Robert Johnson

• PhD
• University of California, Santa Cruz

Background Improving the accuracy of relative stopping power (RSP) in proton therapy may allow reducing range margins. Proton computed tomography (pCT) has been shown to provide state‐of‐the‐art RSP accuracy estimation, and various scanner prototypes have recently been built. The different approaches used in scanner design are expected to impact sp...

This work provides a quantitative assessment of helium ion CT (HeCT) for particle therapy treatment planning. For the first time, HeCT based range prediction accuracy in a heterogeneous tissue phantom is presented and compared to single energy x-ray CT (SECT), dual-energy x-ray CT (DECT) and proton CT (pCT). HeCT and pCT scans were acquired using t...

Purpose: To reduce image artifacts of proton computed tomography (pCT) from a preclinical scanner, for imaging of the relative stopping power (RSP) needed for particle therapy treatment planning using a simple empirical artifact correction method. Methods: We adapted and employed a correction method previously used for beam-hardening correction in...

Proton CT (pCT) is a promising new imaging technique that can reconstruct relative stopping power (RSP) more accurately than x-ray CT in each cubic millimeter voxel of the patient. This, in turn, will result in better proton range accuracy and, therefore, smaller planned tumor volumes (PTV). The hardware description and some reconstructed images ha...

Purpose To reduce imaging artifacts and improve image quality of a specific proton computed tomography (pCT) prototype scanner by combining pCT data acquired at two different incident proton energies to avoid protons stopping in sub-optimal detector sections. Methods Image artifacts of a prototype pCT scanner are linked to protons stopping close t...

Proton computed tomography (pCT) has high accuracy and dose efficiency in producing spatial maps of the relative stopping power (RSP) required for treatment planning in proton therapy. With fluence-modulated pCT (FMpCT), prescribed noise distributions can be achieved, which allows to decrease imaging dose by employing object-specific dynamically mo...

Proton computed tomography (pCT) is a promising tomographic imaging modality allowing direct reconstruction of proton relative stopping power (RSP) required for proton therapy dose calculation. In this review article, we aim at highlighting the role of Monte Carlo (MC) simulation in pCT studies. After describing the requirements for performing prot...

Robust methods, such as Tikhonov regularization and Bounded data uncertainty, have been used extensively in relatively small problems involving dense matrices for many decades, but have not been used in large-scale iterative methods for image reconstruction in particle imaging until recently. In this case, robust methods may allow more accurate rec...

Proton computed tomography (pCT) has been proposed as an alternative to X-ray computed tomography (CT) for acquiring relative to water stopping power (RSP) maps used for proton treatment planning dose calculations. In parallel, it has been shown that dual energy X-ray CT (DECT) improves RSP accuracy when compared to conventional single energy X-ray...

Data filtering is crucial for accurate relative stopping power (RSP) reconstruction in proton CT (pCT). In this work, we assess different filters and their performance in removing nuclear interactions for the US pCT collaboration prototype pCT system in Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. The potential of the recently proposed ΔE-E filter for pCT is inve...

We present a method to accurately predict image noise in proton computed tomography (pCT) using data generated from a Monte Carlo simulation and a patient or object model that may be generated from a prior x-ray CT image. This enables noise prediction for arbitrary beam fluence settings and, therefore, the application of fluence-modulated pCT (FMpC...

Single-event ion imaging enables the direct reconstruction of the relative stopping power (RSP) information required for ion-beam therapy. Helium ions were recently hypothesized to be the optimal species for such technique. The purpose of this work is to investigate the effect of secondary fragments on the image quality of helium CT (HeCT) and to a...

Purpose: This experimental study is aimed at demonstrating, using a simple cylindrical water phantom, the feasibility of fluence modulated proton computed tomography (FMpCT) by pencil beam scanning (PBS) proton computed tomography (pCT). Methods: The phase II pCT prototype of the Loma Linda U. and U. C. Santa Cruz was operated using the PBS beam...

A precise relative stopping power map of the patient is crucial for accurate particle therapy. Charged particle imaging determines the stopping power either tomographically – particle computed tomography (pCT) – or by combining prior knowledge from particle radiography (pRad) and x-ray CT. Generally, multiple Coulomb scattering limits the spatial r...

We are exploring low-dose proton radiography and computed tomography (pCT) as techniques to improve the accuracy of proton treatment planning and to provide artifact-free images for verification and adaptive therapy at the time of treatment. Here we report on comprehensive beam test results with our prototype pCT head scanner. The detector system a...

We are exploring low-dose proton radiography and computed tomography (pCT) as techniques to improve the accuracy of proton treatment planning and to provide artifact-free images for verification and adaptive therapy at the time of treatment. Here we report on comprehensive beam test results with our prototype pCT head scanner. The detector system a...

Purpose: Proton computed tomography (pCT) is a promising imaging technique to substitute or at least complement x-ray CT for more accurate proton therapy treatment planning as it allows calculating directly proton relative stopping power from proton energy loss measurements. A proton CT scanner with a silicon-based particle tracking system and a 5...

Purpose: To evaluate the spatial resolution of proton CT using both a prototype proton CT scanner and Monte Carlo simulations. Methods: A custom cylindrical edge phantom containing twelve tissue-equivalent inserts with four different compositions at varying radial displacements from the axis of rotation was developed for measuring the modulation t...

Purpose:To characterize the modulation transfer function (MTF) of the pre-clinical (phase II) head scanner developed for proton computed tomography (pCT) by the pCT collaboration. To evaluate the spatial resolution achievable by this system. Methods:Our phase II proton CT scanner prototype consists of two silicon telescopes that track individual pr...

Purpose: Protoncomputed tomography (pCT) will enable accurate prediction of proton and ion range in a patient while providing the benefit of lower radiation exposure than in x-ray CT. The accuracy of the range prediction is essential for treatment planning in proton or ion therapy and depends upon the detector used to evaluate the water-equivalent...

We report on the design, fabrication, and first tests of a tomographic scanner developed for proton computed tomography (pCT) of head-sized objects. After extensive preclinical testing, pCT is intended to be employed in support of proton therapy treatment planning and pre-treatment verification in patients undergoing particle-beam therapy. The scan...

Radiation therapy with protons and heavier ions is an attractive form of cancer treatment that could enhance local control and survival of cancers that are currently difficult to cure and lead to less side effects due to sparing of normal tissues. However, particle therapy faces a significant technical challenge because one cannot accurately predic...

Dark matter in the Milky Way may annihilate directly into γ rays, producing a monoenergetic spectral line. Therefore, detecting such a signature would be strong evidence for dark matter annihilation or decay. We search for spectral lines in the Fermi Large Area Telescope observations of the Milky Way halo in the energy range 200 MeV-500 GeV using a...

Quark and gluon jets with the same energy, 24 GeV, are compared in symmetric three-jet configurations from hadronic Z decays observed by the ALEPH detector. Jets are defined using the Durham algorithm. Gluon jets are identified using an anti-tag on b jets, based on a track impact parameter method. The comparison of gluon and mixed flavour quark jet...

Using about 950000 hadronic events collected during 1991 and 1992 with the ALEPH detector, the ratios r(b) = alpha(s)(b)/alpha(s)(udsc) and r(uds) = alpha(s)(uds)/alpha(s)(cb) have been measured in order to test the flavour independence of the strong coupling constant alpha(s). The analysis is based on event-shape variables using the full hadronic...

A lower limit on the oscillation frequency of the Bs0s0 system is obtained from approximately four million hadronic Z decays accumulated using the ALEPH detector at LEP from 1991 to 1995. Leptons are combined with opposite sign Ds− candidates reconstructed in seven different decay modes as evidence of semileptonic Bs0 decays. Criteria designed to e...

Using about 1.5 million hadronic Z decays recorded with the aleph detector, the lifetime of the b baryons has been measured using two independent data samples. From a maximum likelihood fit to the impact parameter distribution of leptons in 519 Λℓ− combinations containing a b baryon sample of 290 decays, the measured b baryon lifetime is τb—baryon...

The reaction e+e− → HZ∗ is used to search for the standard model Higgs boson in the and the Hℓ+ℓ− channels. The data sample corresponds to about 4.5 million hadronic Z decays collected by the ALEPH experiment at LEP from 1989 to 1995 at centre-of-mass energies at and around the Z peak. Three candidate events are found in the Hμ+μ− channel, in agree...

Data taken with the ALEPH detector at LEP1 have been used to search for gamma gamma production of the glueball candidates f(0)(1500) and f(j)(1710) via their decay to pi(+)pi(-). No signal is observed and upper limits to the product of gamma gamma width and pi(+)pi(-) branching ratio of the f(0)(1500) and the f(j)(1710) have been measured to be Gam...

Measurements of the subjet structure of quark and gluon jets in hadronic Z decays are presented. The analysis is based on one million hadronic events recorded by the Aleph detector. Roughly symmetric three-jet events are selected with a coarse jet-resolution cut-off, y1. Gluon jets are identified with a purity of 94.6% in those events where evidenc...

Searches for supersymmetric particles produced in e+e− interactions at the Z peak have been performed under the assumptions that R-parity is not conserved, that the dominant R-parity violating coupling involves only leptonic fields, and that the lifetime of the lightest supersymmetric particle can be neglected. In a data sample collected by the ALE...

In a data sample of four million hadronic Z decays collected with the ALEPH detector at LEP, four Λb baryon candidates are exclusively reconstructed in the Λb → Λc+π− channel, with the Λc+ decaying into pK−π+, , or Λπ+π+π−. The probability of the observed signal to be due to a background fluctuation is estimated to be 4.2 × 10−4. The mass of the Λb...

An improved measurement of the average b hadron lifetime is performed using a sample of 1.5 million hadronic Z decays, collected during the 1991–1993 runs of ALEPH, with the silicon vertex detector fully operational. This uses the three-dimensional impact parameter distribution of lepton tracks coming from semileptonic b decays and yields an averag...

The decay is reconstructed with J/ψ→e+e− or μ+μ− and K0S→π+π−. From the full ALEPH dataset at LEP1 of about 4 million hadronic Z decays, 23 candidates are selected with an estimated purity of 71%. They are used to measure the CP asymmetry of this decay, given by sin2β in the Standard Model, with the result . This is combined with existing measureme...

A lower limit is set on the Bs0 meson oscillation parameter Δms using data collected from 1991 to 1994 by the ALEPH detector. Events with a high transverse momentum lepton and a reconstructed secondary vertex are used. The high transverse momentum leptons are produced mainly by b hadron decays, and the sign of the lepton indicates the particle/anti...

Using a sample of about 1.46 million hadronic Z decays collected between 1991 and 1993 with the ALEPH detector at LEP, the energy distribution of the B0 and B± mesons produced at the Z resonance is measured by reconstructing semileptonic decays B → ℓνℓD(X) or . The charmed mesons are reconstructed through the decay modes D0 → K−π+, D0 → K−π+π−π+, D...

The branching fraction for D0 → K−π+ is measured with the statistics collected by ALEPH from 1991 to 1994. The method is based on the comparison between the rate for the reconstructed , D0 → K−π+ decay chain and the rate for inclusive soft pion production at low transverse momentum with respect to the nearest jet. The result is B(D0 → K−π+0 = (3.90...

A study of scaling violations in fragmentation functions performed by the ALEPH collaboration at LEP is presented. Data samples enriched in uds, c, b and gluon jets, respectively, together with measurements of the longitudinal and transverse inclusive cross sections are used to extract the fragmentation function for the gluon and for each flavour....

Purpose To develop the methodology to evaluate the clinical performance of a Phase II Proton CT scanner Methods Range errors on the order of 3%‐5% constitute a major uncertainty in current charged particle treatment planning based on Hounsfield Unit (HU)‐relative stopping power (RSP) calibration curves. Within our proton CT collaboration, we previ...

Proton radiography has applications in patient alignment and verification procedures for proton beam radiation therapy. In this paper, we report an experiment which used 200 MeV protons to generate proton energy-loss and scattering radiographs of a hand phantom. The experiment used the first-generation proton computed tomography (CT) scanner protot...

A unique CMOS chip has been designed to serve as the front-end of the tracking detector data acquisition system of a pre-clinical prototype scanner for proton computed tomography (pCT). The scanner is to be capable of measuring one to two million proton tracks per second, so the chip must be able to digitize the data and send it out rapidly while k...

This paper discusses the design and operation of the 1st proton CT scanner for 3D imaging. Reduction of proton range uncertainties and improved dose accuracy in the patient for treatment planning are central goals. A central CT slice acquired by reconstruction of 134 million proton tracks through a 14 cm spherical polystyrene phantom with high and...

From a sample of 152,000 τ decays collected by the ALEPH detector at LEP an upper limit of 24 MeV at 95% CL on the τ neutrino mass has been determined. The limit is obtained using a two dimensional likelihood fit of the visible energy and the invariant mass distribution of 25 τ → 5π(π0)ντ events.

An improved measurement of the forward-backward asymmetry in decays is presented, based on a sample of 4.1 million hadronic Z decays collected by ALEPH between 1991 and 1995. Data are analysed as a function of polar angle of the event axis and b purity. The event tagging efficiency and mean b-jet hemisphere charge are measured directly from data. F...

Starting from a sample of four million hadronic Z decays collected with the ALEPH detector at LEP, 404 charged and neutral B mesons are fully reconstructed and used to look for resonant structure in the Bπ system. An excess of events is observed above the expected background in the Bπ mass spectrum at a mass ≈5.7 GeV/c2, consistent with the product...

A search for pair production of new heavy leptons has been performed assuming different scenarios for the mixing of the new particles with Standard Model leptons. No candidate events were found in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.6 pb−1 collected by the ALEPH detector at centre-of-mass energies of 130 and 136 GeV. New li...

Searches for charginos and neutralinos produced in e+e− collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 130 and 136 GeV have been performed under the assumptions that R-parity is not conserved, that the dominant R-parity violating coupling involves only leptonic fields, and that the lifetime of the lightest supersymmetric particle can be neglected. In the...

The lifetime of the Bs0 meson is measured in approximately 3 million hadronic Z decays accumulated using the ALEPH detector at LEP from 1991 to 1994. Seven different Ds− decay modes were reconstructed and combined with an opposite sign lepton as evidence of semileptonic Bs0 decays. Two hundred and eight Ds−ℓ+ candidates satisfy selection criteria d...

The B0 - B̄0 average mixing parameter and b forward-backward asymmetry AFB0(b) are measured from a sample of about 4 200 000 Z → qq̄ events recorded with the ALEPH detector at LEP in the years 1990–1995. High transverse momentum electrons and muons produced in b semileptonic decays provide the tag of the quark flavour and of its charge.The average...

Using data obtained with the ALEPH detector at the Z resonance, a measure based on transverse momentum is shown to exhibit a correlation between the two halves of a hadronic event which cannot be explained by energy-momentum conservation, flavour conservation, the imposition of an event axis or imperfect event reconstruction. Two possible explanati...

The Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT, hereafter LAT), the primary instrument on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi) mission, is an imaging, wide field-of-view, high-energy γ-ray telescope, covering the energy range from 20 MeV to more than 300 GeV. During the first years of the mission, the LAT team has gained considerable insight into...

In support of developing the next phase of a proton computed tomography (pCT) scanner with features making it applicable to clinical situations, much insight can be gained through Monte Carlo simulation using Geant4. Careful simulation of energy/range detectors, as well as silicon strip detectors (SSDs), has offered insights into the physical limit...

We present a data acquisition design for a silicon-strip tracking system being constructed as part of a pre-clinical prototype scanner for proton computed tomography (pCT), capable of measuring one to two million proton tracks per second. The front end of the system is based on our ASIC design that handles 64 consecutive channels, including logic f...

Numerical simulations based on the Lambda-CDM model of cosmology predict a large number of as yet unobserved Galactic dark matter satellites. We report the results of a Large Area Telescope (LAT) search for these satellites via the gamma-ray emission expected from the annihilation of weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter. Some dark...

Satellite galaxies of the Milky Way are among the most promising targets for dark matter searches in gamma rays. We present a search for dark matter consisting of weakly interacting massive particles, applying a joint likelihood analysis to 10 satellite galaxies with 24 months of data of the Fermi Large Area Telescope. No dark matter signal is dete...

CONCLUSION Proton CT has the potential to substantially improve the range accuracy of proton beams and to provide a low-dose imaging modality for daily image guidance. Careful evaluation of this novel technique is underway. BACKGROUND Proton CT is a novel tomographic imaging modality, which has become a realistic possibility with the increasing av...

We quantitatively establish the sensitivity to the detection of young to middle-aged, isolated, gamma-ray pulsars through blind searches of Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) data using a Monte Carlo simulation. We detail a sensitivity study of the time-differencing blind search code used to discover gamma-ray pulsars in the first year of observation...

Proton Computed Tomography (pCT) is being developed in support of proton therapy and treatment planning. The aim of pCT, to reconstruct an accurate map of the stopping power (S.P.) in a phantom and, in the future, in patients, is being pursued with a diverse list of detector systems, using the entire arsenal of tracking and energy detectors develop...

We report the discovery of eight gamma-ray pulsars in blind frequency searches using the LAT, onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Five of the eight pulsars are young (tau_c<100 kyr), energetic (Edot>10^36 erg/s), and located within the Galactic plane (|b|<3 deg). The remaining three are older, less energetic, and located off the plane. Fiv...

We present a catalog of high-energy gamma-ray sources detected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT), the primary science instrument on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi), during the first 11 months of the science phase of the mission, which began on 2008 August 4. The First Fermi-LAT catalog (1FGL) contains 1451 sources detected and character...

We present the first catalog of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) detected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT), corresponding to 11 months of data collected in scientific operation mode. The First LAT AGN Catalog (1LAC) includes 671 ?-ray sources located at high Galactic latitudes (|b|>10°) that are detected with a test statistic greater than 25 and asso...

We report on the first Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) measurements of the so-called "extragalactic" diffuse gamma-ray emission (EGB). This component of the diffuse gamma-ray emission is generally considered to have an isotropic or nearly isotropic distribution on the sky with diverse contributions discussed in the literature. The derivation of th...

Dark matter (DM) particle annihilation or decay can produce monochromatic gamma rays readily distinguishable from astrophysical sources. gamma-ray line limits from 30 to 200 GeV obtained from 11 months of Fermi Large Area Space Telescope data from 20-300 GeV are presented using a selection based on requirements for a gamma-ray line analysis, and in...

We report on the observations of 14 dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) with the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope taken during the first 11 months of survey mode operations. The Fermi telescope, which is conducting an all-sky γ-ray survey in the 20 MeV to >300 GeV energy range, provides a new opportunity to test particle dark matter models through the...

The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope discovered a rapid (~5 days duration), high-energy (E > 100 MeV) gamma-ray outburst from a source identified with the blazar PKS 1502+106 (OR 103, S3 1502+10, z = 1.839) starting on 2008 August 5 (~23 UTC, MJD 54683.95), and followed by bright and variable flux over the nex...

We report the detection of high-energy γ-ray emission from two starburst galaxies using data obtained with the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Steady point-like emission above 200 MeV has been detected at significance levels of 6.8σ and 4.8σ, respectively, from sources positionally coincident with locations of the...

We report on the first Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) measurements of the so-called "extra-galactic" diffuse gamma-ray emission (EGB). This component of the diffuse gamma-ray emission is generally considered to have an isotropic or nearly isotropic distribution on the sky with diverse contributions discussed in the literature. The derivation of t...

Context. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is to date the only normal external galaxy that has been detected in high-energy gamma rays. High-energy gamma rays trace particle acceleration processes and gamma-ray observations allow the nature and sites of acceleration to be studied. Aims. We characterise the distribution and sources of cosmic rays in...

We report the observations of PG 1553+113 during the first ∼200 days of Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope science operations, from 2008 August 4 to 2009 February 22 (MJD 54682.7–54884.2). This is the first detailed study of PG 1553+113 in the GeV gamma-ray regime and it allows us to fill a gap of three decades in energy in its spectral energy distrib...

11 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal. Contact authors: Alice K. Harding (ahardingx@yahoo.com), Damien Parent (parent@cenbg.in2p3.fr), Massimiliano Razzano (massimiliano.razzano@pi.infn.it)

We report on observations of TeV-selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs) made during the first 5.5 months of observations with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on-board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi). In total, 96 AGNs were selected for study, each being either (1) a source detected at TeV energies (28 sources) or (2) an object that has b...

We report the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) discovery of high-energy (MeV/GeV) γ-ray emission positionally consistent with the center of the radio galaxy M87, at a source significance of over 10σ in 10 months of all-sky survey data. Following the detections of Cen A and Per A, this makes M87 the third radio galaxy seen with the LAT. The faint po...

Following its launch in 2008 June, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi) began a sky survey in August. The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on Fermi in three months produced a deeper and better resolved map of the gamma-ray sky than any previous space mission. We present here initial results for energies above 100MeV for the 205 most significant (s...