255 research outputs found
Gamma Ray Spectrometric Analysis of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORMS) in Gold Bearing Soil using NaI (Tl) Technique
In this work, the radioactivity in the gold bearing samples collected from the artisanal mining sites in Birnin Gwari Local Government Area, Kaduna State have been determined, experimental measurements of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K activities concentration in the gold bearing samples have been carried out using a NaI(Ti) gamma ray spectrometer. The measured activity concentration for 226Ra have been found to lie in the specific ranges from 1.0545±0.4983Bq/Kg to 3.8355± 0.3476Bq/Kg while the mean concentration is 2.383±0.4415Bq/Kg for 232Th, the activity concentration ranges from 9.3501±1.0260Bq/Kg to 66.7047±0.5700Bq/Kg, while the mean activity concentration of 232Th is 32.3644±9.3440Bq/Kg, for 40K,the activity concentration ranges from 120.9953±6.5319Bq/Kg to 815.8631±10.504Bq/Kg, while the mean activity concentration is 383.7924±72.5436Bq/Kg. The mean absorbed dose rate in the study area is 35.7334nGy/hr; while the mean annual effective dose rate is 0.032mSv/year which is lower when compared with tolerable limits of 1mSv/year. Keywords; Natural Radionuclides,Aactivity Concentrations, Absorbed Dose
Analysis of Zr, Pb and Zn in Soil and Cereal Grown Around Birnin Gwari Artisanal Goldmine, Kaduna State-Nigeria
ABSTRACT: Energy Dispersive X-ra
A search for VHE counterparts of Galactic Fermi bright sources and MeV to TeV spectral characterization
Very high-energy (VHE; E>100 GeV) gamma-rays have been detected from a wide
range of astronomical objects, such as pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), supernova
remnants (SNRs), giant molecular clouds, gamma-ray binaries, the Galactic
Center, active galactic nuclei (AGN), radio galaxies, starburst galaxies, and
possibly star-forming regions as well. At lower energies, observations using
the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard Fermi provide a rich set of data which
can be used to study the behavior of cosmic accelerators in the MeV to TeV
energy bands. In particular, the improved angular resolution of current
telescopes in both bands compared to previous instruments significantly reduces
source confusion and facilitates the identification of associated counterparts
at lower energies. In this paper, a comprehensive search for VHE gamma-ray
sources which are spatially coincident with Galactic Fermi/LAT bright sources
is performed, and the available MeV to TeV spectra of coincident sources are
compared. It is found that bright LAT GeV sources are correlated with TeV
sources, in contrast to previous studies using EGRET data. Moreover, a single
spectral component seems unable to describe the MeV to TeV spectra of many
coincident GeV/TeV sources. It has been suggested that gamma-ray pulsars may be
accompanied by VHE gamma-ray emitting nebulae, a hypothesis that can be tested
with VHE observations of these pulsars.Comment: Astronomy and Astrophysics, in press, 17 pages, 12 figures, 5 table
Phase-resolved Crab pulsar measurements from 25 to 400 GeV with the MAGIC telescopes
We report on observations of the Crab pulsar with the MAGIC telescopes. Our
data were taken in both monoscopic (> 25GeV) and stereoscopic (> 50GeV)
observation modes. Two peaks were detected with both modes and phase-resolved
energy spectra were calculated. By comparing with Fermi- LAT measurements, we
find that the energy spectrum of the Crab pulsar does not follow a power law
with an exponential cutoff, but has an additional hard component, extending up
to at least 400 GeV. This suggests that the emission above 25 GeV is not
dominated by curvature radiation, as suggested in the standard scenarios of the
OG and SG models.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Proc. TAUP 2011, submitted for publication in
JCP
A new, very massive modular Liquid Argon Imaging Chamber to detect low energy off-axis neutrinos from the CNGS beam. (Project MODULAr)
The paper is considering an opportunity for the CERN/GranSasso (CNGS)
neutrino complex, concurrent time-wise with T2K and NOvA, to search for
theta_13 oscillations and CP violation. Compared with large water Cherenkov
(T2K) and fine grained scintillators (NOvA), the LAr-TPC offers a higher
detection efficiency and a lower backgrounds, since virtually all channels may
be unambiguously recognized. The present proposal, called MODULAr, describes a
20 kt fiducial volume LAr-TPC, following very closely the technology developed
for the ICARUS-T60o, and is focused on the following activities, for which we
seek an extended international collaboration:
(1) the neutrino beam from the CERN 400 GeV proton beam and an optimised horn
focussing, eventually with an increased intensity in the framework of the LHC
accelerator improvement program;
(2) A new experimental area LNGS-B, of at least 50000 m3 at 10 km off-axis
from the main Laboratory, eventually upgradable to larger sizes. A location is
under consideration at about 1.2 km equivalent water depth;
(3) A new LAr Imaging detector of at least 20 kt fiducial mass. Such an
increase in the volume over the current ICARUS T600 needs to be carefully
considered. It is concluded that a very large mass is best realised with a set
of many identical, independent units, each of 5 kt, "cloning" the technology of
the T600. Further phases may foresee extensions of MODULAr to meet future
physics goals.
The experiment might reasonably be operational in about 4/5 years, provided a
new hall is excavated in the vicinity of the Gran Sasso Laboratory and adequate
funding and participation are made available.Comment: Correspondig Author: C. Rubbia (E-mail: [email protected]), 33
pages, 11 figure
The K2K SciBar Detector
A new near detector, SciBar, for the K2K long-baseline neutrino oscillation
expe riment was installed to improve the measurement of neutrino energy
spectrum and to study neutrino interactions in the energy region around 1 GeV.
SciBar is a 'fully active' tracking detector with fine segmentation consisting
of plastic scintillator bars. The detector was constructed in summer 2003 and
is taking data since October 2003. The basic design and initial performance is
presented.Comment: 7 pages, 4figures, Contributed to Proceedings of the 10th Vienna
Conference on Instrumentation, Vienna, February 16-21, 200
DNA barcoding of Tribolium castaneum (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) from selected states in Nigeria based on mitochondrial DNA sequences
Tribolium castaneum also known as red flour beetle is one of the most important pests of stored grain product with a cosmopolitan distribution in Nigeria and all over the world contributing to food spoilage. The aim of this study was to characterize the T. castaneum by morphometric and molecular analyses. Samples of yam flour with evidence of the red flour beetles present inside were obtained from four locations in Kwara, Kogi, Oyo and Ekiti states in Nigeria. Morphological and molecular identifications of T. castaneum were carried out using standard methods. A dissecting microscope was used to identify the beetles and measurements were taken using ImageJ. Genomic DNA was extracted and checked on 1.5% agarose gel to confirm the presence of DNA. Species-specific primers were used to amplify mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene of T. castaneum and the PCR amplicon size was also checked on 1.5% agarose. Morphometric measurements showed that the highest mean number (33.00±4.24 mm) of T. castaneum larvae observed was recorded on day 61 in Ilorin and the lowest was in Iwo, Osun state (4.00±0.00 mm) on the same day. The mean of the total body length of larvae from sampling sites was (1.31±0.37 mm) with minimum and (1.63±1.14 mm) maximum lengths respectively. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) between the mean length of the larvae collected from the study locations. Aligned cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI) sequences of 313bp were analyzed. Phylogenetic analysis inferred by maximum likelihood method showed that the T. castaneum sequences analyzed for this study and sequences obtained from GenBank formed a monophyletic group. The molecular and phylogenetic analyses confirmed the presence of a single species of T. castaneum. The results from this study showed low levels of genetic diversity and variability in the studied T. castaneum populations. The observed genetic similarity in T. castaneum could be due to the fact that they were probably from similar origin when compared with those in the GenBank database. However, further studies are needed with more samples to characterize T. castaneum species from stored food grains across Nigeria
A connection between star formation activity and cosmic rays in the starburst galaxy M 82
Although Galactic cosmic rays (protons and nuclei) are widely believed to be
dominantly accelerated by the winds and supernovae of massive stars, definitive
evidence of this origin remains elusive nearly a century after their discovery
[1]. The active regions of starburst galaxies have exceptionally high rates of
star formation, and their large size, more than 50 times the diameter of
similar Galactic regions, uniquely enables reliable calorimetric measurements
of their potentially high cosmic-ray density [2]. The cosmic rays produced in
the formation, life, and death of their massive stars are expected to
eventually produce diffuse gamma-ray emission via their interactions with
interstellar gas and radiation. M 82, the prototype small starburst galaxy, is
predicted to be the brightest starburst galaxy in gamma rays [3, 4]. Here we
report the detection of >700 GeV gamma rays from M 82. From these data we
determine a cosmic-ray density of 250 eV cm-3 in the starburst core of M 82, or
about 500 times the average Galactic density. This result strongly supports
that cosmic-ray acceleration is tied to star formation activity, and that
supernovae and massive-star winds are the dominant accelerators.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures; published in Nature; Version is prior to
Nature's in-house style editing (differences are minimal
Observations of the unidentified gamma-ray source TeV J2032+4130 by VERITAS
TeV J2032+4130 was the first unidentified source discovered at very high
energies (VHE; E 100 GeV), with no obvious counterpart in any other
wavelength. It is also the first extended source to be observed in VHE gamma
rays. Following its discovery, intensive observational campaigns have been
carried out in all wavelengths in order to understand the nature of the object,
which have met with limited success. We report here on a deep observation of
TeV J2032+4130, based on 48.2 hours of data taken from 2009 to 2012 by the
VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) experiment.
The source is detected at 8.7 standard deviations () and is found to be
extended and asymmetric with a width of 9.51.2 along
the major axis and 4.00.5 along the minor axis. The
spectrum is well described by a differential power law with an index of 2.10
0.14 0.21 and a normalization of (9.5
1.6 2.2) 10TeV cm
s at 1 TeV. We interpret these results in the context of multiwavelength
scenarios which particularly favor the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) interpretation
Neutrino masses from new generations
We reconsider the possibility that Majorana masses for the three known
neutrinos are generated radiatively by the presence of a fourth generation and
one right-handed neutrino with Yukawa couplings and a Majorana mass term. We
find that the observed light neutrino mass hierarchy is not compatible with low
energy universality bounds in this minimal scenario, but all present data can
be accommodated with five generations and two right-handed neutrinos. Within
this framework, we explore the parameter space regions which are currently
allowed and could lead to observable effects in neutrinoless double beta decay,
conversion in nuclei and experiments. We
also discuss the detection prospects at LHC.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures. Version to be published. Some typos corrected.
Improved figures 3 and
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