IFIC Experimental Seminar: Compton Imaging and Machine Learning within the HYMNS-ERC project

by Javier Balibrea Correa (Instituto de física corpuscular IFIC)

Monday 7 Feb 2022, 12:00 → 13:00 Europe/Madrid

1001-Primera-1-1-1 - Paterna. Seminario (Universe)

In this seminar I will discuss the Compton imaging and Machine Learning techniques that we are currently developing in the HYMNS-ERC project. This project is based on a radically new detection concept, called i-TED, for neutron capture cross-section measurements in isotopes of interest for nuclear astrophysics, such as Selenium-79.

The i-TED detector consist of four large solid-angle Compton cameras, made of big LaCl3 crystals and pixelated SiPMs, thereby aiming to maximize detection efficiency while preserving a high image resolution. To tackle those challenges, several developments based on analytical- and machine-learning methodologies have been incorporated to the original i-TED prototype.

The full i-TED detection system has been already commissioned and will be applied for the first time in 2022 at CERN n_TOF to measure the stellar neutron capture rate of 79Se. Some of the developments of this project have been also transferred to health applications, such as proton range verification in hadron-threapy treatments. As an example, at the end of the seminar the results of a simultaneous in-beam Compton and PET ion-range verification proof-of-concept experiment, carried out at the CNA facility, will be shown to illustrate some of the developments and capabilities achieved with i-TED.