690 research outputs found
A fast and stable approximate maximum-likelihood method for template fits
Barlow and Beeston presented an exact likelihood for the problem of fitting a
composite model consisting of binned templates obtained from Monte-Carlo
simulation which are fitted to equally binned data. Solving the exact
likelihood is technically challenging, and therefore Conway proposed an
approximate likelihood to address these challenges. In this paper, a new
approximate likelihood is derived from the exact Barlow-Beeston one. The new
approximate likelihood and Conway's likelihood are generalized to problems of
fitting weighted data with weighted templates. The performance of estimates
obtained with all three likelihoods is studied on two toy examples: a simple
one and a challenging one. The performance of the approximate likelihoods is
comparable to the exact Barlow-Beeston likelihood, while the performance in
fits with weighted templates is better. The approximate likelihoods evaluate
faster than the Barlow-Beeston one when the number of bins is large
Data-driven model of the cosmic-ray flux and mass composition from 10 GeV to GeV
We present a new parametrization of the cosmic-ray flux and its mass composition over an energy range from 10 GeV to GeV. Our approach is data-driven and relies on theoretical assumptions as little as possible. We combine measurements of the flux of individual elements from high-precision satellites and balloon experiments with indirect measurements of mass groups from the leading air shower experiments. To our knowledge, we provide the first fit of this kind that consistently takes both statistical and systematic uncertainties into account. The uncertainty on the energy scales of individual experiments is handled explicitly in our mathematical approach. Part of our results is a common energy scale and adjustment factors for the energy scales of the participating experiments. Our fit has a reduced -value of 0.5, showing that experimental data are in good agreement, if systematic uncertainties are considered. Our model may serve as a world-average of the measured fluxes for individual elements from proton to iron from 10 GeV to GeV. It is useful as an input for simulations or theoretical computations based on cosmic rays. The experimental uncertainties of the input data are captured in a covariance matrix, which can be propagated into derived quantities.Peer Reviewe
Measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum above eV using inclined events detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory
A measurement of the cosmic-ray spectrum for energies exceeding
eV is presented, which is based on the analysis of showers
with zenith angles greater than detected with the Pierre Auger
Observatory between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2013. The measured spectrum
confirms a flux suppression at the highest energies. Above
eV, the "ankle", the flux can be described by a power law with
index followed by
a smooth suppression region. For the energy () at which the
spectral flux has fallen to one-half of its extrapolated value in the absence
of suppression, we find
eV.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO
All-sky search for time-integrated neutrino emission from astrophysical sources with 7 years of IceCube data
Since the recent detection of an astrophysical flux of high energy neutrinos,
the question of its origin has not yet fully been answered. Much of what is
known about this flux comes from a small event sample of high neutrino purity,
good energy resolution, but large angular uncertainties. In searches for
point-like sources, on the other hand, the best performance is given by using
large statistics and good angular reconstructions. Track-like muon events
produced in neutrino interactions satisfy these requirements. We present here
the results of searches for point-like sources with neutrinos using data
acquired by the IceCube detector over seven years from 2008--2015. The
discovery potential of the analysis in the northern sky is now significantly
below , on average
lower than the sensitivity of the previously published analysis of four
years exposure. No significant clustering of neutrinos above background
expectation was observed, and implications for prominent neutrino source
candidates are discussed.Comment: 19 pages, 17 figures, 3 tables; ; submitted to The Astrophysical
Journa
The contribution of Fermi-2LAC blazars to the diffuse TeV-PeV neutrino flux
The recent discovery of a diffuse cosmic neutrino flux extending up to PeV
energies raises the question of which astrophysical sources generate this
signal. One class of extragalactic sources which may produce such high-energy
neutrinos are blazars. We present a likelihood analysis searching for
cumulative neutrino emission from blazars in the 2nd Fermi-LAT AGN catalogue
(2LAC) using an IceCube neutrino dataset 2009-12 which was optimised for the
detection of individual sources. In contrast to previous searches with IceCube,
the populations investigated contain up to hundreds of sources, the largest one
being the entire blazar sample in the 2LAC catalogue. No significant excess is
observed and upper limits for the cumulative flux from these populations are
obtained. These constrain the maximum contribution of the 2LAC blazars to the
observed astrophysical neutrino flux to be or less between around 10
TeV and 2 PeV, assuming equipartition of flavours at Earth and a single
power-law spectrum with a spectral index of . We can still exclude that
the 2LAC blazars (and sub-populations) emit more than of the observed
neutrinos up to a spectral index as hard as in the same energy range.
Our result takes into account that the neutrino source count distribution is
unknown, and it does not assume strict proportionality of the neutrino flux to
the measured 2LAC -ray signal for each source. Additionally, we
constrain recent models for neutrino emission by blazars.Comment: 18 pages, 22 figure
Two-particle correlations in azimuthal angle and pseudorapidity in inelastic p + p interactions at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron
Results on two-particle ΔηΔϕ correlations in inelastic p + p interactions at 20, 31, 40, 80, and 158 GeV/c are presented. The measurements were performed using the large acceptance NA61/SHINE hadron spectrometer at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. The data show structures which can be attributed mainly to effects of resonance decays, momentum conservation, and quantum statistics. The results are compared with the Epos and UrQMD models.ISSN:1434-6044ISSN:1434-605
Neutrino interferometry for high-precision tests of Lorentz symmetry with IceCube
We acknowledge the support from the following agencies: USA—US National Science Foundation–Office of Polar Programs, US National Science Foundation–Physics Division, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Center for High Throughput Computing (CHTC) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Open Science Grid (OSG), Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), US Department of Energy–National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, Particle astrophysics research computing centre at the University of Maryland, Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research at Michigan State University and Astroparticle physics computational facility at Marquette University; Belgium—Funds for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS and FWO), FWO Odysseus and Big Science programmes, and Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (Belspo); Germany—Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics (HAP), Initiative and Networking Fund of the Helmholtz Association, Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY), and High Performance Computing cluster of the RWTH Aachen; Sweden—Swedish Research Council, Swedish Polar Research Secretariat, Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC), and Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation; Australia—Australian Research Council; Canada—Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Calcul Québec, Compute Ontario, Canada Foundation for Innovation, WestGrid and Compute Canada; Denmark—Villum Fonden, Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF); New Zealand—Marsden Fund; Japan—Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) and Institute for Global Prominent Research (IGPR) of Chiba University; Korea—National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF); Switzerland—Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF); UK—Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and The Royal Society
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