Parallel Neutrino Triggers using GPUs for an underwater telescope

Graphics Processing Units are high performance co-processors originally intended to improve the use and the acceleration of computer graphics applications. Because of their performance, researchers have extended their use beyond the computer graphics scope. We have investigated the possibility of implementing online neutrino trigger algorithms in the KM3Net-It experiment using a CPU-GPU system. The results of a neutrino trigger simulation on a NEMO Phase II tower and a KM3-It 14 floors tower are reported

Compensation of the laser parameters fluctuations in large ring laser gyros: a Kalman filter approach

He-Ne ring laser gyroscopes are, at present, the most precise devices for absolute angular velocity measurements. Limitations to their performance come from the non–linear dynamics of the laser. Following the Lamb semiclassical theory, we find a set of critical parameters affecting the time stability of the system. We propose a method for estimating the long term drift of the laser parameters and for filtering out the laser dynamics effects from the rotation measurement. The parameter estimation procedure, based on the perturbative solutions of the laser dynamics, allow us to apply Kalman Filter theory for the estimation of the angular velocity. Results of a comprehensive Monte Carlo simulation and results of a preliminary analysis on experimental data from the ring laser prototype G-Pisa are shown and discussed

Laser gyroscopes for very high sensitive applications 2012 European Frequency and Time Forum

We present a summary of the recent results obtained with the “G-Pisa” laser gyroscope prototype in the field of rotational metrology. The experimental apparatus consists in an He-Ne laser having a planar square cavity 1.35 m in side that can be operated both in the vertical and in the horizontal plane. For about one year, the ring laser has been utilized by the Virgo gravitational wave interferometer with the aim of estimating and monitoring the local rotational noise which is degrading the performances of its inertial suspensions. Results in the field of environmental monitoring for the improvement of the suspension control as well as the results in the field of rotational seismology are presented. In the last part of the paper we present some considerations about the possibility of performing a ground-based General Relativity test using an array of ring lasers

A ring lasers array for fundamental physics

After reviewing the importance of light as a probe for testing the structure of space-time, we describe the GINGER project. GINGER will be a three-dimensional array of large size ring-lasers able to measure the de Sitter and Lense-Thirring effects. The instrument will be located at the underground laboratory of GranSasso, in Italy. We describe the preliminary actions and measurements already under way and present the full road map to GINGER. The intermediate apparatuses GP2 and GINGERino are described. GINGER is expected to be fully operating in few years.Comment: 11 pages, in Comptes Rendus Physique, Special Issue "The Sagnac effect: 100 years later

A laser gyroscope system to detect the gravito-magnetic effect on Earth

Ring lasers are inertial sensors for angular velocity based on the Sagnac effect. In recent years they have reached a very high sensitivity and accuracy; the best performing one, the ring Laser G in Wettzell (Germany), a square ring with 16 m perimeter, has reached a sensitivity of 12prad/s very close to the shot noise limit inferred from ring-down time measurements. On this basis it is expected that an array of six square ring lasers of 36 m perimeter, can perform a 1% accuracy test for the measurement of the Lense-Thirring frame dragging after 2 years of integration time. Essential for this measurement is the comparison between the Earth angular velocity and orientation in space measured with the ring array and compared to the measurement series maintained by the International Earth Rotation and Reference System Service (IERS), which measures Earth Rotation and pole position with respect to remote quasars. It has been shown that the accuracy of G in Wettzell is limited by the low frequency motion of the near surface laboratory, which is of the order of several prad/s, roughly 100 times larger than the Lense-Thirring contribution. For this reason the entire experiment should be placed in a quite underground laboratory, where these perturbations are reduced. The feasibility to properly place such a device inside the GranSasso INFN National Laboratory has been investigated

Deep seawater inherent optical properties in the Southern Ionian Sea

The NEMO (NEutrino Mediterranean Observatory) Collaboration has been carrying out since 1998 an evaluation programme of deep sea sites suitable for the construction of the future Mediterranean km(3) Cerenkov neutrino telescope. We investigated the seawater optical and oceanographic properties of several deep sea marine areas close to the Italian Coast. Inherent optical properties (light absorption and attenuation coefficients) have been measured as a function of depth using an experimental apparatus equipped with standard oceanographic probes and the commercial transmissometer AC9 manufactured by WETLabs. This paper reports on the visible light absorption and attenuation coefficients measured in deep seawater of a marine region located in the Southern Ionian Sea, 60-100 km SE of Cape, Passero (Sicily). Data show that blue light absorption coefficient is about 0.015 m(-1) (corresponding to an absorption length of 67 m) close to the one of optically pure water and it does not show seasonal variation