491 research outputs found
Performance of the CREAM calorimeter in accelerator beam test
The CREAM calorimeter, designed to measure the spectra of cosmic-ray nuclei from under 1 TeV to 1000 TeV, is a 20 radiation length (X0) deep sampling calorimeter. The calorimeter is comprised of 20 layers of tungsten interleaved with 20 layers of scintillating fiber ribbons, and is preceded by a pair of graphite interaction targets providing about 0.42 proton interaction lengths (\lambda int). The calorimeter was placed in one of CERN's SPS accelerator beams for calibration and testing. Beams of 150 GeV electrons were used for calibration, and a variety of electron, proton, and nuclear fragment beams were used to test the simulation model of the detector. In this paper we discuss the performance of the calorimeter in the electron beam and compare electron beam data with simulation results.The CREAM calorimeter, designed to measure the spectra of cosmic-ray nuclei from under 1 TeV to 1000 TeV, is a 20 radiation length (X0) deep sampling calorimeter. The calorimeter is comprised of 20 layers of tungsten interleaved with 20 layers of scintillating fiber ribbons, and is preceded by a pair of graphite interaction targets providing about 0.42 proton interaction lengths (\lambda int). The calorimeter was placed in one of CERN's SPS accelerator beams for calibration and testing. Beams of 150 GeV electrons were used for calibration, and a variety of electron, proton, and nuclear fragment beams were used to test the simulation model of the detector. In this paper we discuss the performance of the calorimeter in the electron beam and compare electron beam data with simulation results
Muon Track Reconstruction and Data Selection Techniques in AMANDA
The Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA) is a high-energy
neutrino telescope operating at the geographic South Pole. It is a lattice of
photo-multiplier tubes buried deep in the polar ice between 1500m and 2000m.
The primary goal of this detector is to discover astrophysical sources of high
energy neutrinos. A high-energy muon neutrino coming through the earth from the
Northern Hemisphere can be identified by the secondary muon moving upward
through the detector. The muon tracks are reconstructed with a maximum
likelihood method. It models the arrival times and amplitudes of Cherenkov
photons registered by the photo-multipliers. This paper describes the different
methods of reconstruction, which have been successfully implemented within
AMANDA. Strategies for optimizing the reconstruction performance and rejecting
background are presented. For a typical analysis procedure the direction of
tracks are reconstructed with about 2 degree accuracy.Comment: 40 pages, 16 Postscript figures, uses elsart.st
Search for the Flavor-Changing Neutral Current Decay with the HERA-B Detector
We report on a search for the flavor-changing neutral current decay using events recorded with a dimuon trigger in
interactions of 920 GeV protons with nuclei by the HERA-B experiment. We find
no evidence for such decays and set a 90% confidence level upper limit on the
branching fraction .Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures (of which 1 double), paper to be submitted to
Physics Letters
On the selection of AGN neutrino source candidates for a source stacking analysis with neutrino telescopes
The sensitivity of a search for sources of TeV neutrinos can be improved by
grouping potential sources together into generic classes in a procedure that is
known as source stacking. In this paper, we define catalogs of Active Galactic
Nuclei (AGN) and use them to perform a source stacking analysis. The grouping
of AGN into classes is done in two steps: first, AGN classes are defined, then,
sources to be stacked are selected assuming that a potential neutrino flux is
linearly correlated with the photon luminosity in a certain energy band (radio,
IR, optical, keV, GeV, TeV). Lacking any secure detailed knowledge on neutrino
production in AGN, this correlation is motivated by hadronic AGN models, as
briefly reviewed in this paper.
The source stacking search for neutrinos from generic AGN classes is
illustrated using the data collected by the AMANDA-II high energy neutrino
detector during the year 2000. No significant excess for any of the suggested
groups was found.Comment: 43 pages, 12 figures, accepted by Astroparticle Physic
All-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum measured with 26 IceTop stations
We report on a measurement of the cosmic ray energy spectrum with the IceTop
air shower array, the surface component of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at
the South Pole. The data used in this analysis were taken between June and
October, 2007, with 26 surface stations operational at that time, corresponding
to about one third of the final array. The fiducial area used in this analysis
was 0.122 km^2. The analysis investigated the energy spectrum from 1 to 100 PeV
measured for three different zenith angle ranges between 0{\deg} and 46{\deg}.
Because of the isotropy of cosmic rays in this energy range the spectra from
all zenith angle intervals have to agree. The cosmic-ray energy spectrum was
determined under different assumptions on the primary mass composition. Good
agreement of spectra in the three zenith angle ranges was found for the
assumption of pure proton and a simple two-component model. For zenith angles
{\theta} < 30{\deg}, where the mass dependence is smallest, the knee in the
cosmic ray energy spectrum was observed between 3.5 and 4.32 PeV, depending on
composition assumption. Spectral indices above the knee range from -3.08 to
-3.11 depending on primary mass composition assumption. Moreover, an indication
of a flattening of the spectrum above 22 PeV were observed.Comment: 38 pages, 17 figure
High efficient electrical stimulation of hippocampal slices with vertically aligned carbon nanofiber microbrush array
Long-term neuroprostheses for functional electrical stimulation must efficiently stimulate tissue without electrolyzing water and raising the extracellular pH to toxic levels. Comparison of the stimulation efficiency of tungsten wire electrodes (W wires), platinum microelectrode arrays (PtMEA), as-grown vertically aligned carbon nanofiber microbrush arrays (VACNF MBAs), and polypyrrole coated (PPy-coated) VACNF MBAs in eliciting field potentials in the hippocampus slice indicates that, at low stimulating voltages that preclude the electrolysis of water, only the PPy-coated VACNF MBA is able to stimulate the CA3 to CA1 pathway. Unlike the W wires, PtMEA, as-grown VACNF MBA, and the PPy-coated VACNF MBA elicit only excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs). Furthermore, the PPy-coated VACNF MBA evokes somatic action potentials in addition to EPSPs. These results highlight the PPy-coated VACNFâs advantages in lower electrode impedance, ability to stimulate tissue through a biocompatible chloride flux, and stable vertical alignment in liquid that enables access to spatially confined regions of neuronal cells
D* Production in Deep Inelastic Scattering at HERA
This paper presents measurements of D^{*\pm} production in deep inelastic
scattering from collisions between 27.5 GeV positrons and 820 GeV protons. The
data have been taken with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The decay channel
(+ c.c.) has been used in the study. The
cross section for inclusive D^{*\pm} production with
and is 5.3 \pms 1.0 \pms 0.8 nb in the kinematic region
{ GeV and }. Differential cross
sections as functions of p_T(D^{*\pm}), and are
compared with next-to-leading order QCD calculations based on the photon-gluon
fusion production mechanism. After an extrapolation of the cross section to the
full kinematic region in p_T(D^{*\pm}) and (D^{*\pm}), the charm
contribution to the proton structure function is
determined for Bjorken between 2 10 and 5 10.Comment: 17 pages including 4 figure
Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset
corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected
during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV.
The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the
couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and
right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary
mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b,
leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing
transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W'
boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to
the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for
masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC
data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed
coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant
improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe
Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV
A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The
analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC
from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an
integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross
section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected
exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the
standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The
analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model
Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The
largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is
observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance
of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local
significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is
estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of
this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters
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