Dust Removal Technology Demonstration for a Lunar Habitat

We have developed an Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS), an active dust mitigation technology with applications to solar panels, thermal radiators, optical systems, visors, seals and connectors. This active technology is capable of removing dust and granular material with diameters as large as several hundred microns. In this paper, we report on the development of three types of EDS systems for NASA's Habitat Demonstration Unit (HDU). A transparent EDS 20 cm in diameter with indium tin oxide electrodes on a 0.1 mm-thick polyethylene terephtalate (PET) film was constructed for viewport dust protection. Two opaque EDS systems with copper electrodes on 0.1 mm-thick Kapton were also built to demonstrate dust removal on the doors of the HDU. A lotus coating that minimizes dust adhesion was added to one of the last two EDS systems to demonstrate the effectiveness of the combined systems

Fragmentation studies of high energy ions using CR39 nuclear track detectors

We report on the measurements of the total charge changing fragmentation cross sections in high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions using Fe, Si and Pb incident ions. Several stacks of CR39 nuclear track detectors with different target combinations were exposed at normal incidence to high energy accelerator beams to integrated densities of about 2000 ions/cm^2. The nuclear track detector foils were chemically etched, and ion tracks were measured using an automatic image analyzer system. The cross section determination is based on the charge identification of beam ions and their fragments and on the reconstruction of their path through the stacks.Comment: 5 pages, 4 EPS figures. Corrected Eq. 3 and Table 1. Presented at the 10th Inter. Symp. Radiat. Phys., Coimbra, Portugal, 17-22 Sept. 200

Search for spontaneous muon emission from lead nuclei

We describe a possible search for muonic radioactivity from lead nuclei using the base elements ("bricks" composed by lead and nuclear emulsion sheets) of the long-baseline OPERA neutrino experiment. We present the results of a Monte Carlo simulation concerning the expected event topologies and estimates of the background events. Using few bricks, we could reach a good sensitivity level.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Search for muon-neutrino emission from GeV and TeV gamma-ray flaring blazars using five years of data of the ANTARES telescope

The ANTARES telescope is well-suited for detecting astrophysical transient neutrino sources as it can observe a full hemisphere of the sky at all times with a high duty cycle. The background due to atmospheric particles can be drastically reduced, and the point-source sensitivity improved, by selecting a narrow time window around possible neutrino production periods. Blazars, being radio-loud active galactic nuclei with their jets pointing almost directly towards the observer, are particularly attractive potential neutrino point sources, since they are among the most likely sources of the very high-energy cosmic rays. Neutrinos and gamma rays may be produced in hadronic interactions with the surrounding medium. Moreover, blazars generally show high time variability in their light curves at different wavelengths and on various time scales. This paper presents a time-dependent analysis applied to a selection of flaring gamma-ray blazars observed by the FERMI/LAT experiment and by TeV Cherenkov telescopes using five years of ANTARES data taken from 2008 to 2012. The results are compatible with fluctuations of the background. Upper limits on the neutrino fluence have been produced and compared to the measured gamma-ray spectral energy distribution.Comment: 27 pages, 16 figure

The ANTARES Collaboration: Contributions to ICRC 2017 Part I: Neutrino astronomy (diffuse fluxes and point sources)

Papers on neutrino astronomy (diffuse fluxes and point sources, prepared for the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2017, Busan, South Korea) by the ANTARES Collaboratio

The Antares Collaboration : Contributions to the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2015, The Hague)

The ANTARES detector, completed in 2008, is the largest neutrino telescope in the Northern hemisphere. Located at a depth of 2.5 km in the Mediterranean Sea, 40 km off the Toulon shore, its main goal is the search for astrophysical high energy neutrinos. In this paper we collect the 21 contributions of the ANTARES collaboration to the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2015). The scientific output is very rich and the contributions included in these proceedings cover the main physics results, ranging from steady point sources, diffuse searches, multi-messenger analyses to exotic physics

Search for anomalies in the neutrino sector with muon spectrometers and large LArTPC imaging detectors at CERN

A new experiment with an intense ~2 GeV neutrino beam at CERN SPS is proposed in order to definitely clarify the possible existence of additional neutrino states, as pointed out by neutrino calibration source experiments, reactor and accelerator experiments and measure the corresponding oscillation parameters. The experiment is based on two identical LAr-TPCs complemented by magnetized spectrometers detecting electron and muon neutrino events at Far and Near positions, 1600 m and 300 m from the proton target, respectively. The ICARUS T600 detector, the largest LAr-TPC ever built with a size of about 600 ton of imaging mass, now running in the LNGS underground laboratory, will be moved at the CERN Far position. An additional 1/4 of the T600 detector (T150) will be constructed and located in the Near position. Two large area spectrometers will be placed downstream of the two LAr-TPC detectors to perform charge identification and muon momentum measurements from sub-GeV to several GeV energy range, greatly complementing the physics capabilities. This experiment will offer remarkable discovery potentialities, collecting a very large number of unbiased events both in the neutrino and antineutrino channels, largely adequate to definitely settle the origin of the observed neutrino-related anomalies.Comment: Contribution to the European Strategy for Particle Physics - Open Symposium Preparatory Group, Kracow 10-12 September 201

Measurement of the atmospheric muon flux with the NEMO Phase-1 detector

The NEMO Collaboration installed and operated an underwater detector including prototypes of the critical elements of a possible underwater km3 neutrino telescope: a four-floor tower (called Mini-Tower) and a Junction Box. The detector was developed to test some of the main systems of the km3 detector, including the data transmission, the power distribution, the timing calibration and the acoustic positioning systems as well as to verify the capabilities of a single tridimensional detection structure to reconstruct muon tracks. We present results of the analysis of the data collected with the NEMO Mini-Tower. The position of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) is determined through the acoustic position system. Signals detected with PMTs are used to reconstruct the tracks of atmospheric muons. The angular distribution of atmospheric muons was measured and results compared with Monte Carlo simulations.Comment: Astrop. Phys., accepte

The ANTARES Collaboration: Contributions to ICRC 2017 Part II: The multi-messenger program

Papers on the ANTARES multi-messenger program, prepared for the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2017, Busan, South Korea) by the ANTARES Collaboratio