Development of a Large-Area Aerogel Cherenkov Counter Onboard BESS

This paper describes the development of a threshold type aerogel Cherenkov counter with a large sensitive area of 0.6 m$^2$ to be carried onboard the BESS rigidity spectrometer to detect cosmic-ray antiprotons. The design incorporates a large diffusion box containing 46 finemesh photomultipliers, with special attention being paid to achieving good performance under a magnetic field and providing sufficient endurance while minimizing material usage. The refractive index of the aerogel was chosen to be 1.03. By utilizing the muons and protons accumulated during the cosmic-ray measurements at sea level, a rejection factor of 10$^4$ was obtained against muons with $\beta \approx 1$, while keeping 97% efficiency for protons below the threshold.Comment: 13 pages, LaTex, 9 eps figures included, submitted to NIM

Measurements of Atmospheric Antiprotons

We measured atmospheric antiproton spectra in the energy range 0.2 to 3.4 GeV, at sea level and at balloon altitude in the atmospheric depth range 4.5 to 26 g/cm^2. The observed energy spectra, including our previous measurements at mountain altitude, were compared with estimated spectra calculated on various assumptions regarding the energy distribution of antiprotons that interacted with air nuclei.Comment: Accepted for publication in PL

Measurements of Proton, Helium and Muon Spectra at Small Atmospheric Depths with the BESS Spectrometer

The cosmic-ray proton, helium, and muon spectra at small atmospheric depths of 4.5 -- 28 g/cm^2 were precisely measured during the slow descending period of the BESS-2001 balloon flight. The variation of atmospheric secondary particle fluxes as a function of atmospheric depth provides fundamental information to study hadronic interactions of the primary cosmic rays with the atmosphere.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, 4 table

Observation of Galactic Sources of Very High Energy Gamma-Rays with the MAGIC Telescope

The MAGIC telescope with its 17m diameter mirror is today the largest operating single-dish Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescope (IACT). It is located on the Canary Island La Palma, at an altitude of 2200m above sea level, as part of the Roque de los Muchachos European Northern Observatory. The MAGIC telescope detects celestial very high energy gamma-radiation in the energy band between about 50 GeV and 10 TeV. Since the autumn of 2004 MAGIC has been taking data routinely, observing various objects, like supernova remnants (SNRs), gamma-ray binaries, Pulsars, Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and Gamma-ray Bursts (GRB). We briefly describe the observational strategy, the procedure implemented for the data analysis, and discuss the results of observations of Galactic Sources.Comment: Brief Review, to be pulished in: Mod. Phys. Lett.

Measurements of 0.2 to 20 GeV/n cosmic-ray proton and helium spectra from 1997 through 2002 with the BESS spectrometer

We measured low energy cosmic-ray proton and helium spectra in the kinetic energy range 0.215 - 21.5 GeV/n at different solar activities during a period from 1997 to 2002. The observations were carried out with the BESS spectrometer launched on a balloon at Lynn Lake, Canada. A calculation for the correction of secondary particle backgrounds from the overlying atmosphere was improved by using the measured spectra at small atmospheric depths ranging from 5 through 37 g/cm^2. The uncertainties including statistical and systematic errors of the obtained spectra at the top of atmosphere are 5-7 % for protons and 6-9 % for helium nuclei in the energy range 0.5 - 5 GeV/n.Comment: 27 pages, 7 Tables, 9 figures, Submitted to Astroparticle Physic

Interpretation of the Center-Filled Emission from the Supernova Remnant W44

(Abridged) We have investigated two evolutionary scenarios advanced to explain the centrally-brightened X-ray morphology of the supernova remnant (SNR) W44: (1) a model involving the slow thermal evaporation of clouds engulfed by a supernova blast wave as it propagates though a clumpy interstellar medium (ISM), and (2) a hydrodynamical simulation of a blast wave propagating through a homogeneous ISM, including the effects of radiative cooling. Both models can have their respective parameters tuned to approximate the remnant's morphology. The mean temperature of the hot plasma in W44 (~0.9 keV) as determined by our nonequilibrium ionization X-ray spectral analysis provides the essential key to discriminate between these scenarios. Based on the size (using the well established distance of 3 kpc) and temperature of W44, the dynamical evolution predicted by the cloud evaporation model gives an age for the SNR of merely 6500 yr. We argue that, because this age is inconsistent with the characteristic age (approx. 20000 yr) of the associated PSR 1853+01, this model cannot provide the explanation for the center-filled morphology. We favor the radiative-phase shock model since it can reproduce both the morphology and age of W44 assuming reasonable values for the initial explosion energy in the range 0.7E51 to 0.9E51 ergs and the ambient ISM density of between 3 and 4 cm**-3.Comment: 31 pages, including 4 postscript figs, LaTeX, accepted by Ap.

Precise Measurements of Atmospheric Muon Fluxes with the BESS Spectrometer

The vertical absolute fluxes of atmospheric muons and muon charge ratio have been measured precisely at different geomagnetic locations by using the BESS spectrometer. The observations had been performed at sea level (30 m above sea level) in Tsukuba, Japan, and at 360 m above sea level in Lynn Lake, Canada. The vertical cutoff rigidities in Tsukuba (36.2 N, 140.1 E) and in Lynn Lake (56.5 N, 101.0 W) are 11.4 GV and 0.4 GV, respectively. We have obtained vertical fluxes of positive and negative muons in a momentum range from 0.6 to 20 GeV/c with systematic errors less than 3 % in both measurements. By comparing the data collected at two different geomagnetic latitudes, we have seen an effect of cutoff rigidity. The dependence on the atmospheric pressure and temperature, and the solar modulation effect have been also clearly observed. We also clearly observed the decrease of charge ratio of muons at low momentum side with at higher cutoff rigidity region.Comment: 35 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to Astroparticle Physic

Diffuse Hard X-ray Sources Discovered with the ASCA Galactic Plane Survey

We found diffuse hard X-ray sources, G11.0+0.0, G25.5+0.0, and G26.6-0.1 in the ASCA Galactic plane survey data. The X-ray spectra are featureless with no emission line, and are fitted with both models of a thin thermal plasma in non-equilibrium ionization and a power-law function. The source distances are estimated to be 1-8 kpc, using the best-fit NH values on the assumption that the mean density in the line of sight is 1 H cm^-3. The source sizes and luminosities are then 4.5-27 pc and (0.8-23)x10^33 ergs/s. Although the source sizes are typical to supernova remnants (SNR) with young to intermediate ages, the X-ray luminosity, plasma temperature, and weak emission lines in the spectra are all unusual. This suggests that these objects are either shell-like SNRs dominated by X-ray synchrotron emission, like SN 1006, or, alternatively, plerionic SNRs. The total number of these classes of SNRs in our Galaxy is also estimated.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures; to appear in Ap

Accretion Disk Spectra of the Ultra-luminous X-ray Sources in Nearby Spiral Galaxies and Galactic Superluminal Jet Sources

Ultra-luminous Compact X-ray Sources (ULXs) in nearby spiral galaxies and Galactic superluminal jet sources share the common spectral characteristic that they have unusually high disk temperatures which cannot be explained in the framework of the standard optically thick accretion disk in the Schwarzschild metric. On the other hand, the standard accretion disk around the Kerr black hole might explain the observed high disk temperature, as the inner radius of the Kerr disk gets smaller and the disk temperature can be consequently higher. However, we point out that the observable Kerr disk spectra becomes significantly harder than Schwarzschild disk spectra only when the disk is highly inclined. This is because the emission from the innermost part of the accretion disk is Doppler-boosted for an edge-on Kerr disk, while hardly seen for a face-on disk. The Galactic superluminal jet sources are known to be highly inclined systems, thus their energy spectra may be explained with the standard Kerr disk with known black hole masses. For ULXs, on the other hand, the standard Kerr disk model seems implausible, since it is highly unlikely that their accretion disks are preferentially inclined, and, if edge-on Kerr disk model is applied, the black hole mass becomes unreasonably large (> 300 M_solar). Instead, the slim disk (advection dominated optically thick disk) model is likely to explain the observed super-Eddington luminosities, hard energy spectra, and spectral variations of ULXs. We suggest that ULXs are accreting black holes with a few tens of solar mass, which is not unexpected from the standard stellar evolution scenario, and that their X-ray emission is from the slim disk shining at super-Eddington luminosities.Comment: ApJ, accepte