Institute of Fundamental Technological Research

The EUROnu project has studied three possible options for future, high intensity neutrino oscillation facilities in Europe. The first is a Super Beam, in which the neutrinos come from the decay of pions created by bombarding targets with a 4 MW proton beam from the CERN High Power Superconducting Proton Linac. The far detector for this facility is the 500 kt MEMPHYS water Cherenkov, located in the Fréjus tunnel. The second facility is the Neutrino Factory, in which the neutrinos come from the decay of μ+ and μ− beams in a storage ring. The far detector in this case is a 100 kt magnetized iron neutrino detector at a baseline of 2000 km. The third option is a Beta Beam, in which the neutrinos come from the decay of beta emitting isotopes, in particular He6 and Ne18, also stored in a ring. The far detector is also the MEMPHYS detector in the Fréjus tunnel. EUROnu has undertaken conceptual designs of these facilities and studied the performance of the detectors. Based on this, it has determined the physics reach of each facility, in particular for the measurement of CP violation in the lepton sector, and estimated the cost of construction. These have demonstrated that the best facility to build is the Neutrino Factory. However, if a powerful proton driver is constructed for another purpose or if the MEMPHYS detector is built for astroparticle physics, the Super Beam also becomes very attractive

The ultrasonic backscatter coefficient (BSC) of superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) nanoparticles, which are used as a liver MRI contrast agent, was simulated using a Yagi backscattering model. The BSC of SPIO cores that are aggregated in the lysosomes of Kupffer cells is significantly higher (85 dB) than the BSC of non- aggregated SPIO cores. Considering in vivo concentrations, the aggregated SPIO does not elevate the BSC of the liver markedly (9x10-6 dB). Thus, the reported visibility of SPIO in clinical ultrasound cannot be explained by classical scattering theory. Other non-linear effects need to be taken into account.