330 research outputs found
Reaction of dialkyl carbonates with alcohols:Defining a scale of the best leaving and entering groups
A series of dialkyl and methyl alkyl carbonates has been synthesized and their reactivity investigated. The behavior of preferential leaving and entering groups for the newly synthesized carbonates has been accurately investigated. Both experimental and computational studies agreed that the scale of leaving groups follows the trend: PhCH2Oâ, MeOâ â„ EtOâ, CH3(CH2)2Oâ, CH3(CH2)7Oâ > (CH3)2CHOâ > (CH3)3COâ. Accordingly, the scale of the entering group has the same trend, with t-butoxide being the worst entering group. A preliminary attempt to rationalize the nucleofugality trends, limited to the (CH3)3COâ and CH3Oâ groups, has indicated that a likely origin of the observed trends lies in the different entropic contributions and solvation effects
The arcade project
The Atmospheric Research for Climate and Astroparticle Detection (ARCADE) project aims to a better comprehension of the limits of applicability, systematics and possible enhancements of the typical techniques used for the measurement of the aerosol attenuation profiles of UV light in cosmic rays and gamma rays experiments. Aerosols are indeed the most variable component in the atmosphere on a short time scale, and experiments based on the detection of the UV light in atmosphere need a continuous monitoring of the aerosol stratification to obtain a reliable evaluation of the properties of the primary particles. The ARCADE project is measuring the aerosol attenuation of UV light due to aerosols with multiple techniques and instruments simultaneously on the same air mass. For this purpose, a Raman + elastic Lidar with a laser source at 355 nm has been built and is currently taking data in Lamar, Colorado together with the Atmospheric Monitoring Telescope (AMT) to detect UV light at a distance of 40 km from the Lidar laser source. The system has been installed on site in 2014 and data were taken every month during moonless nights for one year. A full simulation of the AMT system has been developed. The setup and simulation of the system, together with the AMT calibration system and first collected data are shown
INFN Camera demonstrator for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
The Cherenkov Telescope Array is a world-wide project for a new generation of
ground-based Cherenkov telescopes of the Imaging class with the aim of
exploring the highest energy region of the electromagnetic spectrum. With two
planned arrays, one for each hemisphere, it will guarantee a good sky coverage
in the energy range from a few tens of GeV to hundreds of TeV, with improved
angular resolution and a sensitivity in the TeV energy region better by one
order of magnitude than the currently operating arrays. In order to cover this
wide energy range, three different telescope types are envisaged, with
different mirror sizes and focal plane features. In particular, for the highest
energies a possible design is a dual-mirror Schwarzschild-Couder optical
scheme, with a compact focal plane. A silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) based
camera is being proposed as a solution to match the dimensions of the pixel
(angular size of ~ 0.17 degrees). INFN is developing a camera demonstrator made
by 9 Photo Sensor Modules (PSMs, 64 pixels each, with total coverage 1/4 of the
focal plane) equipped with FBK (Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Italy) Near
UltraViolet High Fill factor SiPMs and Front-End Electronics (FEE) based on a
Target 7 ASIC, a 16 channels fast sampler (up to 2GS/s) with deep buffer,
self-trigger and on-demand digitization capabilities specifically developed for
this purpose. The pixel dimensions of mm lead to a very compact
design with challenging problems of thermal dissipation. A modular structure,
made by copper frames hosting one PSM and the corresponding FEE, has been
conceived, with a water cooling system to keep the required working
temperature. The actual design, the adopted technical solutions and the
achieved results for this demonstrator are presented and discussed.Comment: In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference
(ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands. All CTA contributions at
arXiv:1508.0589
Measurement of Aerosols at the Pierre Auger Observatory
The air fluorescence detectors (FDs) of the Pierre Auger Observatory are
vital for the determination of the air shower energy scale. To compensate for
variations in atmospheric conditions that affect the energy measurement, the
Observatory operates an array of monitoring instruments to record hourly
atmospheric conditions across the detector site, an area exceeding 3,000 square
km. This paper presents results from four instruments used to characterize the
aerosol component of the atmosphere: the Central Laser Facility (CLF), which
provides the FDs with calibrated laser shots; the scanning backscatter lidars,
which operate at three FD sites; the Aerosol Phase Function monitors (APFs),
which measure the aerosol scattering cross section at two FD locations; and the
Horizontal Attenuation Monitor (HAM), which measures the wavelength dependence
of aerosol attenuation.Comment: Contribution to the 30th International Cosmic Ray Conference, Merida
Mexico, July 2007; 4 pages, 4 figure
Azimuthal asymmetry in the risetime of the surface detector signals of the Pierre Auger Observatory
The azimuthal asymmetry in the risetime of signals in Auger surface detector
stations is a source of information on shower development. The azimuthal
asymmetry is due to a combination of the longitudinal evolution of the shower
and geometrical effects related to the angles of incidence of the particles
into the detectors. The magnitude of the effect depends upon the zenith angle
and state of development of the shower and thus provides a novel observable,
, sensitive to the mass composition of cosmic rays
above eV. By comparing measurements with predictions from
shower simulations, we find for both of our adopted models of hadronic physics
(QGSJETII-04 and EPOS-LHC) an indication that the mean cosmic-ray mass
increases slowly with energy, as has been inferred from other studies. However,
the mass estimates are dependent on the shower model and on the range of
distance from the shower core selected. Thus the method has uncovered further
deficiencies in our understanding of shower modelling that must be resolved
before the mass composition can be inferred from .Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO
The Lidar System of the Pierre Auger Observatory
The Pierre Auger Observatory in Malargue, Argentina, is designed to study the origin of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays with energies above 10^18 eV. The energy calibration of the detector is based on a system of four air fluorescence detectors. To obtain reliable calorimetric information from the fluorescence stations, the atmospheric conditions at the experiment's site need to be monitored continuously during operation. One of the components of the observatory's atmospheric monitoring system is a set of four elastic backscatter lidar stations, one station at each of the fluorescence detector sites. This paper describes the design, current status, standard operation procedure, and performance of the lidar system of the Pierre Auger Observatory
A search for point sources of EeV photons
Measurements of air showers made using the hybrid technique developed with
the fluorescence and surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory allow a
sensitive search for point sources of EeV photons anywhere in the exposed sky.
A multivariate analysis reduces the background of hadronic cosmic rays. The
search is sensitive to a declination band from -85{\deg} to +20{\deg}, in an
energy range from 10^17.3 eV to 10^18.5 eV. No photon point source has been
detected. An upper limit on the photon flux has been derived for every
direction. The mean value of the energy flux limit that results from this,
assuming a photon spectral index of -2, is 0.06 eV cm^-2 s^-1, and no celestial
direction exceeds 0.25 eV cm^-2 s^-1. These upper limits constrain scenarios in
which EeV cosmic ray protons are emitted by non-transient sources in the
Galaxy.Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journa
Highlights from the Pierre Auger Observatory
The Pierre Auger Observatory is the world's largest cosmic ray observatory.
Our current exposure reaches nearly 40,000 km str and provides us with an
unprecedented quality data set. The performance and stability of the detectors
and their enhancements are described. Data analyses have led to a number of
major breakthroughs. Among these we discuss the energy spectrum and the
searches for large-scale anisotropies. We present analyses of our X
data and show how it can be interpreted in terms of mass composition. We also
describe some new analyses that extract mass sensitive parameters from the 100%
duty cycle SD data. A coherent interpretation of all these recent results opens
new directions. The consequences regarding the cosmic ray composition and the
properties of UHECR sources are briefly discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures, talk given at the 33rd International Cosmic Ray
Conference, Rio de Janeiro 201
Measurement of the Depth of Maximum of Extensive Air Showers above 10^18 eV
We describe the measurement of the depth of maximum, Xmax, of the
longitudinal development of air showers induced by cosmic rays. Almost four
thousand events above 10^18 eV observed by the fluorescence detector of the
Pierre Auger Observatory in coincidence with at least one surface detector
station are selected for the analysis. The average shower maximum was found to
evolve with energy at a rate of (106 +35/-21) g/cm^2/decade below 10^(18.24 +/-
0.05) eV and (24 +/- 3) g/cm^2/decade above this energy. The measured
shower-to-shower fluctuations decrease from about 55 to 26 g/cm^2. The
interpretation of these results in terms of the cosmic ray mass composition is
briefly discussed.Comment: Accepted for publication by PR
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