only at a small number of facilities in the world, with limited yields and at very high costs. Therefore, cyclotron production of 44Sc by proton irradiation of natural calcium targets was proposed as an inexpensive alternative. Recently, utilization of enriched 44Ca targets was proposed to increase radionuclide purity of the produced 44Sc using a low-energy cyclotrons (e.g. < 16 MeV). Similarly, the deuteron beams were used to produce the 44m,gSc isomeric pair by the ARRONAX group. 43Sc can be produced either by the 43Ca(p,n), or 42Ca(d,n) reactions, but unfortunately the cost of enriched calcium targets is prohibitive. A more promising method of 43Sc production is alpha irradiation of a natural calcium target via the 40Ca(?,p) and 40Ca(?,n) channels. The high amount of therapeutic 47Sc can be obtained in nuclear reactor in the 47Ti(n,p)47Sc reaction and also in cyclotron via the 44Ca(?,p)47Sc channel with an isotopically enriched 44Ca target. The wide availability of scandium radionuclides with diverse nuclear properties in terms of decay half-lives and emitted particles, makes it ideal for the development of “theranostic” probes, where the same molecules labeled with two different scandium radionuclides could be used for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals of 44Sc based on short peptides (e.g. octreotide with affinity to receptors on neuroendocrine tumors or Glu-NH-CO-NH-Lys(Ahx) for prostate cancer) or small proteins (e.g. affibodies or nanobodies with affinity to HER2 receptors on breast and ovarian carcinomas) were already pre-clinically tested. Correspondingly, studies on labeling of monoclonal antibodies or their fragments with 47Sc and potential of these radiopharmaceuticals for targeted radiotherapy are ongoing. This lecture will present an overview on production of scandium radionuclides and their radiopharmaceuticals based on our experience from the Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology and research performed by other groups all over the world. This work was supported by the National Science Center Poland under grant 2013/09/D/ST4/03791 and National Center for Applied Research of Poland Nr PBS3/A9/28/2015. |
| 16:00 - 16:30 | COFFEE BREAK |
| 16:30 - 17:00 | Jean Pierre Cussonneau (Subatech, France) "3 gamma medical imaging with a liquid xenon Compton camera and Scandium-44 radionuclide" 3 gamma medical imaging with a liquid xenon Compton camera and Scandium-44 radionuclideThe development of a liquid xenon Compton camera called XEMIS2 (XEnon Medical Imaging System) is a step forward to a new type of medical imaging based on scandium-44 radionuclide emitting two annihilation g-rays and a third high energy g-ray simultaneously. The single phase TPC (Time Projection Chamber) under construction, containing nearly 200 kg of xenon, is designed to measure every Compton interaction in the active area with a sub-millimeter position resolution and a good energy resolution of 4% on 511 keV photopeak. The intersection of the Compton cone from the 3rd g-ray with the line of response from the annihilation g-rays allows to localize with ~1 cm precision the radionuclide along this line. The large field of view of such a liquid xenon camera associated to the 3 gamma imaging technique will provide a good quality image with low injected activity. XEMIS2 will be installed at the Nantes University Hospital in order to demonstrate its capability to image small animals injected with only 20 kBq and 20 mn acquisition time. To achieve this performance, a precise measurement of the ionization signal is provided by a pixelized anode, shielded by a Frisch Grid and read out by a low noise front end electronics. In addition, a new cryogenic subsystem and a new purification loop have been tested, allowing safe recovery of xenon in liquid phase at flow rates of about tons/hour. |
| 17:00 - 17:30 | Daria Kamińska (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland) "3-gamma tomography with J-PET" 3-gamma tomography with J-PETProspects of using the J-PET detector [1,2,3] for multi-photon positron emission tomography imaging will be presented. Following cases will be discussed: improving the standard TOF-PET spatial resolution by using information from de-excitation photon and imaging technique based on ortho-positronium annihilation into three-photons. The novelty of the latter technique in medical application is based on the fact that the properties of ortho-positronium atom depend strongly on the size of the free volumes between molecules and thus they are connected with the morphology of the cells and may be used as an indicator of the stage of development of metabolic disorders [4]. Possibilities of multi-photon and positronium imaging with J-PET will be presented and discussed. Part of the presentation will be based on the recent results of simulations [5,6]. References [1] P. Moskal et al., Phys. Med. Biol. 61 (2016) 2025 [2] P. Moskal et al., Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 764 (2014) 317 [3] P. Moskal et al., Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 775 (2015) 54 [4] P. Moskal et al., patent application: PCT/EP2014/068378 (2013) [5] A. Gajos et al., Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 819 (2016) 54 [6] D. Kamińska et al., Eur. Phys. J. C 76 (2016) 445 |
| 18:30 - 20:00 | Public lecture in Collegium Novum Main Aula (Supervisory Professor at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany) In 1995 Prof. Walter Oelert and his group has created and observed at CERN eleven antihydrogen atoms. These were first anti-matter atoms registered in the laboratory by human kind! (? see details) |
Session no. 10 | |
| 08:30 - 09:00 | Ihor Kadenko (Department of Nuclear Physics, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine) "New direction in Nuclear Physics originated from the neutron activation technique application" New direction in Nuclear Physics originated from the neutron activation technique applicationThe neutron activation technique is still one of the powerful instruments to solve both research and practical tasks in Nuclear Physics. Last ten years Department of Nuclear Physics, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, runs the project dealing with the determination of neutron-induced reaction cross-sections with application of in-home designed and manufactured neutron generator NG-300 and the neutron-activation technique. In this talk the main results of reaction cross-section measurements on Tb, Er, Yb, Lu, Ta nuclei for (n,x) reactions with 2.5??14 MeV incident neutrons were presented and discussed. It is also shown how the absolutely new direction may appear to address one of the fundamental problems in Nuclear Physics, unsolved during last 70 years. |
| 09:00 - 09:25 | Michał Silarski (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland) "Neutron Actvation Analysis in an underwater environment: Status of the SABAT project" Neutron Actvation Analysis in an underwater environment: Status of the SABAT projectThe Neutron Activation Analysis plays an exceptional role in the modern nuclear engineering, especially in view of hazardous substances and threads detection. However, in the aquatic environment, there are still many problems to be solved for effective usage of this technique. We present status of SABAT, one of the projects aiming at the construction of an underwater device for non-invasive thread detection based on the NAA. |
| 09:25 - 09:50 | Anzori Georgadze (Kiev Institute for Nuclear Research, Ukraine) "Monte Carlo simulation of active neutron interrogation system developed for detection of illicit materials." Monte Carlo simulation of active neutron interrogation system developed for detection of illicit materials.Nowadays, the current threat of international terrorism is set to a severe level, demanding worldwide enhanced security. Radioactive materials that could be fashioned into a radiation dispersal device typically emit gamma rays, while fissile materials such as uranium and plutonium emit both neutrons and gamma rays via spontaneous or induced fission. Therefore, the detection and identification of hazardous materials has become increasingly important. We present the results of GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulation of an active neutron interrogation system based on highly segmented neutron/gamma-ray detector and pulsed neutron generator. This system is capable of detecting and imaging radioactive and special nuclear materials, explosives and drugs. The segmented scintillation detector works as a scatter camera, allowing selection of a neutron or gamma ray events that undergo multiple interaction in detector blocks for radioactive source localization. The detector consist of blocks made of plastic scintillator which are working as a scatter and blocs of CsI, used as an absorber, which has to be efficient to detect the characteristic gamma radiation for the identification. In addition, covering of plastic scintillation blocks with Gd containing film will allow detection of scattered-neutron recoils which provide a tomographic image. Because of this imaging capability background events can be significantly rejected, decreasing the number of events required for high confidence detection and thereby greatly improving its sensitivity. A scatter imager for the detection of shielded radiological materials has been conceptualized, simulated, and refined to maximize sensitivity while minimizing cost. |
| 09:50 - 10:15 | Vahagn Ivanyan (AANSL(Yerevan Physics Institute), Armenia) "GEANT4 simulations of a beam shaping assembly design and optimization for thermal/epithermal neutrons" GEANT4 simulations of a beam shaping assembly design and optimization for thermal/epithermal neutronsThe possibility of obtaining thermal/epithermal neutron beams using external protons from cyclotron C18/18 is studied based on GEANT4 simulations. The design and optimization characteristics of the beam shaping assembly for neutron flux from thick 9Be target have studied by GEANT4 program. To obtain the thermal/epithermal neutron beam appropriate materials for moderator and reflector with optimal thicknesses were determined. In this model of the GEANT4 simulation included two programs for physics lists. These are the one of the most important parts of the creation the correct model, which will as much as possible closer to the future experiment. The formed beam of thermal/epithermal neutron beams will be used not only in fundamental research but also for practical purposes, in particular, to explore the possibility of applying it in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). |
| 10:15 - 10:35 | COFFEE BREAK |
| 10:35 - 11:00 | Erika De Lucia (Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Italy) "KLOE-2 Inner Tracker: the First Cylindrical GEM Detector" KLOE-2 Inner Tracker: the First Cylindrical GEM DetectorKLOE-2 at the e$^+$e$^-$ DA$Phi$NE collider, is the main experiment of the INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (LNF) and is the first high-energy experiment using the GEM technology with a cylindrical geometry, a novel idea developed at LNF exploiting the kapton properties to build a light and compact tracking system. The experiment is the continuation of KLOE, upgraded with state-of-the-art technology to improve its discovery potential, with a new physics program mainly focused on the study of K short, $eta$ and $eta^{ }$ decays as well as on kaon interferometry, test of discrete symmetries, and search for physics beyond the Standard Model. Four concentric cylindrical triple-GEM detectors compose the Inner Tracker which has been inserted around the interaction region and before the inner wall of the pre-existing KLOE Drift Chamber, at distances from 130 mm to 205 mm, to improve the resolution on decay vertices close to the interaction point (IP) reconstructed from low-momentum charged secondaries. State-of-the-art solutions have been expressly developed or tuned for this project: single-mask GEM etching, multi-layer XV patterned readout circuit, PEEK spacer grid, GASTONE front-end board, a custom 64-channel ASIC with digital output, and the Global Interface Board for data collection, with a configurable FPGA architecture and Gigabit Ethernet. Alignment and calibration of a cylindrical GEM detector was never done before and represents one of the challenging activities of the experiment. The first set of alignment and calibration parameters obtained with cosmic-ray muons has been used with Bhabha scattering events to validate the integrated tracking using both Inner Tracker and Drift Chamber information, exploiting the Kalman filter technique. Data taking campaign started in November 2014, reached 3.5 fb$^{-1}$ integrated luminosity and is presently ongoing with the aim of collecting more than 5 fb$^{-1}$ by March 2018. The Inner Tracker detector operation, calibration and performance will be presented. |
| 11:00 - 11:25 | Agnieszka Obłąkowska-Mucha (AGH University of Science and Technology, Poland) "Silicon Detectors for High Luminosity Colliders (on behalf of RD50?Collaboration)" Silicon Detectors for High Luminosity Colliders (on behalf of RD50?Collaboration)The particle radiation levels achieved in forthcoming high luminosity?experiments influence the properties of silicon trackers beyond the?limits of the detectors currently employed. All silicon central trackers?are being studied in ATLAS, CMS and LHCb, with extremely radiation hard?silicon sensors to be employed on the innermost layers. Within the RD50?Collaboration, a massive R&D program is underway across experimental?boundaries to develop silicon sensors with sufficient radiation?tolerance. We will present results of several detector technologies and?silicon materials at radiation levels corresponding to HL-LHC fluences.?The experimental techniques for defects characterisation and radiation?monitoring methods will also be presented.? |
| 11:25 - 11:50 | Alessandro Scordo (Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Italy) "VOXES, a new high resolution X-ray spectrometer for low yield measurements in high background environments" VOXES, a new high resolution X-ray spectrometer for low yield measurements in high background environmentsThe VOXES projects goal is to realise the first prototype of a high resolution and high precision X-ray Spectrometer, using Highly Annealed Pyrolitic Graphite (HAPG) crystals combined with fast and triggerable position detectors. ?The aim is to deliver a cost effective system having an energy resolution at the level of eV for X rays energies from about 2 keV up to tens of keV, able to perform sub-eV precision measurements, able to work also in high background environments. ?VOXES will compete in performances with the newly developed Transition Edge Sensors (TES), which achieve eV resolution measurements for X rays of few keV, with the drawback that TES have high costs, extremely reduced active area, rather long recovery time and are difficult to be handled, due to the massive cryogenic system needed. ?The VOXES system will be qualified by performing measurements of exotic atoms at the PSI laboratory and/or DAFNE and/or J-PARC laboratories. There are many applications of the proposed spectrometer, going from fundamental physics (precision measurements of exotic atoms at DAFNE collider and J-PARC; precision measurement of the K - mass, solving the existing puzzle; quantum mechanics tests) to synchrotron radiation and X-FEL applications, astronomy, medicine and industry. |
| 11:50 - 12:10 | COFFEE BREAK |
| 12:10 - 12:35 | Giancarlo Sportelli (Universit?? di Pisa, Italy) "Development of data acquisition systems for dedicated PET and PET/MR applications" Development of data acquisition systems for dedicated PET and PET/MR applicationsIn PET, we usually refer to data acquisition system as the part that in the imaging pipeline stands between the PET detectors and the image reconstruction software. Its main role is to interpret the raw output of the photosensors and to store the LOR data for further processing. Data acquisition systems are generally subject to a wide variety of application-specific constraints. New dedicated PET applications and multimodal PET/MRI embodiments introduced recently new types of constraints and required new approaches to the design of data acquisition systems. In this presentation, the acquisition systems of three dedicated PET systems developed at the University of Pisa will be discussed. The involved applications will be PET monitoring in hadron therapy and PET/MRI imaging for brain studies. The focus of the discussion will be on the relationship between the application-specific constraints, the available design choices that derived from them and the technological evolution followed. The latest results obtained with each system will be also reviewed and discussed. |
| 12:35 - 13:00 | Mihael Makek (Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Croatia) "Performance of scintillation pixel detectors with MPPC read-out and digital signal processing" Performance of scintillation pixel detectors with MPPC read-out and digital signal processingWe have investigated properties of pixelated arrays of LFS and CeBr3 scintilators. Two arrays of 4x4 pixels with dimensions of 3 mm x 3 mm x 20 mm were read out by multi-pixel photon counter (MPPC) arrays with the corresponding size of elements of 3 mm x 3 mm. The amplified signals were acquired using fast 3.2 GS/s digitizers and stored for offline analysis. We have also performed extensive GEANT4 simulations of the scintillation pixel arrays tuned to reproduce the observed energy spectra. We will present measurements of detector performance including energy and time resolution as well as detection efficiencies evaluated from the simulation. Based on the simulation results we will also discuss the prospects of building larger systems using these scintillation materials. |
| 13:00 - 13:25 | Anna Wieczorek (Jagiellonian University in Krak??w, Poland) "Novel plastic scintillators for the hybrid J-PET/MR tomograph" Novel plastic scintillators for the hybrid J-PET/MR tomographA novel plastic scintillator, referred to as J-PET scintillator, has been developed at the Jagiellonian University. The novelty of the concept lies in application of 2-(4-styrylphenyl)benzoxazole as a wavelength shifter. To date, the substance has not been used as a scintillator dopant. The novel scintillator and use of 2-(4-styrylphenyl)benzoxazole are a subject of patent application [1]. The chemical compound shifts the maximum of emission spectrum towards longer wavelengths making the scintillator more suitable for detectors based on new generation photoelectric converters, silicon photomultipliers. They are becoming more popular because of larger quantum efficiency in comparison to vacuum photomultipliers, smaller sizes and insensitivity to magnetic field. Light yield of the developed scintillator is similar to light yield of BC-420 plastic scintillator, manufactured by Saint-Gobain [2]. Emission spectrum of novel scintillators is broaden and better adjusted to silicon photomultipliers in comparison to BC-420. The shape of J-PET emission spectrum is favorable also from the point of view of the absorption coefficient, which decreases with increasing wavelength. Rise and decay times of the novel scintillator are comparable with corresponding parameters of commercial scintillators. Properties of the novel J-PET scintillator in view of application in hybrid J-PET/MR tomograph will be presented [3]. Comparison of J-PET scintillator to state-of-the-art commercial plastic scintillators will be shown as well. References: [1] Wieczorek A., Danel A., Uchacz T., Moskal P., (2015) patent application: Use of 2-(4-styrylphenyl benzoxazole) and plastic scintillator, PCT/PL2015/050022 [2] http://www.crystals.saint-gobain.com/products/plastic-scintillators [3] Moskal, P., (2014) patent: A hybrid TOF-PET/MRI tomograph, US 20160209483 A1 |
| 13:25 - 14:45 | LUNCH (in Collegium Novum) |
Session no. 11 | |
| 14:45 - 15:15 | Ryugo Hayano (The University of Tokyo, Japan) "The antiprotonic helium" The antiprotonic heliumAntiprotonic helium is an exotic 3-body neutral system consisting of a helium nucleus, an electron, and an antiproton. At CERN s antiproton decelerator (AD), we (ASACUSA collaboration) has been working on the precision spectroscopy of this interesting system, with which we have succeeded to determine the antiproton-to-electron mass ration as precise as the proton-to-electron mass ratio. |
| 15:15 - 15:45 | Kenta Itahashi (Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science, RIKEN, Japan) "Status and plans of pionic atoms spectroscopy at RIBF " Status and plans of pionic atoms spectroscopy at RIBFWe report present status and future plans of pionic atom spectroscopy at RIBF. We have conducted the spectroscopy by measuring missing mass of Sn(d,3He) reactions near the pion emission threshold. We observed peak structures assigned to 1s and 2p pion bound states formation. Elaborate analysis showed reaction-angle dependence of the formation cross sections. The measured data have been analyzed to deduce pion-nucleus interaction, which leads to setting constraints in the evaluated chiral condensate at normal nuclear density. |
| 15:45 - 16:15 | Leonid Afanasyev (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia) "Study of hadronic hydrogen-like atoms in DIRAC experiment at PS CERN" Study of hadronic hydrogen-like atoms in DIRAC experiment at PS CERNProduction of hadronic hydrogen-like atoms at high energy collisions and method of their observation are considered. Main results of DIRAC experiment on observation and lifetime measurement of atoms formed by pairs of charged pion-pion and pion-Kaon are presented. |
| 16:15 - 16:45 | Walter Oelert (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany) "ELENA: antiproton decelerator at CERN" ELENA: antiproton decelerator at CERNELENA (the Extra Low ENergy Antiproton ring) is a CERN project aiming to construct a small 30 m circumference synchrotron to further decelerate anti-protons from the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) from 5.3 MeV down to 100 keV. Controlled deceleration in a synchrotron equipped with an electron cooler to reduce the emittances in all three planes will allow the existing AD experiments to increase substantially their anti-proton capture efficiencies and render new experiments possible. In that sense ELENA is an upgrade of the AD at CERN and is devoted to experiments for physics using low energy anti-protons. Features of the ring and advantages for the experiments will be presented. |
| 16:45 - 17:00 | Closing of the Conference |
| 19:15 | Departure from Auditorium Maximum to BARNPARTY (? see details) |
