174 research outputs found
New early Triassic Lingulidae (Brachiopoda) genera and species from South China
Two new genera, Sinolingularia gen. nov. and Sinoglottidia gen. nov., together with three new species, Sinolingularia huananensis gen. et sp. nov., Sinolingularia yini gen. et sp. nov. and Sinoglottidia archboldi gen. et sp. nov., are described on the basis of a large collection of well-preserved specimens from several sections straddling the Permian - Triassic boundary in South China. <br /
Search for Point Sources of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays Above 40 EeV Using a Maximum Likelihood Ratio Test
We present the results of a search for cosmic ray point sources at energies
above 40 EeV in the combined data sets recorded by the AGASA and HiRes stereo
experiments. The analysis is based on a maximum likelihood ratio test using the
probability density function for each event rather than requiring an a priori
choice of a fixed angular bin size. No statistically significant clustering of
events consistent with a point source is found.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journa
Search for Correlations between HiRes Stereo Events and Active Galactic Nuclei
We have searched for correlations between the pointing directions of
ultrahigh energy cosmic rays observed by the High Resolution Fly's Eye
experiment and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) visible from its northern
hemisphere location. No correlations, other than random correlations, have been
found. We report our results using search parameters prescribed by the Pierre
Auger collaboration. Using these parameters, the Auger collaboration concludes
that a positive correlation exists for sources visible to their southern
hemisphere location. We also describe results using two methods for determining
the chance probability of correlations: one in which a hypothesis is formed
from scanning one half of the data and tested on the second half, and another
which involves a scan over the entire data set. The most significant
correlation found occurred with a chance probability of 24%.Comment: 13 pages, 1 table, 5 figure
An upper limit on the electron-neutrino flux from the HiRes detector
Air-fluorescence detectors such as the High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes)
detector are very sensitive to upward-going, Earth-skimming ultrahigh energy
electron-neutrino-induced showers. This is due to the relatively large
interaction cross sections of these high-energy neutrinos and to the
Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) effect. The LPM effect causes a significant
decrease in the cross sections for bremsstrahlung and pair production, allowing
charged-current electron-neutrino-induced showers occurring deep in the Earth's
crust to be detectable as they exit the Earth into the atmosphere. A search for
upward-going neutrino-induced showers in the HiRes-II monocular dataset has
yielded a null result. From an LPM calculation of the energy spectrum of
charged particles as a function of primary energy and depth for
electron-induced showers in rock, we calculate the shape of the resulting
profile of these showers in air. We describe a full detector Monte Carlo
simulation to determine the detector response to upward-going
electron-neutrino-induced cascades and present an upper limit on the flux of
electron-neutrinos.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures. submitted to Astrophysical Journa
Observation of the Ankle and Evidence for a High-Energy Break in the Cosmic Ray Spectrum
We have measured the cosmic ray spectrum at energies above eV using
the two air fluorescence detectors of the High Resolution Fly's Eye experiment
operating in monocular mode. We describe the detector, PMT and atmospheric
calibrations, and the analysis techniques for the two detectors. We fit the
spectrum to models describing galactic and extragalactic sources. Our measured
spectrum gives an observation of a feature known as the ``ankle'' near eV, and strong evidence for a suppression near eV.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures. To appear in Physics Letters B. Accepted versio
A Study of the Composition of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays Using the High Resolution Fly's Eye
The composition of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) is measured with the
High Resolution Fly's Eye cosmic ray observatory (HiRes) data using the Xmax
technique. Data were collected in stereo between 1999 November and 2001
September. The data are reconstructed with well-determined geometry.
Measurements of the atmospheric transmission are incorporated in the
reconstruction. The detector resolution is found to be 30 g cm^-2 in Xmax and
13% in Energy. The Xmax elongation rate between 10^18.0 eV and 10^19.4 eV is
measured to be 54.5 +/- 6.5 (stat) +/- 4.5 (sys) g cm^-2 per decade. This is
compared to predictions using the QGSJet01 and SIBYLL 2.1 hadronic interaction
models for both protons and iron nuclei. CORSIKA-generated Extensive Air
Showers (EAS) are incorporated directly into a detailed detector Monte Carlo
program. The elongation rate and the Xmax distribution widths are consistent
with a constant or slowly changing and predominantly light composition. A
simple model containing only protons and iron nuclei is compared to QGSJet and
SIBYLL. The best agreement between the model and the data is at 80% protons for
QGSJet and 60% protons for SIBYLL.Comment: 52 pages, 27 figures. Revised Fig. 10 caption, improved Fig. 23,
resubmitted to ApJ. (Previously revised to address referee's comments.)
(Originally 37 pages, 13 figures. Submitted to ApJ
Studies of systematic uncertainties in the estimation of the monocular aperture of the HiRes experiment
We have studied several sources of systematic uncertainty in calculating the aperture of the High Resolution Fly's Eye experiment (HiRes) in monocular mode, primarily as they affect the HiRes-II site. The energy dependent aperture is determined with detailed Monte Carlo simulations of the air showers and the detector response. We have studied the effects of changes to the input energy spectrum and composition used in the simulation. A realistic shape of the input spectrum is used in our analysis in order to avoid biases in the aperture estimate due to the limited detector resolution. We have examined the effect of exchanging our input spectrum with a simple E^{-3} power law in the "ankle" region. Uncertainties in the input composition are shown to be significant for energies below about 10^{18} eV for data from the HiRes-II detector. Another source of uncertainties is the choice of the hadronic interaction model in the air shower generator. We compare the aperture estimate for two different models: QGSJet01 and SIBYLL 2.1. We also describe the implications of employing an atmospheric database with hourly measurements of the aerosol component, instead of using an average as has been used in our previously published measurements of the monocular spectra
First Observation of the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin Suppression
The High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) experiment has observed the
Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin suppression (called the GZK cutoff) with a statistical
significance of five standard deviations. HiRes' measurement of the flux of
ultrahigh energy (UHE) cosmic rays shows a sharp suppression at an energy of eV, consistent with the expected cutoff energy. We observe the
``ankle'' of the cosmic-ray energy spectrum as well, at an energy of eV. We describe the experiment, data collection, analysis, and
estimate the systematic uncertainties. The results are presented and the
calculation of the statistical significance of our observation is described.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted by and to appear in PR
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