Global anisotropy of arrival directions of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays: capabilities of space-based detectors

Planned space-based ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray detectors (TUS, JEM-EUSO and S-EUSO) are best suited for searches of global anisotropies in the distribution of arrival directions of cosmic-ray particles because they will be able to observe the full sky with a single instrument. We calculate quantitatively the strength of anisotropies associated with two models of the origin of the highest-energy particles: the extragalactic model (sources follow the distribution of galaxies in the Universe) and the superheavy dark-matter model (sources follow the distribution of dark matter in the Galactic halo). Based on the expected exposure of the experiments, we estimate the optimal strategy for efficient search of these effects.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, iopart style. v.2: discussion of the effect of the cosmic magnetic fields added; other minor changes. Simulated UHECR skymaps available at http://livni.inr.ac.ru/UHECRskymaps

Beam test results for the FiberGLAST instrument

The FiberGLAST scintillating fiber telescope is a large-area instrument concept for NASA\u27s GLAST program. The detector is designed for high-energy gamma-ray astronomy, and uses plastic scintillating fibers to combine a photon pair tracking telescope and a calorimeter into a single instrument. A small prototype detector has been tested with high energy photons at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. We report on the result of this beam test, including scintillating fiber performance, photon track reconstruction, angular resolution, and detector efficiency

Development and testing of a fiber/multianode photomultiplier system for use on FiberGLAST

A scintillating fiber detector is currently being studied for the NASA Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) mission. This detector utilizes modules composed of a thin converter sheet followed by an x, y plane of scintillating fibers to examine the shower of particles created by high energy gamma-rays interacting in the converter material. The detector is composed of a tracker with 90 such modular planes and a calorimeter with 36 planes. The two major component of this detector are the scintillating fibers and their associated photodetectors. Here we present current status of development and test result of both of these. The Hamamatsu R5900-00-M64 multianode photomultiplier tube (MAPMT) is the baseline readout device. A characterization of this device has been performed including noise, cross- talk, gain variation, vibration, and thermal/vacuum test. A prototype fiber/MAPMT system has been tested at the Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices at Louisiana State University with a photon beam and preliminary results are presented

Composition of UHECR and the Pierre Auger Observatory Spectrum

We fit the recently published Pierre Auger ultra-high energy cosmic ray spectrum assuming that either nucleons or nuclei are emitted at the sources. We consider the simplified cases of pure proton, or pure oxygen, or pure iron injection. We perform an exhaustive scan in the source evolution factor, the spectral index, the maximum energy of the source spectrum Z E_{max}, and the minimum distance to the sources. We show that the Pierre Auger spectrum agrees with any of the source compositions we assumed. For iron, in particular, there are two distinct solutions with high and low E_{max} (e.g. 6.4 10^{20} eV and 2 10^{19} eV) respectively which could be distinguished by either a large fraction or the near absence of proton primaries at the highest energies. We raise the possibility that an iron dominated injected flux may be in line with the latest composition measurement from the Pierre Auger Observatory where a hint of heavy element dominance is seen.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures (33 panels)- Uses iopart.cls and iopart12.clo- In version 2: addition of a few sentences and two reference

Dark Matter Results from 100 Live Days of XENON100 Data

We present results from the direct search for dark matter with the XENON100 detector, installed underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso of INFN, Italy. XENON100 is a two-phase time projection chamber with a 62 kg liquid xenon target. Interaction vertex reconstruction in three dimensions with millimeter precision allows to select only the innermost 48 kg as ultra-low background fiducial target. In 100.9 live days of data, acquired between January and June 2010, no evidence for dark matter is found. Three candidate events were observed in a pre-defined signal region with an expected background of 1.8 +/- 0.6 events. This leads to the most stringent limit on dark matter interactions today, excluding spin-independent elastic WIMP-nucleon scattering cross-sections above 7.0x10^-45 cm^2 for a WIMP mass of 50 GeV/c^2 at 90% confidence level.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures; matches accepted versio

Implications on Inelastic Dark Matter from 100 Live Days of XENON100 Data

The XENON100 experiment has recently completed a dark matter run with 100.9 live-days of data, taken from January to June 2010. Events in a 48kg fiducial volume in the energy range between 8.4 and 44.6 keVnr have been analyzed. A total of three events have been found in the predefined signal region, compatible with the background prediction of (1.8 \pm 0.6) events. Based on this analysis we present limits on the WIMP-nucleon cross section for inelastic dark matter. With the present data we are able to rule out the explanation for the observed DAMA/LIBRA modulation as being due to inelastic dark matter scattering off iodine at a 90% confidence level.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure

Comment on "On the subtleties of searching for dark matter with liquid xenon detectors"

In a recent manuscript (arXiv:1208.5046) Peter Sorensen claims that XENON100's upper limits on spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross sections for WIMP masses below 10 GeV "may be understated by one order of magnitude or more". Having performed a similar, though more detailed analysis prior to the submission of our new result (arXiv:1207.5988), we do not confirm these findings. We point out the rationale for not considering the described effect in our final analysis and list several potential problems with his study.Comment: 3 pages, no figure