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- Ahdida, C., et al.
(author)
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Fast simulation of muons produced at the SHiP experiment using Generative Adversarial Networks
- 2019
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In: Journal of Instrumentation. - : IOP PUBLISHING LTD. - 1748-0221. ; 14
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper presents a fast approach to simulating muons produced in interactions of the SPS proton beams with the target of the SHiP experiment. The SHIP experiment will be able to search for new long-lived particles produced in a 400 GeV/c SPS proton beam dump and which travel distances between fifty metres and tens of kilometers. The SHiP detector needs to operate under ultra-low background conditions and requires large simulated samples of muon induced background processes. Through the use of Generative Adversarial Networks it is possible to emulate the simulation of the interaction of 400 GeV/c proton beams with the SHiP target, an otherwise computationally intensive process. For the simulation requirements of the SHiP experiment, generative networks are capable of approximating the full simulation of the dense fixed target, offering a speed increase by a factor of O(10(6)). To evaluate the performance of such an approach, comparisons of the distributions of reconstructed muon momenta in SHiP's spectrometer between samples using the full simulation and samples produced through generative models are presented. The methods discussed in this paper can be generalised and applied to modelling any non-discrete multi-dimensional distribution.
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12. |
- Ahdida, C., et al.
(author)
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The magnet of the scattering and neutrino detector for the SHiP experiment at CERN
- 2020
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In: Journal of Instrumentation. - 1748-0221. ; 15:01
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP) experiment proposal at CERN demands a dedicated dipole magnet for its scattering and neutrino detector. This requires a very large volume to be uniformly magnetized at B > 1.2 T, with constraints regarding the inner instrumented volume as well as the external region, where no massive structures are allowed and only an extremely low stray field is admitted. In this paper we report the main technical challenges and the relevant design options providing a comprehensive design for the magnet of the SHiP Scattering and Neutrino Detector.
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13. |
- Ahdida, C., et al.
(author)
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Sensitivity of the SHiP experiment to Heavy Neutral Leptons
- 2019
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In: Journal of High Energy Physics (JHEP). - 1126-6708 .- 1029-8479. ; :4
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Heavy Neutral Leptons (HNLs) are hypothetical particles predicted by many extensions of the Standard Model. These particles can, among other things, explain the origin of neutrino masses, generate the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe and provide a dark matter candidate. The SHiP experiment will be able to search for HNLs produced in decays of heavy mesons and travelling distances ranging between O(50 m) and tens of kilometers before decaying. We present the sensitivity of the SHiP experiment to a number of HNL's benchmark models and provide a way to calculate the SHiP's sensitivity to HNLs for arbitrary patterns of flavour mixings. The corresponding tools and data files are also made publicly available.
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14. |
- Ahdida, C., et al.
(author)
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The experimental facility for the Search for Hidden Particles at the CERN SPS
- 2019
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In: Journal of Instrumentation. - : Institute of Physics Publishing (IOPP). - 1748-0221. ; 14
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP) Collaboration has shown that the CERN SPS accelerator with its 400 GeV/c proton beam offers a unique opportunity to explore the Hidden Sector [1-3]. The proposed experiment is an intensity frontier experiment which is capable of searching for hidden particles through both visible decays and through scattering signatures from recoil of electrons or nuclei. The high-intensity experimental facility developed by the SHiP Collaboration is based on a number of key features and developments which provide the possibility of probing a large part of the parameter space for a wide range of models with light long-lived super-weakly interacting particles with masses up to O(10) GeV/c(2) in an environment of extremely clean background conditions. This paper describes the proposal for the experimental facility together with the most important feasibility studies. The paper focuses on the challenging new ideas behind the beam extraction and beam delivery, the proton beam dump, and the suppression of beam-induced background.
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15. |
- Ahdida, C., et al.
(author)
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Measurement of the muon flux from 400 GeV/c protons interacting in a thick molybdenum/tungsten target
- 2020
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In: European Physical Journal C. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-6044 .- 1434-6052. ; 80:3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The SHiP experiment is proposed to search for very weakly interacting particles beyond the Standard Model which are produced in a 400 GeV/c proton beam dump at the CERN SPS. About 1011muons per spill will be produced in the dump. To design the experiment such that the muon-induced background is minimized, a precise knowledge of the muon spectrum is required. To validate the muon flux generated by our Pythia and GEANT4 based Monte Carlo simulation (FairShip), we have measured the muon flux emanating from a SHiP-like target at the SPS. This target, consisting of 13 interaction lengths of slabs of molybdenum and tungsten, followed by a 2.4 m iron hadron absorber was placed in the H4 400 GeV/c proton beam line. To identify muons and to measure the momentum spectrum, a spectrometer instrumented with drift tubes and a muon tagger were used. During a 3-week period a dataset for analysis corresponding to (3.27 +/- 0.07)x1011protons on target was recorded. This amounts to approximatively 1% of a SHiP spill.
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16. |
- Ahdida, C., et al.
(author)
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Sensitivity of the SHiP experiment to dark photons decaying to a pair of charged particles
- 2021
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In: European Physical Journal C. - : Springer Nature. - 1434-6044 .- 1434-6052. ; 81:5
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Dark photons are hypothetical massive vector particles that could mix with ordinary photons. The simplest theoretical model is fully characterised by only two parameters: the mass of the dark photon m(gamma)D and its mixing parameter with the photon, epsilon. The sensitivity of the SHiP detector is reviewed for dark photons in the mass range between 0.002 and 10 GeV. Different productionmechanisms are simulated, with the dark photons decaying to pairs of visible fermions, including both leptons and quarks. Exclusion contours are presented and compared with those of past experiments. The SHiP detector is expected to have a unique sensitivity for m. D ranging between 0.8 and 3.3(-0.5)(+0.2) GeV, and epsilon(2) ranging between 10(-11) and 10(-17).
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17. |
- Ahdida, C., et al.
(author)
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Sensitivity of the SHiP experiment to light dark matter
- 2021
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In: Journal of High Energy Physics (JHEP). - : Springer Nature. - 1126-6708 .- 1029-8479. ; :4
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Dark matter is a well-established theoretical addition to the Standard Model supported by many observations in modern astrophysics and cosmology. In this context, the existence of weakly interacting massive particles represents an appealing solution to the observed thermal relic in the Universe. Indeed, a large experimental campaign is ongoing for the detection of such particles in the sub-GeV mass range. Adopting the benchmark scenario for light dark matter particles produced in the decay of a dark photon, with αD = 0.1 and mA′ = 3mχ, we study the potential of the SHiP experiment to detect such elusive particles through its Scattering and Neutrino detector (SND). In its 5-years run, corresponding to 2 · 1020 protons on target from the CERN SPS, we find that SHiP will improve the current limits in the mass range for the dark matter from about 1 MeV to 300 MeV. In particular, we show that SHiP will probe the thermal target for Majorana candidates in most of this mass window and even reach the Pseudo-Dirac thermal relic.
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18. |
- Ahdida, C., et al.
(author)
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The SHiP experiment at the proposed CERN SPS Beam Dump Facility
- 2022
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In: European Physical Journal C. - : Springer Nature. - 1434-6044 .- 1434-6052. ; 82:5
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP) Collaboration has proposed a general-purpose experimental facility operating in beam-dump mode at the CERN SPS accelerator to search for light, feebly interacting particles. In the baseline configuration, the SHiP experiment incorporates two complementary detectors. The upstream detector is designed for recoil signatures of light dark matter (LDM) scattering and for neutrino physics, in particular with tau neutrinos. It consists of a spectrometer magnet housing a layered detector system with high-density LDM/neutrino target plates, emulsion-film technology and electronic high-precision tracking. The total detector target mass amounts to about eight tonnes. The downstream detector system aims at measuring visible decays of feebly interacting particles to both fully reconstructed final states and to partially reconstructed final states with neutrinos, in a nearly background-free environment. The detector consists of a 50m\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\mathrm { \,m}$$\end{document} long decay volume under vacuum followed by a spectrometer and particle identification system with a rectangular acceptance of 5 m in width and 10 m in height. Using the high-intensity beam of 400GeV\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\,\mathrm {GeV}$$\end{document} protons, the experiment aims at profiting from the 4x1019\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$4\times 10<^>{19}$$\end{document} protons per year that are currently unexploited at the SPS, over a period of 5-10 years. This allows probing dark photons, dark scalars and pseudo-scalars, and heavy neutral leptons with GeV-scale masses in the direct searches at sensitivities that largely exceed those of existing and projected experiments. The sensitivity to light dark matter through scattering reaches well below the dark matter relic density limits in the range from a few MeV/c2\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathrm {\,MeV\!/}c<^>2}$$\end{document} up to 100 MeV-scale masses, and it will be possible to study tau neutrino interactions with unprecedented statistics. This paper describes the SHiP experiment baseline setup and the detector systems, together with performance results from prototypes in test beams, as it was prepared for the 2020 Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics. The expected detector performance from simulation is summarised at the end.
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19. |
- Ahdida, C., et al.
(author)
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Track reconstruction and matching between emulsion and silicon pixel detectors for the SHiP-charm experiment
- 2022
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In: Journal of Instrumentation. - : IOP Publishing. - 1748-0221. ; 17:3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In July 2018 an optimization run for the proposed charm cross section measurement for SHiP was performed at the CERN SPS. A heavy, moving target instrumented with nuclear emulsion films followed by a silicon pixel tracker was installed in front of the Goliath magnet at the H4 proton beam-line. Behind the magnet, scintillating-fibre, drift-tube and RPC detectors were placed. The purpose of this run was to validate the measurement's feasibility, to develop the required analysis tools and fine-tune the detector layout. In this paper, we present the track reconstruction in the pixel tracker and the track matching with the moving emulsion detector. The pixel detector performed as expected and it is shown that, after proper alignment, a vertex matching rate of 87% is achieved.
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20. |
- Milstead, David A., et al.
(author)
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The active muon shield in the SHiP experiment
- 2017
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In: Journal of Instrumentation. - 1748-0221. ; 12
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The SHiP experiment is designed to search for very weakly interacting particles beyond the Standard Model which are produced in a 400 GeV/c proton beam dump at the CERN SPS. An essential task for the experiment is to keep the Standard Model background level to less than 0.1 event after 2 x 10(20) protons on target. In the beam dump, around 10(11) muons will be produced per second. The muon rate in the spectrometer has to be reduced by at least four orders of magnitude to avoid muon-induced combinatorial background. A novel active muon shield is used to magnetically deflect the muons out of the acceptance of the spectrometer. This paper describes the basic principle of such a shield, its optimization and its performance.
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21. |
- Greiner, J., et al.
(author)
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GRIPS - Gamma-Ray Imaging, Polarimetry and Spectroscopy
- 2012
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In: Experimental astronomy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0922-6435 .- 1572-9508. ; 34:2, s. 551-582
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We propose to perform a continuously scanning all-sky survey from 200 keV to 80 MeV achieving a sensitivity which is better by a factor of 40 or more compared to the previous missions in this energy range (COMPTEL, INTEGRAL; see Fig. 1). These gamma-ray observations will be complemented by observations in the soft X-ray and (near-)infrared region with the corresponding telescopes placed on a separate satellite. The Gamma-Ray Imaging, Polarimetry and Spectroscopy ("GRIPS") mission with its three instruments Gamma-Ray Monitor (GRM), X-Ray Monitor (XRM) and InfraRed Telescope (IRT) addresses fundamental questions in ESA's Cosmic Vision plan. Among the major themes of the strategic plan, GRIPS has its focus on the evolving, violent Universe, exploring a unique energy window. We propose to investigate γ-ray bursts and blazars, the mechanisms behind supernova explosions, nucleosynthesis and spallation, the enigmatic origin of positrons in our Galaxy, and the nature of radiation processes and particle acceleration in extreme cosmic sources including pulsars and magnetars. The natural energy scale for these non-thermal processes is of the order of MeV. Although they can be partially and indirectly studied using other methods, only the proposed GRIPS measurements will provide direct access to their primary photons. GRIPS will be a driver for the study of transient sources in the era of neutrino and gravitational wave observatories such as IceCUBE and LISA, establishing a new type of diagnostics in relativistic and nuclear astrophysics. This will support extrapolations to investigate star formation, galaxy evolution, and black hole formation at high redshifts.
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22. |
- Boyarchuk, A. A., et al.
(author)
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Scientific problems addressed by the Spektr-UV space project (world space Observatory-Ultraviolet)
- 2016
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In: Astronomy reports (Print). - 1063-7729 .- 1562-6881. ; 60:1, s. 1-42
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The article presents a review of scientific problems and methods of ultraviolet astronomy, focusing on perspective scientific problems (directions) whose solution requires UV space observatories. These include reionization and the history of star formation in the Universe, searches for dark baryonic matter, physical and chemical processes in the interstellar medium and protoplanetary disks, the physics of accretion and outflows in astrophysical objects, from Active Galactic Nuclei to close binary stars, stellar activity (for both low-mass and high-mass stars), and processes occurring in the atmospheres of both planets in the solar system and exoplanets. Technological progress in UV astronomy achieved in recent years is also considered. The well advanced, international, Russian-led Spektr-UV (World Space Observatory-Ultraviolet) project is described in more detail. This project is directed at creating a major space observatory operational in the ultraviolet (115-310 nm). This observatory will provide an effective, and possibly the only, powerful means of observing in this spectral range over the next ten years, and will be an powerful tool for resolving many topical scientific problems.
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23. |
- Greiner, J., et al.
(author)
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Gamma-ray burst investigation via polarimetry and spectroscopy (GRIPS)
- 2009
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In: Experimental astronomy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0922-6435 .- 1572-9508. ; 23:1, s. 91-120
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The primary scientific goal of the GRIPS mission is to revolutionize our understanding of the early universe using gamma-ray bursts. We propose a new generation gamma-ray observatory capable of unprecedented spectroscopy over a wide range of gamma-ray energies (200 keV-50 MeV) and of polarimetry (200-1000 keV). The gamma-ray sensitivity to nuclear absorption features enables the measurement of column densities as high as 10(28)cm (-aEuro parts per thousand 2). Secondary goals achievable by this mission include direct measurements of all types of supernova interiors through gamma-rays from radioactive decays, nuclear astrophysics with massive stars and novae, and studies of particle acceleration near compact stars, interstellar shocks, and clusters of galaxies.
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24. |
- Wild, W., et al.
(author)
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Millimetron—a large Russian-European submillimeter space observatory
- 2009
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In: Experimental Astronomy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0922-6435 .- 1572-9508. ; 23:1, s. 221-244
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Millimetron is a Russian-led 12 m diameter submillimeter and far-infrared space observatory which is included in the Space Plan of the Russian Federation for launch around 2017. With its large collecting area and state-of-the-art receivers, it will enable unique science and allow at least one order of magnitude improvement with respect to the Herschel Space Observatory. Millimetron will be operated in two basic observing modes: as a single-dish observatory, and as an element of a ground-space very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) system. As single-dish, angular resolutions on the order of 3 to 12 arc sec will be achieved and spectral resolutions of up to a million employing heterodyne techniques. As VLBI antenna, the chosen elliptical orbit will provide extremely large VLBI baselines (beyond 300,000 km) resulting in micro-arc second angular resolution.
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25. |
- Kostin, Alexander I., et al.
(author)
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Impact of pathogen reduction methods on immunological properties of the COVID-19 convalescent plasma
- 2021
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In: Vox Sanguinis. - : Wiley. - 0042-9007 .- 1423-0410. ; 116:6, s. 665-672
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background and objectives: COVID-19 convalescent plasma is an experimental treatment against SARS-CoV-2. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of different pathogen reduction methods on the levels and virus neutralizing activity of the specific antibodies against SARS-CoV2 in convalescent plasma. Materials and methods: A total of 140 plasma doses collected by plasmapheresis from COVID-19 convalescent donors were subjected to pathogen reduction by three methods: methylene blue (M)/visible light, riboflavin (R)/UVB and amotosalen (A)/UVA. To conduct a paired comparison, individual plasma doses were divided into 2 samples that were subjected to one of these methods. The titres of SARS-CoV2 neutralizing antibodies (NtAbs) and levels of specific immunoglobulins to RBD, S- and N-proteins of SARS-CoV-2 were measured before and after pathogen reduction. Results: The methods reduced NtAbs titres differently: among units with the initial titre 80 or above, 81% of units remained unchanged and 19% decreased by one step after methylene blue; 60% were unchanged and 40% decreased by one step after amotosalen; after riboflavin 43% were unchanged and 50% (7%, respectively) had a one-step (two-step, respectively) decrease. Paired two-sample comparisons (M vs. A, M vs. R and A vs. R) revealed that the largest statistically significant decrease in quantity and activity of the specific antibodies resulted from the riboflavin treatment. Conclusion: Pathogen reduction with methylene blue or with amotosalen provides the greater likelihood of preserving the immunological properties of the COVID-19 convalescent plasma compared to riboflavin.
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