1,943 research outputs found
A New Scintillator Tile/Fiber Preshower Detector for the CDF Central Calorimeter
A detector designed to measure early particle showers has been installed in
front of the central CDF calorimeter at the Tevatron. This new preshower
detector is based on scintillator tiles coupled to wavelength-shifting fibers
read out by multi-anode photomultipliers and has a total of 3,072 readout
channels. The replacement of the old gas detector was required due to an
expected increase in instantaneous luminosity of the Tevatron collider in the
next few years. Calorimeter coverage, jet energy resolution, and electron and
photon identification are among the expected improvements. The final detector
design, together with the R&D studies that led to the choice of scintillator
and fiber, mechanical assembly, and quality control are presented. The detector
was installed in the fall 2004 Tevatron shutdown and started collecting
colliding beam data by the end of the same year. First measurements indicate a
light yield of 12 photoelectrons/MIP, a more than two-fold increase over the
design goals.Comment: 5 pages, 10 figures (changes are minor; this is the final version
published in IEEE-Trans.Nucl.Sci.
Section on Prospects for Dark Matter Detection of the White Paper on the Status and Future of Ground-Based TeV Gamma-Ray Astronomy
This is a report on the findings of the dark matter science working group for
the white paper on the status and future of TeV gamma-ray astronomy. The white
paper was commissioned by the American Physical Society, and the full white
paper can be found on astro-ph (arXiv:0810.0444). This detailed section
discusses the prospects for dark matter detection with future gamma-ray
experiments, and the complementarity of gamma-ray measurements with other
indirect, direct or accelerator-based searches. We conclude that any
comprehensive search for dark matter should include gamma-ray observations,
both to identify the dark matter particle (through the charac- teristics of the
gamma-ray spectrum) and to measure the distribution of dark matter in galactic
halos.Comment: Report from the Dark Matter Science Working group of the APS
commissioned White paper on ground-based TeV gamma ray astronomy (19 pages, 9
figures
A Search for Dark Matter Annihilation with the Whipple 10m Telescope
We present observations of the dwarf galaxies Draco and Ursa Minor, the local
group galaxies M32 and M33, and the globular cluster M15 conducted with the
Whipple 10m gamma-ray telescope to search for the gamma-ray signature of
self-annihilating weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) which may
constitute astrophysical dark matter (DM). We review the motivations for
selecting these sources based on their unique astrophysical environments and
report the results of the data analysis which produced upper limits on excess
rate of gamma rays for each source. We consider models for the DM distribution
in each source based on the available observational constraints and discuss
possible scenarios for the enhancement of the gamma-ray luminosity. Limits on
the thermally averaged product of the total self-annihilation cross section and
velocity of the WIMP, , are derived using conservative estimates for
the magnitude of the astrophysical contribution to the gamma-ray flux. Although
these limits do not constrain predictions from the currently favored
theoretical models of supersymmetry (SUSY), future observations with VERITAS
will probe a larger region of the WIMP parameter phase space, and
WIMP particle mass (m_\chi).Comment: 33 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
A Luminous and Isolated Gamma-Ray Flare from the Blazar B2 1215+30
B2 1215+30 is a BL-Lac-type blazar that was first detected at TeV energies by the MAGIC atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes and subsequently confirmed by the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) observatory with data collected between 2009 and 2012. In 2014 February 08, VERITAS detected a large-amplitude flare from B2 1215+30 during routine monitoring observations of the blazar 1ES 1218+304, located in the same field of view. The TeV flux reached 2.4 times the Crab Nebula flux with a variability timescale of . Multiwavelength observations with Fermi-LAT, Swift, and the Tuorla Observatory revealed a correlated high GeV flux state and no significant optical counterpart to the flare, with a spectral energy distribution where the gamma-ray luminosity exceeds the synchrotron luminosity. When interpreted in the framework of a one-zone leptonic model, the observed emission implies a high degree of beaming, with Doppler factor , and an electron population with spectral index
Construction of a Schwarzschild-Couder telescope as a candidate for the Cherenkov Telescope Array: status of the optical system
We present the design and the status of procurement of the optical system of
the prototype Schwarzschild-Couder telescope (pSCT), for which construction is
scheduled to begin in fall at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in southern
Arizona, USA. The Schwarzschild-Couder telescope is a candidate for the
medium-sized telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array, which utilizes
imaging atmospheric Cherenkov techniques to observe gamma rays in the energy
range of 60Gev-60TeV. The pSCT novel aplanatic optical system is made of two
segmented aspheric mirrors. The primary mirror has 48 mirror panels with an
aperture of 9.6 m, while the secondary, made of 24 panels, has an diameter of
5.4 m. The resulting point spread function (PSF) is required to be better than
4 arcmin within a field of view of 6.4 degrees (80% of the field of view),
which corresponds to a physical size of 6.4 mm on the focal plane. This goal
represents a challenge for the inexpensive fabrication of aspheric mirror
panels and for the precise alignment of the optical system as well as for the
rigidity of the optical support structure. In this submission we introduce the
design of the Schwarzschild-Couder optical system and describe the solutions
adopted for the manufacturing of the mirror panels and their integration with
the optical support structure.Comment: In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference
(ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands. All CTA contributions at
arXiv:1508.0589
Corroborative Study on Maize Quality, Dry-Milling and Wet-Milling Properties of Selected Maize Hybrids
A corroborative study was conducted on the maize quality properties of test weight, pycnometer density, tangential abrasive dehulling device (TADD), time-to-grind on the Stenvert hardness tester (SHT), 100-kernel weight, kernel size distribution, and proximate composition as well as maize dry- and wet-millability by six participating laboratories. Suggested operating procedures were given to compare their measurements and provide the variance structure within and between laboratories and hybrids. Partial correlation coefficient among maize quality properties varied among laboratories. The repeatability and reproducibility precision values were acceptably low for the physical quality tests, except for TADD and SHT time-to-grind measurements. The yields of dry- and wet-milled products and their correlation with maize quality properties were dependent on the collaborating laboratory. This paper highlights the importance of laboratory variation when considering which maize hybrids are best suited for dry-milling and wet-milling
Evidence for long-term Gamma-ray and X-ray variability from the unidentified TeV source HESS J0632+057
HESS J0632+057 is one of only two unidentified very-high-energy gamma-ray
sources which appear to be point-like within experimental resolution. It is
possibly associated with the massive Be star MWC 148 and has been suggested to
resemble known TeV binary systems like LS I +61 303 or LS 5039. HESS J0632+057
was observed by VERITAS for 31 hours in 2006, 2008 and 2009. During these
observations, no significant signal in gamma rays with energies above 1 TeV was
detected from the direction of HESS J0632+057. A flux upper limit corresponding
to 1.1% of the flux of the Crab Nebula has been derived from the VERITAS data.
The non-detection by VERITAS excludes with a probability of 99.993% that HESS
J0632+057 is a steady gamma-ray emitter. Contemporaneous X-ray observations
with Swift XRT reveal a factor of 1.8+-0.4 higher flux in the 1-10 keV range
than earlier X-ray observations of HESS J0632+057. The variability in the
gamma-ray and X-ray fluxes supports interpretation of the ob ject as a
gamma-ray emitting binary.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journa
VERITAS Observations of the gamma-Ray Binary LS I +61 303
LS I +61 303 is one of only a few high-mass X-ray binaries currently detected
at high significance in very high energy gamma-rays. The system was observed
over several orbital cycles (between September 2006 and February 2007) with the
VERITAS array of imaging air-Cherenkov telescopes. A signal of gamma-rays with
energies above 300 GeV is found with a statistical significance of 8.4 standard
deviations. The detected flux is measured to be strongly variable; the maximum
flux is found during most orbital cycles at apastron. The energy spectrum for
the period of maximum emission can be characterized by a power law with a
photon index of Gamma=2.40+-0.16_stat+-0.2_sys and a flux above 300 GeV
corresponding to 15-20% of the flux from the Crab Nebula.Comment: accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa
VERITAS Observations of the BL Lac Object 1ES 1218+304
The VERITAS collaboration reports the detection of very-high-energy (VHE)
gamma-ray emission from the high-frequency-peaked BL Lac object 1ES 1218+304
located at a redshift of z=0.182. A gamma-ray signal was detected with high
statistical significance for the observations taken during several months in
the 2006-2007 observing season. The photon spectrum between ~160 GeV and ~1.8
TeV is well described by a power law with an index of Gamma = 3.08 +/-
0.34(stat) +/- 0.2(sys). The integral flux above 200 GeV corresponds to ~6% of
that of the Crab Nebula. The light curve does not show any evidence for VHE
flux variability. Using lower limits on the density of the extragalactic
background light (EBL) in the near-IR to mid-IR we are able to limit the range
of intrinsic energy spectra for 1ES 1218+304. We show that the intrinsic photon
spectrum is harder than a power law with an index of Gamma = 2.32 +/- 0.37.
When including constraints from the spectra of 1ES 1101-232 and 1ES 0229+200,
the spectrum of 1ES 1218+304 is likely to be harder than Gamma = 1.86 +/- 0.37.Comment: Submitted to Proceedings of "4th Heidelberg International Symposium
on High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy 2008
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