A feasibility study of ortho-positronium decays measurement with the J-PET scanner based on plastic scintillators

Abstract

We present a study of the application of the Jagiellonian Positron Emission Tomograph (J-PET) for the registration of gamma quanta from decays of ortho-positronium (o-Ps). The J-PET is the first positron emission tomography scanner based on organic scintillators in contrast to all current PET scanners based on inorganic crystals. Monte Carlo simulations show that the J-PET as an axially symmetric and high acceptance scanner can be used as a multi-purpose detector well suited to pursue research including e.g. tests of discrete symmetries in decays of ortho-positronium in addition to the medical imaging. The gamma quanta originating from o-Ps decay interact in the plastic scintillators predominantly via the Compton effect, making the direct measurement of their energy impossible. Nevertheless, it is shown in this paper that the J-PET scanner will enable studies of the o-Ps$\to 3\gamma$ decays with angular and energy resolution equal to $\sigma (\theta )\approx 0.4^{\circ }$ and $\sigma (E)\approx 4.1$ keV, respectively. An order of magnitude shorter decay time of signals from plastic scintillators with respect to the inorganic crystals results not only in better timing properties crucial for the reduction of physical and instrumental background, but also suppresses significantly the pileups, thus enabling compensation of the lower efficiency of the plastic scintillators by performing measurements with higher positron source activities.

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• Simulating NEMA characteristics of the modular total-body J-PET scanner -- an economic total-body PET from plastic scintillators
• Positronium Physics and Biomedical Applications
• Measurement of gamma quantum interaction point in plastic scintillator with WLS strips
• Multichannel FPGA based MVT system for high precision time (20~ps~RMS) and charge measurement
• Witnessing Entanglement In Compton Scattering Processes Via Mutually Unbiased Bases
• Feasibility studies of the polarization of photons beyond the optical wavelength regime with the J-PET detector
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• QED and Fundamental Symmetries in Positronium Decays
• The J-PET detector -- a tool for precision studies of ortho-positronium decays
• Discrete symmetries tested at 10${}^{-4}$ precision using linear polarization of photons from positronium annihilations
• Setup of Compton polarimeters for measuring entangled annihilation photons
• J-PET Framework: Software platform for PET tomography data reconstruction and analysis
• Analysis procedure of the positronium lifetime spectra for the J-PET detector
• Commissioning of the J-PET detector in view of the positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy
• Commissioning of the J-PET detector for studies of decays of positronium atoms
• Demonstrating a single-block 3D-segmented plastic-scintillator detector
• J-PET detection modules based on plastic scintillators for performing studies with positron and positronium beams
• Potential for biomedical applications of Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy (PALS)
• A feasibility study of the time reversal violation test based on polarization of annihilation photons from the decay of ortho-Positronium with the J-PET detector
• Estimating relationship between the Time Over Threshold and energy loss by photons in plastic scintillators used in the J-PET scanner
• Time calibration of the J-PET detector
• Feasibility study of the time reversal symmetry tests in decays of metastable positronium atoms with the J-PET detector
• Status and Prospects of Discrete Symmetries Tests in Positronium Decays with the J-PET Detector