Modification of amorphous and microcrystalline silicon film properties after irradiation with MeV and GeV protons

It is well known that the degree of crystallinity has a prominent influence on the stability of Silicon under proton irradiation. Amorphous silicon films are much more stable than mono- or polycrystalline silicon substrates or microcrystalline silicon thin films. In particular it has been shown, that in a micromorph tandem solar cell irradiated with protons in the lower MeV energy range only the microcrystalline diode showed a pronounced decrease in photocurrent after irradiation1. The proton irradiation induced damage in thick crystalline silicon samples has a maximum at beam energies between 1MeV and 4MeV and decreases for further increasing proton energies. However, irradiating an amorphous silicon/crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cell with a relatively dose of 24GeV, we observed a very strong drop in conversion efficiency with only minor recovery after sample annealing. In literature it has been reported 2, that the degradation of amorphous silicon is negligible for proton energies above 100MeV. In order to clarify to which extent also the thin film top layer of the hetero solar cell is affected by the proton irradiation, we exposed a variety of thin film silicon samples either to a 1.7MeV beam with a dose of 5.1012 protons/cm2 or to a 24GeV beam with a dose of 5 .1013 protons/cm2. The investigated intrinsic, p-type and n-type amorphous and microcrystalline silicon films have been deposited by conventional plasma deposition under variation of the silane / hydrogen gas phase ratio. Raman measurements have been done in order to determine the order of crystallinity obtained under various deposition conditions. We observed even at 24GeV a clear modification in the electrical characteristics of the films. Temperature dependent measurements of the dark current revealed in particular for all doped samples a significant increase of the activation energy, that might be explained by a decrease of the dopant efficiency, while for intrinsic a-Si:H layers the increasing activation energy is due to deep defect creation

Solar fusion cross sections. II. The pp chain and CNO cycles

We summarize and critically evaluate the available data on nuclear fusion cross sections important to energy generation in the Sun and other hydrogen-burning stars and to solar neutrino production. Recommended values and uncertainties are provided for key cross sections, and a recommended spectrum is given for 8B solar neutrinos. We also discuss opportunities for further increasing the precision of key rates, including new facilities, new experimental techniques, and improvements in theory. This review, which summarizes the conclusions of a workshop held at the Institute for Nuclear Theory, Seattle, in January 2009, is intended as a 10-year update and supplement to Reviews of Modern Physics 70 (1998) 1265.Comment: 54 pages, 20 figures, version to be published in Reviews of Modern Physics; various typos corrected and several updates mad

Solar fusion cross sections II: the pp chain and CNO cycles

We summarize and critically evaluate the available data on nuclear fusion cross sections important to energy generation in the Sun and other hydrogen-burning stars and to solar neutrino production. Recommended values and uncertainties are provided for key cross sections, and a recommended spectrum is given for 8B solar neutrinos. We also discuss opportunities for further increasing the precision of key rates, including new facilities, new experimental techniques, and improvements in theory. This review, which summarizes the conclusions of a workshop held at the Institute for Nuclear Theory, Seattle, in January 2009, is intended as a 10-year update and supplement to Reviews of Modern Physics 70 (1998) 1265.Comment: 54 pages, 20 figures, version to be published in Reviews of Modern Physics; various typos corrected and several updates mad

Late Permian magnetostratigraphy on the eastern Russian platform

The Late Permian is characterized palaeomagnetically by the transition from the long-lasting Permo-Carboniferous reversed polarity superchron (PCRS; also called: Kiaman reversed superchron) to the subsequent Permo-Triassic mixed polarity superchron, often called Illawarra mixed polarity superchron. Many discussions have been devoted to the exact time of the onset of the Illawarra reversals. Apparently contradictory data have been obtained from magnetostratigraphic sediment successions formed in different environments in many regions of the world. These sediments have been dated using classical geological or palaeontological correlation methods without the possibility of absolute age control because volcanogenic materials are missing. Application of the local or regional stratigraphic schemes leads to difficulties and apparent diachronous age estimates of the end of the PCRS. This paper shows that in agreement with earlier investigations, the continental red beds of the Upper Permian Tatarian stage on the eastern Russian platform record the Kiaman/Illawarra boundary. The Illawarra reversal sequence measured in a type section at the Volga river can be correlated well with the corresponding polarity pattern found in the Tethyan realm if one assumes a longer duration of the Tatarian than previously suggested

7Be(p,gamma)8B astrophysical S-factor from precision cross section measurements

We measured the 7Be(p,gamma)8B cross section from E_cm = 186 to 1200 keV, with a statistical-plus-systematic precision per point of better than +- 5%. All important systematic errors were measured including 8B backscattering losses. We obtain S_17(0) = 22.3 +- 0.7(expt) +- 0.5(theor) eV-b from our data at E_cm <= 300 keV and the theory of Descouvemont and Baye.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

The Power Board of the KM3NeT Digital Optical Module: design, upgrade, and production

The KM3NeT Collaboration is building an underwater neutrino observatory at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea consisting of two neutrino telescopes, both composed of a three-dimensional array of light detectors, known as digital optical modules. Each digital optical module contains a set of 31 three inch photomultiplier tubes distributed over the surface of a 0.44 m diameter pressure-resistant glass sphere. The module includes also calibration instruments and electronics for power, readout and data acquisition. The power board was developed to supply power to all the elements of the digital optical module. The design of the power board began in 2013, and several prototypes were produced and tested. After an exhaustive validation process in various laboratories within the KM3NeT Collaboration, a mass production batch began, resulting in the construction of over 1200 power boards so far. These boards were integrated in the digital optical modules that have already been produced and deployed, 828 until October 2023. In 2017, an upgrade of the power board, to increase reliability and efficiency, was initiated. After the validation of a pre-production series, a production batch of 800 upgraded boards is currently underway. This paper describes the design, architecture, upgrade, validation, and production of the power board, including the reliability studies and tests conducted to ensure the safe operation at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea throughout the observatory's lifespa

Embedded Software of the KM3NeT Central Logic Board

The KM3NeT Collaboration is building and operating two deep sea neutrino telescopes at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. The telescopes consist of latices of photomultiplier tubes housed in pressure-resistant glass spheres, called digital optical modules and arranged in vertical detection units. The two main scientific goals are the determination of the neutrino mass ordering and the discovery and observation of high-energy neutrino sources in the Universe. Neutrinos are detected via the Cherenkov light, which is induced by charged particles originated in neutrino interactions. The photomultiplier tubes convert the Cherenkov light into electrical signals that are acquired and timestamped by the acquisition electronics. Each optical module houses the acquisition electronics for collecting and timestamping the photomultiplier signals with one nanosecond accuracy. Once finished, the two telescopes will have installed more than six thousand optical acquisition nodes, completing one of the more complex networks in the world in terms of operation and synchronization. The embedded software running in the acquisition nodes has been designed to provide a framework that will operate with different hardware versions and functionalities. The hardware will not be accessible once in operation, which complicates the embedded software architecture. The embedded software provides a set of tools to facilitate remote manageability of the deployed hardware, including safe reconfiguration of the firmware. This paper presents the architecture and the techniques, methods and implementation of the embedded software running in the acquisition nodes of the KM3NeT neutrino telescopes

Prospects for combined analyses of hadronic emission from γ\gamma-ray sources in the Milky Way with CTA and KM3NeT

The Cherenkov Telescope Array and the KM3NeT neutrino telescopes are major upcoming facilities in the fields of $\gamma$-ray and neutrino astronomy, respectively. Possible simultaneous production of $\gamma$ rays and neutrinos in astrophysical accelerators of cosmic-ray nuclei motivates a combination of their data. We assess the potential of a combined analysis of CTA and KM3NeT data to determine the contribution of hadronic emission processes in known Galactic $\gamma$-ray emitters, comparing this result to the cases of two separate analyses. In doing so, we demonstrate the capability of Gammapy, an open-source software package for the analysis of $\gamma$-ray data, to also process data from neutrino telescopes. For a selection of prototypical $\gamma$-ray sources within our Galaxy, we obtain models for primary proton and electron spectra in the hadronic and leptonic emission scenario, respectively, by fitting published $\gamma$-ray spectra. Using these models and instrument response functions for both detectors, we employ the Gammapy package to generate pseudo data sets, where we assume 200 hours of CTA observations and 10 years of KM3NeT detector operation. We then apply a three-dimensional binned likelihood analysis to these data sets, separately for each instrument and jointly for both. We find that the largest benefit of the combined analysis lies in the possibility of a consistent modelling of the $\gamma$-ray and neutrino emission. Assuming a purely leptonic scenario as input, we obtain, for the most favourable source, an average expected 68% credible interval that constrains the contribution of hadronic processes to the observed $\gamma$-ray emission to below 15%.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figures. Submitted to journa

Implementation and first results of the KM3NeT real-time core-collapse supernova neutrino search

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the funding agencies: Agence Nationale de la Recherche (contract ANR-15-CE31-0020), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Commission Europeenne (FEDER fund and Marie Curie Program), Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), LabEx UnivEarthS (ANR-10-LABX-0023 and ANR-18-IDEX-0001), Paris ile-de-France Region, France; Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (SRNSFG, FR-18-1268), Georgia; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Germany; The General Secretariat of Research and Technology (GSRT), Greece; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Ministero dell'Universita e della Ricerca (MIUR), PRIN 2017 program (Grant NAT-NET 2017W4HA7S) Italy; Ministry of Higher Education Scientific Research and Professional Training, ICTP through Grant AF-13, Morocco; Nederlandse organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), the Netherlands; The National Science Centre, Poland (2015/18/E/ST2/00758); National Authority for Scientific Research (ANCS), Romania; Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion, Investigacion y Universidades (MCIU): Programa Estatal de Generacion de Conocimiento (refs. PGC2018-096663-B-C41, -A-C42, -B-C43, -B-C44) (MCIU/FEDER), Generalitat Valenciana: Prometeo (PROMETEO/2020/019), Grisolia (ref. GRISOLIA/2018/119) and GenT (refs. CIDEGENT/2018/034, /2019/043, /2020/049) programs, Junta de Andalucia (ref. A-FQM-053-UGR18), La Caixa Foundation (ref. LCF/BQ/IN17/11620019), EU: MSC program (ref. 101025085), Spain.The KM3NeT research infrastructure is unconstruction in the Mediterranean Sea. KM3NeT will study atmospheric and astrophysical neutrinos with two multipurpose neutrino detectors, ARCA and ORCA, primarily aimed at GeV–PeV neutrinos. Thanks to the multiphotomultiplier tube design of the digital optical modules, KM3NeT is capable of detecting the neutrino burst from a Galactic or near-Galactic core-collapse supernova. This potential is already exploitable with the first detection units deployed in the sea. This paper describes the real-time implementation of the supernova neutrino search, operating on the two KM3NeT detectors since the first months of 2019. A quasi-online astronomy analysis is introduced to study the time profile of the detected neutrinos for especially significant events. Themechanism of generation and distribution of alerts, aswell as the integration into theSNEWSandSNEWS 2.0 global alert systems, are described. The approach for the follow-up of external alerts with a search for a neutrino excess in the archival data is defined. Finally, an overviewof the current detector capabilities and a report after the first two years of operation are given.French National Research Agency (ANR)European Commission ANR-15-CE31-0020Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)Commission EuropeenneInstitut Universitaire de France (IUF)LabEx UnivEarthS ANR-10-LABX-0023 ANR-18-IDEX-0001Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (SRNSFG), Georgia FR-18-1268German Research Foundation (DFG)Greek Ministry of Development-GSRTIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN)Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR)PRIN 2017 program, Italy NAT-NET 2017W4HA7SMinistry of Higher Education Scientific Research and Professional Training, ICTP, Morocco AF-13Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) Netherlands GovernmentNational Science Centre, Poland 2015/18/E/ST2/00758National Authority for Scientific Research (ANCS), RomaniaMinisterio de Ciencia, Innovacion, Investigacion y Universidades (MCIU): Programa Estatal de Generacion de Conocimiento PGC2018-096663-B-C41 PGC2018-096663-A-C42 PGC2018-096663-B-C43 PGC2018-096663-B-C44Generalitat Valenciana PROMETEO/2020/019Grisolia program GRISOLIA/2018/119 CIDEGENT/2018/034Junta de Andalucia A-FQM-053-UGR18La Caixa Foundation LCF/BQ/IN17/11620019EU: MSC program 101025085Paris Ile-de-France Region, FranceGenT program CIDEGENT/2018/034 CIDEGENT/2019/043 CIDEGENT/2020/04