945 research outputs found
Strategy Implementation for the CTA Atmospheric Monitoring Program
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation facility of
Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes. It will reach unprecedented
sensitivity and energy resolution in very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy. CTA
will detect Cherenkov light emitted within an atmospheric shower of particles
initiated by cosmic-gamma rays or cosmic rays entering the Earth's atmosphere.
From the combination of images the Cherenkov light produces in the telescopes,
one is able to infer the primary particle energy and direction. A correct
energy estimation can be thus performed only if the local atmosphere is well
characterized. The atmosphere not only affects the shower development itself,
but also the Cherenkov photon transmission from the emission point in the
particle shower, at about 10-20 km above the ground, to the detector. Cherenkov
light on the ground is peaked in the UV-blue region, and therefore molecular
and aerosol extinction phenomena are important. The goal of CTA is to control
systematics in energy reconstruction to better than 10%. For this reason, a
careful and continuous monitoring and characterization of the atmosphere is
required. In addition, CTA will be operated as an observatory, with data made
public along with appropriate analysis tools. High-level data quality can only
be ensured if the atmospheric properties are consistently and continuously
taken into account. In this contribution, we concentrate on discussing the
implementation strategy for the various atmospheric monitoring instruments
currently under discussion in CTA. These includes Raman lidars and ceilometers,
stellar photometers and others available both from commercial providers and
public research centres.Comment: (6 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of the 2nd AtmoHEAD Conference,
Padova, Italy May 19-21, 2014
Documenting and modeling the accretion of surface and subsoil organic carbon in agricultural Inceptisols reclaimed from Mediterranean sea marshes in Sardinia
High input agriculture in productive Inceptisols that were reclaimed from sea marshes offers an opportunity to study the increase of soil organic carbon (SOC) in soils with originally low SOC. We documented the current SOC content and its distribution with depth for several soil profiles
The calibration of the first Large-Sized Telescope of the Cherenkov Telescope Array
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) represents the next generation of very
high-energy gamma-ray observatory, which will provide broad coverage of gamma
rays from 20 GeV to 300 TeV with unprecedented sensitivity. CTA will employ
three different sizes of telescopes, and the Large-Sized Telescopes (LSTs) of
23-m diameter dish will provide the sensitivity in the lowest energies down to
20 GeV. The first LST prototype has been inaugurated in October 2018 at La
Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) and has entered the commissioning phase. The
camera of the LST consists of 265 PMT modules. Each module is equipped with
seven high-quantum-efficiency Photomultiplier Tubes (PMTs), a slow control
board, and a readout board. Ensuring high uniformity and precise
characterization of the camera is the key aspects leading to the best
performance and low systematic uncertainty of the LST cameras. Therefore, prior
to the installation on site, we performed a quality check of all PMT modules.
Moreover, the absolute calibration of light throughput is essential to
reconstruct the amount of light received by the telescope. The amount of light
is affected by the atmosphere, by the telescope optical system and camera, and
can be calibrated using the ring-shaped images produced by cosmic-ray muons. In
this contribution, we will show the results of off-site quality control of PMT
modules and on-site calibration using muon rings. We will also highlight the
status of the development of Silicon Photomultiplier modules that could be
considered as a replacement of PMT modules for further improvement of the
camera
LATTES: a novel detector concept for a gamma-ray experiment in the Southern hemisphere
The Large Array Telescope for Tracking Energetic Sources (LATTES), is a novel
concept for an array of hybrid EAS array detectors, composed of a Resistive
Plate Counter array coupled to a Water Cherenkov Detector, planned to cover
gamma rays from less than 100 GeV up to 100 TeVs. This experiment, to be
installed at high altitude in South America, could cover the existing gap in
sensitivity between satellite and ground arrays.
The low energy threshold, large duty cycle and wide field of view of LATTES
makes it a powerful tool to detect transient phenomena and perform long term
observations of variable sources. Moreover, given its characteristics, it would
be fully complementary to the planned Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) as it
would be able to issue alerts.
In this talk, a description of its main features and capabilities, as well as
results on its expected performance, and sensitivity, will be presented.Comment: Proceedings of the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference
(ICRC2017), Busan, South Korea. Presented by R. Concei\c{c}\~{a}o. 8 pages;
v2: correct affiliation + journal referenc
Prospects for the Observation of Primordial Black Hole evaporation with the Southern Wide Field of View Gamma-ray Observatory
Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) are remnants of objects formed in the early
Universe. Their lifetime is an increasing function of their mass, so PBHs in
the right mass range can end their lives in an evaporation event that is
potentially detectable by our instruments now. This evaporation may result in a
-ray flash that can be detected by the current generation of
Very-High-Energy -ray detectors. The Southern Wide field of view
Gamma-ray Observatory (SWGO) will be part of the next generation of these
instruments. It will be able to establish limits on PBH evaporations for
integration windows between 0.5 and 5 s, in a radius of 0.25 pc around the
Earth, being sensitive to a rate of the order of 50 pc yr,
more than one order of magnitude more constraining than the currently
established best limits.Comment: Accepted by JCA
LATTES: A new gamma-ray detector concept for South America
Currently the detection of Very High Energy gamma-rays for astrophysics rely on the measurement of the Extensive Air Showers (EAS) either using Cherenkov detectors or EAS arrays with larger field of views but also larger energy thresholds. In this talk we present a novel hybrid detector concept for a EAS array with an improved sensitivity in the lower energies (~ 100 GeV). We discuss its main features, capabilities and present preliminary results on its expected perfomances and sensitivities.This wide field of view experiment is planned to be installed at high altitude in South America making it a complementary project to the planned Cherenkov telescope experiments and a powerful tool to trigger further observations of variable sources and to detect transients phenomena
A bilateral N2pc (N2pcb) component is elicited by search targets displayed on the vertical midline
The study of visually-elicited event-related potentials (ERPs) detected at posterior recording sites during visual search has enormously advanced our knowledge about how and when visuo-spatial attention locks onto one or more laterally presented target objects. The N2pc component to lateral targets has been pivotal to further our understanding of the mechanisms and time-course of target selection in visual search. However, the N2pc cannot track visuo-spatial attention deployment to targets displayed along the vertical midline. Here, we introduce a new ERP marker (N2pcb component) that is elicited during the selection of such midline targets. In line with retinal and callosal projections from striate to ventral extrastriate cortex, this component reflects an enhanced negativity elicited by midline targets over both posterior hemispheres. By comparing the attentional selection of lateral and midline targets in a singleton search condition and a feature search condition, we show that the N2pcb is triggered at the same time as the N2pc to lateral targets, and shows the same onset latency difference between singleton and feature search. We conclude that the N2pcb and N2pc components reflect the same attentional target selection processes in visual search
A novel background reduction strategy for high level triggers and processing in gamma-ray Cherenkov detectors
Gamma ray astronomy is now at the leading edge for studies related both to
fundamental physics and astrophysics. The sensitivity of gamma detectors is
limited by the huge amount of background, constituted by hadronic cosmic rays
(typically two to three orders of magnitude more than the signal) and by the
accidental background in the detectors. By using the information on the
temporal evolution of the Cherenkov light, the background can be reduced. We
will present here the results obtained within the MAGIC experiment using a new
technique for the reduction of the background. Particle showers produced by
gamma rays show a different temporal distribution with respect to showers
produced by hadrons; the background due to accidental counts shows no
dependence on time. Such novel strategy can increase the sensitivity of present
instruments.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Proc. of the 9th Int. Syposium "Frontiers of
Fundamental and Computational Physics" (FFP9), (AIP, Melville, New York,
2008, in press
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