Search results for "Radon"
showing 10 items of 116 documents
Results from a calibration of XENON100 using a source of dissolved radon-220
2017
A Rn 220 source is deployed on the XENON100 dark matter detector in order to address the challenges in calibration of tonne-scale liquid noble element detectors. We show that the Pb 212 beta emission can be used for low-energy electronic recoil calibration in searches for dark matter. The isotope spreads throughout the entire active region of the detector, and its activity naturally decays below background level within a week after the source is closed. We find no increase in the activity of the troublesome Rn 222 background after calibration. Alpha emitters are also distributed throughout the detector and facilitate calibration of its response to Rn 222 . Using the delayed coincidence of R…
The observation of vibrating pear-shapes in radon nuclei
2019
6 pags., 4 fig.s, 1 tab. -- Open Access funded by Creative Commons Atribution Licence 4.0
Coulomb excitation of pear-shaped nuclei
2019
There is a large body of evidence that atomic nuclei can undergo octupole distortion and assume the shape of a pear. This phenomenon is important for measurements of electric-dipole moments of atoms, which would indicate CP violation and hence probe physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. Isotopes of both radon and radium have been identified as candidates for such measurements. Here, we have observed the low-lying quantum states in 224Rn and 226Rn by accelerating beams of these radioactive nuclei. We show that radon isotopes undergo octupole vibrations but do not possess static pear-shapes in their ground states. We conclude that radon atoms provide less favourable condition…
Nuclear orientation of radon isotopes by spin exchange optical pumping
1988
This paper reports the first demonstration of nuclear orientation of radon atoms. The method employed was spin exchange with potassium atoms polarized by optical pumping. The radon isotopes were produced at the ISOLDE isotope separator of CERN. The nuclear alignment of /sup 209/Rn and /sup 223/Rn has been measured by observation of ..gamma..-ray anisotropies and the magnetic dipole moment for /sup 209/Rn has been measured by the nuclear-magnetic-resonance method to be chemically bond..mu..chemically bond = 0.838 81(39)..mu../sub N/.
Low-lying structure of light radon isotopes
2002
The excited states in the neutron-deficient isotopes Rn have been populated using the Er(Ar,4n), Er(Ar,4n), and Er(Ar,4n) reactions at beam energies of 175, 182, and 177 MeV, respectively. Evaporation residues were selected using an in-flight gas-filled separator and implanted at the focal plane into a 16-element position-sensitive, passivated ion-implanted planar silicon detector. Prompt γ rays were observed at the target position using an array of Compton-suppressed germanium detectors. Correlation with the subsequent radioactive decay of associated recoiling ions in the silicon detector, recoil-γ and recoil-γ-γ coincidences were used to construct decay schemes of light radon isotopes. Me…
Study of the background on a ZnS(Ag) alpha counter with a plastic veto detector
2006
Alpha counters based on the scintillation of ZnS(Ag) have been used widely to measure total alpha activity in environmental samples. The main difficulties for this kind of detectors consist of having a reasonable low background, i.e., around 10−3 counts/s. It is assumed that the background comes from natural sources (mainly radon) and there is no contribution from cosmic, beta or gamma rays since the efficiency for these sources is extremely low. However, the study of the background using a thin plastic veto detector shows that the cosmic ray contribution to the alpha background is about 5–50%, whereas the estimated gamma contribution is below 10%. Therefore, this anti-coincidence set-up ca…
Monte Carlo evaluation of the Filtered Back Projection method for image reconstruction in proton computed tomography
2011
Abstract In this paper the use of the Filtered Back Projection (FBP) Algorithm, in order to reconstruct tomographic images using the high energy (200–250 MeV) proton beams, is investigated. The algorithm has been studied in detail with a Monte Carlo approach and image quality has been analysed and compared with the total absorbed dose. A proton Computed Tomography (pCT) apparatus, developed by our group, has been fully simulated to exploit the power of the Geant4 Monte Carlo toolkit. From the simulation of the apparatus, a set of tomographic images of a test phantom has been reconstructed using the FBP at different absorbed dose values. The images have been evaluated in terms of homogeneity…
Collective 2$^{+1}$ excitations in$^{206}$Po and$^{208,210}$Rn
2016
In the present study, $B(E2; 2^{+}_{1}\rightarrow 0^{+}_{1})$ values have been measured in the 208,210Rn and 206Po nuclei through Coulomb excitation of re-accelerated radioactive beams in inverse kinematics at CERN-ISOLDE. These nuclei have been proposed to lie in, or at the boundary of the region where the seniority scheme should persist. However, contributions from collective excitations are likely to be present when moving away from the N=126 closed shell. Such an effect is confirmed by the observed increased collectivity of the $2^{+}_{1}\rightarrow 0^{+}_{1}$ transitions. Experimental results have been interpreted with the aid of theoretical studies carried out within the BCS-based QRP…
Torus computed tomography
2020
We present a new computed tomography (CT) method for inverting the Radon transform in 2D. The idea relies on the geometry of the flat torus, hence we call the new method Torus CT. We prove new inversion formulas for integrable functions, solve a minimization problem associated to Tikhonov regularization in Sobolev spaces and prove that the solution operator provides an admissible regularization strategy with a quantitative stability estimate. This regularization is a simple post-processing low-pass filter for the Fourier series of a phantom. We also study the adjoint and the normal operator of the X-ray transform on the flat torus. The X-ray transform is unitary on the flat torus. We have i…
The effects of short-term glyphosate-based herbicide exposure on insect gene expression profiles
2023
Glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs) are the most frequently used herbicides worldwide. The use of GBHs is intended to tackle weeds, but GBHs have been shown to affect the life-history traits and antioxidant defense system of invertebrates found in agroecosystems. Thus far, the effects of GBHs on detoxification pathways among invertebrates have not been sufficiently investigated. We performed two different experiments—1) the direct pure glyphosate and GBH treatment, and 2) the indirect GBH experiment via food—to examine the possible effects of environmentally relevant GBH levels on the survival of the Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) and the expression profiles of their deto…