Study of the helicity dependence of pi 0 photoproduction on proton at MAMI

The excitation spectrum is one of the fundamental properties of every spatially extended system. The excitations of the building blocks of normal matter, i.e., protons and neutrons (nucleons), play an important role in our understanding of the low energy regime of the strong interaction. Due to the large coupling, perturbative solutions of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) are not appropriate to calculate long-range phenomena of hadrons. For many years, constituent quark models were used to understand the excitation spectra. Recently, calculations in lattice QCD make first connections between excited nucleons and the fundamental field quanta (quarks and gluons). Due to their short lifetime and large decay width, excited nucleons appear as resonances in scattering processes like pion nucleon scattering or meson photoproduction. In order to disentangle individual resonances with definite spin and parity in experimental data, partial wave analyses are necessary. Unique solutions in these analyses can only be expected if sufficient empirical information about spin degrees of freedom is available. The measurement of spin observables in pion photoproduction is the focus of this thesis. The polarized electron beam of the Mainz Microtron (MAMI) was used to produce high-intensity, polarized photon beams with tagged energies up to 1.47 GeV. A "frozen-spin" Butanol target in combination with an almost 4π detector setup consisting of the Crystal Ball and the TAPS calorimeters allowed the precise determination of the helicity dependence of the γp → π0p reaction. In this thesis, as an improvement of the target setup, an internal polarizing solenoid has been constructed and tested. A magnetic field of 2.32 T and homogeneity of 1.22×10−3 in the target volume have been achieved. The helicity asymmetry E, i.e., the difference of events with total helicity 1/2 and 3/2 divided by the sum, was determined from data taken in the years 2013-14. The subtraction of background events arising from nucleons bound in Carbon and Oxygen was an important part of the analysis. The results for the asymmetry E are compared to existing data and predictions from various models. The results show a reasonable agreement to the models in the energy region of the ∆(1232)-resonance but large discrepancies are observed for energy above 600 MeV. The expansion of the present data in terms of Legendre polynomials, shows the sensitivity of the data to partial wave amplitudes up to F-waves. Additionally, a first, preliminary multipole analysis of the present data together with other results from the Crystal Ball experiment has been as been performed.

Luminosity determination for the measurement of the proton-proton total cross section at 8 TeV in the Atlas experiment

La sezione d’urto totale adronica gioca un ruolo fondamentale nel programma di fisica di LHC. Un calcolo di questo parametro, fondamentale nell’ambito della teoria delle interazioni forti, non é possibile a causa dell’inapplicabilità dell’approccio perturbativo. Nonostante ciò, la sezione d’urto può essere stimata, o quanto meno le può essere dato un limite, grazie ad un certo numero di relazioni, come ad esempio il Teorema Ottico. In questo contesto, il detector ALFA (An Absolute Luminosity For ATLAS) sfrutta il Teorema Ottico per determinare la sezione d’urto totale misurando il rate di eventi elastici nella direzione forward. Un tale approccio richiede un metodo accurato di misura della luminosità in condizioni sperimentali difficoltose, caratterizzate da valori di luminosità istantanea inferiore fino a 7 ordini di grandezza rispetto alle normali condizioni di LHC. Lo scopo di questa tesi è la determinazione della luminosità integrata di due run ad alto β*, utilizzando diversi algoritmi di tipo Event-Counting dei detector BCM e LUCID. Particolare attenzione è stata riservata alla sottrazione del fondo e allo studio delle in- certezze sistematiche. I valori di luminosità integrata ottenuti sono L = 498.55 ± 0.31 (stat) ± 16.23 (sys) μb^(-1) and L = 21.93 ± 0.07 (stat) ± 0.79 (sys) μb^(-1), rispettivamente per i due run. Tali saranno forniti alla comunità di fisica che si occupa della misura delle sezioni d’urto protone-protone, elastica e totale. Nel Run II di LHC, la sezione d’urto totale protone-protone sarà stimata con un’energia nel centro di massa di 13 TeV per capire meglio la sua dipendenza dall’energia in un simile regime. Gli strumenti utilizzati e l’esperienza acquisita in questa tesi saranno fondamentali per questo scopo.

Effect of Acute Psychological Stress on Prefrontal GABA Concentration Determined by Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

Objective Impaired function of the central gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) system, which provides the brain’s major inhibitory pathways, is thought to play an important role in the pathophysiology of anxiety disorders. The effect of acute psychological stress on the human GABA-ergic system is still unknown, however. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of acute stress on prefrontal GABA levels. Method A recently developed noninvasive magnetic resonance spectroscopy method was used to measure changes in the GABA concentration of the prefrontal cortex in 10 healthy human subjects during a threat-of-shock condition and during a safe condition (two sessions on different days). The main outcome measure was the mean GABA concentration within a 3×3×2-cm3 voxel selected from the medial prefrontal cortex. Results Prefrontal GABA decreased by approximately 18% in the threat-of-shock condition relative to the safe condition. This reduction was specific to GABA, since the concentrations of N-acetyl-aspartate, choline-containing compounds, and glutamate/glutamine levels obtained in the same spectra did not change significantly. Conclusions This result appeared compatible with evidence from preclinical studies in rodents, which showed rapid presynaptic down-regulation of GABA-ergic neurotransmission in response to acute psychological stress. The molecular mechanism and functional significance of this reduced inhibitory effect of acute psychological stress in relation to impaired GABA-ergic function in anxiety disorders merit further investigation.

Restricted or severely hindered diffusion of intramyocellular lipids in human skeletal muscle shown by in vivo proton MR spectroscopy

Although magnetic resonance spectroscopy can be used as a unique tool to study molecular diffusion, it is rarely used to measure the diffusion properties of intramyocellular and extramyocellular lipids. Lipids have very low apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs), which make these measurements difficult and necessitate strong diffusion gradients and long diffusion times. Consequence is that these measurements have inherently low signal-to-noise ratio and are prone to artifacts. The addition of physiological triggering and individual storage and processing of the spectra is seen to be a possible approach to maximize signal intensity and achieve high reproducibility of the experiments. Thus, the optimized measurement protocol was used to investigate the diffusion properties of lipids in human skeletal muscle in vivo. At a diffusion time of about 110 ms, intramyocellular lipids show a significantly lower ADC (2.0 × 10(-6) mm(2)/s, 95% confidence interval 1.10 × 10(-6) to 2.94 × 10(-6) mm(2)/s) than extramyocellular lipids (1.58 × 10(-5) mm(2)/s, 95% confidence interval 1.41 × 10(-5) to 1.75 × 10(-5) mm(2)/s). Because the chemical properties of both lipid pools can be assumed to be similar, the difference can only be attributed to restricted or severely hindered diffusion in the intramyocellular droplets.

Comparison of in vivo acute stent recoil between the bioresorbable everolimus-eluting coronary scaffolds (revision 1.0 and 1.1) and the metallic everolimus-eluting stent

The ABSORB cohort A trial using the bioresorbable everolimus-eluting scaffold (BVS revision 1.0, Abbott Vascular) demonstrated a slightly higher acute recoil with BVS than with metallic stents. To reinforce the mechanical strength of the scaffold, the new BVS scaffold (revision 1.1) with modified strut design was developed and tested in the ABSORB cohort B trial. This study sought to evaluate and compare the in vivo acute scaffold recoil of the BVS revision 1.0 in ABSORB cohort A and the BVS revision 1.1 in ABSORB cohort B with the historical recoil of the XIENCE V® everolimus-eluting metal stent (EES, SPIRIT I and II).

Advanced morphological 3D magnetic resonance observation of cartilage repair tissue (MOCART) scoring using a new isotropic 3D proton-density, turbo spin echo sequence with variable flip angle distribution (PD-SPACE) compared to an isotropic 3D steady-state free precession sequence (True-FISP) and standard 2D sequences

To evaluate a new isotropic 3D proton-density, turbo-spin-echo sequence with variable flip-angle distribution (PD-SPACE) sequence compared to an isotropic 3D true-fast-imaging with steady-state-precession (True-FISP) sequence and 2D standard MR sequences with regard to the new 3D magnetic resonance observation of cartilage repair tissue (MOCART) score.

Intraoperative localization of tantalum markers for proton beam radiation of choroidal melanoma by an opto-electronic navigation system: a novel technique

External beam proton radiation therapy has been used since 1975 to treat choroidal melanoma. For tumor location determination during proton radiation treatment, surgical tantalum clips are registered with image data. This report introduces the intraoperative application of an opto-electronic navigation system to determine with high precision the position of the tantalum markers and their spatial relationship to the tumor and anatomical landmarks. The application of the technique in the first 4 patients is described.

Non-water-suppressed proton MR spectroscopy improves spectral quality in the human spinal cord

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy enables insight into the chemical composition of spinal cord tissue. However, spinal cord magnetic resonance spectroscopy has rarely been applied in clinical work due to technical challenges, including strong susceptibility changes in the region and the small cord diameter, which distort the lineshape and limit the attainable signal to noise ratio. Hence, extensive signal averaging is required, which increases the likelihood of static magnetic field changes caused by subject motion (respiration, swallowing), cord motion, and scanner-induced frequency drift. To avoid incoherent signal averaging, it would be ideal to perform frequency alignment of individual free induction decays before averaging. Unfortunately, this is not possible due to the low signal to noise ratio of the metabolite peaks. In this article, frequency alignment of individual free induction decays is demonstrated to improve spectral quality by using the high signal to noise ratio water peak from non-water-suppressed proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy via the metabolite cycling technique. Electrocardiography (ECG)-triggered point resolved spectroscopy (PRESS) localization was used for data acquisition with metabolite cycling or water suppression for comparison. A significant improvement in the signal to noise ratio and decrease of the Cramér Rao lower bounds of all metabolites is attained by using metabolite cycling together with frequency alignment, as compared to water-suppressed spectra, in 13 healthy volunteers.