245 research outputs found
On astrophysical solution to ultra high energy cosmic rays
We argue that an astrophysical solution to UHECR problem is viable. The
pectral features of extragalactic protons interacting with CMB are calculated
in model-independent way. Using the power-law generation spectrum as the only assumption, we analyze four features of the proton
spectrum: the GZK cutoff, dip, bump and the second dip. We found the dip,
induced by electron-positron production on CMB, as the most robust feature,
existing in energy range eV. Its shape is
stable relative to various phenomena included in calculations. The dip is well
confirmed by observations of AGASA, HiRes, Fly's Eye and Yakutsk detectors. The
best fit is reached at , with the allowed range 2.55 - 2.75. The
dip is used for energy calibration of the detectors. After the energy
calibration the fluxes and spectra of all three detectors agree perfectly, with
discrepancy between AGASA and HiRes at eV being not
statistically significant. The agreement of the dip with observations should be
considered as confirmation of UHE proton interaction with CMB. The dip has two
flattenings. The high energy flattening at eV
automatically explains ankle. The low-energy flattening at eV provides the transition to galactic cosmic rays. This transition is
studied quantitatively. The UHECR sources, AGN and GRBs, are studied in a
model-dependent way, and acceleration is discussed. Based on the agreement of
the dip with existing data, we make the robust prediction for the spectrum at
eV to be measured in the nearest future by
Auger detector.Comment: Revised version as published in Phys.Rev. D47 (2006) 043005 with a
small additio
Search for Point Sources of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays Above 40 EeV Using a Maximum Likelihood Ratio Test
We present the results of a search for cosmic ray point sources at energies
above 40 EeV in the combined data sets recorded by the AGASA and HiRes stereo
experiments. The analysis is based on a maximum likelihood ratio test using the
probability density function for each event rather than requiring an a priori
choice of a fixed angular bin size. No statistically significant clustering of
events consistent with a point source is found.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journa
An upper limit on the electron-neutrino flux from the HiRes detector
Air-fluorescence detectors such as the High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes)
detector are very sensitive to upward-going, Earth-skimming ultrahigh energy
electron-neutrino-induced showers. This is due to the relatively large
interaction cross sections of these high-energy neutrinos and to the
Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) effect. The LPM effect causes a significant
decrease in the cross sections for bremsstrahlung and pair production, allowing
charged-current electron-neutrino-induced showers occurring deep in the Earth's
crust to be detectable as they exit the Earth into the atmosphere. A search for
upward-going neutrino-induced showers in the HiRes-II monocular dataset has
yielded a null result. From an LPM calculation of the energy spectrum of
charged particles as a function of primary energy and depth for
electron-induced showers in rock, we calculate the shape of the resulting
profile of these showers in air. We describe a full detector Monte Carlo
simulation to determine the detector response to upward-going
electron-neutrino-induced cascades and present an upper limit on the flux of
electron-neutrinos.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures. submitted to Astrophysical Journa
Search for Correlations between HiRes Stereo Events and Active Galactic Nuclei
We have searched for correlations between the pointing directions of
ultrahigh energy cosmic rays observed by the High Resolution Fly's Eye
experiment and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) visible from its northern
hemisphere location. No correlations, other than random correlations, have been
found. We report our results using search parameters prescribed by the Pierre
Auger collaboration. Using these parameters, the Auger collaboration concludes
that a positive correlation exists for sources visible to their southern
hemisphere location. We also describe results using two methods for determining
the chance probability of correlations: one in which a hypothesis is formed
from scanning one half of the data and tested on the second half, and another
which involves a scan over the entire data set. The most significant
correlation found occurred with a chance probability of 24%.Comment: 13 pages, 1 table, 5 figure
Siphonaptera from New Guinea
53 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 53)
TCR cross-reactivity and allorecognition: new insights into the immunogenetics of allorecognition
Alloreactive T cells are core mediators of graft rejection and are a potent barrier to transplantation tolerance. It was previously unclear how T cells educated in the recipient thymus could recognize allogeneic HLA molecules. Recently it was shown that both naïve and memory CD4+ and CD8+ T cells are frequently cross-reactive against allogeneic HLA molecules and that this allorecognition exhibits exquisite peptide and HLA specificity and is dependent on both public and private specificities of the T cell receptor. In this review we highlight new insights gained into the immunogenetics of allorecognition, with particular emphasis on how viral infection and vaccination may specifically activate allo-HLA reactive T cells. We also briefly discuss the potential for virus-specific T cell infusions to produce GvHD. The progress made in understanding the molecular basis of allograft rejection will hopefully be translated into improved allograft function and/or survival, and eventually tolerance induction
Studies of systematic uncertainties in the estimation of the monocular aperture of the HiRes experiment
We have studied several sources of systematic uncertainty in calculating the aperture of the High Resolution Fly's Eye experiment (HiRes) in monocular mode, primarily as they affect the HiRes-II site. The energy dependent aperture is determined with detailed Monte Carlo simulations of the air showers and the detector response. We have studied the effects of changes to the input energy spectrum and composition used in the simulation. A realistic shape of the input spectrum is used in our analysis in order to avoid biases in the aperture estimate due to the limited detector resolution. We have examined the effect of exchanging our input spectrum with a simple E^{-3} power law in the "ankle" region. Uncertainties in the input composition are shown to be significant for energies below about 10^{18} eV for data from the HiRes-II detector. Another source of uncertainties is the choice of the hadronic interaction model in the air shower generator. We compare the aperture estimate for two different models: QGSJet01 and SIBYLL 2.1. We also describe the implications of employing an atmospheric database with hourly measurements of the aerosol component, instead of using an average as has been used in our previously published measurements of the monocular spectra
A Study of the Composition of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays Using the High Resolution Fly's Eye
The composition of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) is measured with the
High Resolution Fly's Eye cosmic ray observatory (HiRes) data using the Xmax
technique. Data were collected in stereo between 1999 November and 2001
September. The data are reconstructed with well-determined geometry.
Measurements of the atmospheric transmission are incorporated in the
reconstruction. The detector resolution is found to be 30 g cm^-2 in Xmax and
13% in Energy. The Xmax elongation rate between 10^18.0 eV and 10^19.4 eV is
measured to be 54.5 +/- 6.5 (stat) +/- 4.5 (sys) g cm^-2 per decade. This is
compared to predictions using the QGSJet01 and SIBYLL 2.1 hadronic interaction
models for both protons and iron nuclei. CORSIKA-generated Extensive Air
Showers (EAS) are incorporated directly into a detailed detector Monte Carlo
program. The elongation rate and the Xmax distribution widths are consistent
with a constant or slowly changing and predominantly light composition. A
simple model containing only protons and iron nuclei is compared to QGSJet and
SIBYLL. The best agreement between the model and the data is at 80% protons for
QGSJet and 60% protons for SIBYLL.Comment: 52 pages, 27 figures. Revised Fig. 10 caption, improved Fig. 23,
resubmitted to ApJ. (Previously revised to address referee's comments.)
(Originally 37 pages, 13 figures. Submitted to ApJ
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