TAIGA -- an advanced hybrid detector complex for astroparticle physics and high energy gamma-ray astronomy

The physical motivations, present status, main results in study of cosmic rays and in the field of gamma-ray astronomy as well future plans of the TAIGA-1 (Tunka Advanced Instrument for cosmic ray physics and Gamma Astronomy) project are presented. The TAIGA observatory addresses ground-based gamma-ray astronomy and astroparticle physics at energies from a few TeV to several PeV, as well as cosmic ray physics from 100 TeV to several EeV. The pilot TAIGA-1 complex is located in the Tunka valley, ~50 km west from the southern tip of the lake Baikal.Comment: Submission to SciPost Phys. Proc., 10 pages, 2 figure

Characterization of a high light yield liquid scintillator with a novel organosilicon fluor developed for astroparticle physics experiments

A new high light yield liquid scintillator based on linear alkylbenzene (LAB) as an organic solvent and a novel nanostructured organosilicon liminophore as a scintillation fluor has been developed for the next generation large-scale experiments in astroparticle physics. It is shown that the developed liquid scintillator has light yield almost two times higher than traditional LAB-based liquid scintillator with PPO fluor, when peak light yield values are compared, since the former peaks at 490 nm, while the latter peaks at 360 nm. At the same time light emission kinetics is characterized by about 10 ns decay time constant for its fastest component which contributes more than 80% to the total light yield of the scintillator

Amine-Reactive BODIPY Dye: Spectral Properties and Application for Protein Labeling

A boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) derivative reactive towards amino groups of proteins (NHS-Ph-BODIPY) was synthesized. Spectroscopic and photophysical properties of amine-reactive NHS-Ph-BODIPY and its non-reactive precursor (COOH-Ph-BODIPY) in a number of organic solvents were investigated. Both fluorescent dyes were characterized by green absorption (521–532 nm) and fluorescence (538–552 nm) and medium molar absorption coefficients (46,500–118,500 M−1·cm−1) and fluorescence quantum yields (0.32 – 0.73). Solvent polarizability and dipolarity were found to play a crucial role in solvent effects on COOH-Ph-BODIPY and NHS-Ph-BODIPY absorption and emission bands maxima. Quantum-chemical calculations were used to show why solvent polarizability and dipolarity are important as well as to understand how the nature of the substituent affects spectroscopic properties of the fluorescent dyes. NHS-Ph-BODIPY was used for fluorescent labeling of a number of proteins. Conjugation of NHS-Ph-BODIPY with bovine serum albumin (BSA) resulted in bathochromic shifts of absorption and emission bands and noticeable fluorescence quenching (about 1.5 times). It was demonstrated that the sensitivity of BSA detection with NHS-Ph-BODIPY was up to eight times higher than with Coomassie brilliant blue while the sensitivity of PII-like protein PotN (PotN) detection with NHS-Ph-BODIPY and Coomassie brilliant blue was almost the same. On the basis of the molecular docking results, the most probable binding sites of NHS-Ph-BODIPY in BSA and PotN and the corresponding binding free energies were estimated