189 research outputs found
Measuring High Energy Neutrino-Nucleon Cross Sections With Future Neutrino Telescopes
Next generation kilometer-scale neutrino telescopes, such as ICECUBE, can
test standard model predictions for neutrino-nucleon cross sections at energies
well beyond the reach of collider experiments. At energies near a PeV and
higher, the Earth becomes opaque to neutrinos. At these energies, the ratio of
upgoing and downgoing events can be used to measure the total neutrino-nucleon
cross section given the presence of an adequate high energy neutrino flux.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Cosmic Neutrinos and the Energy Budget of Galactic and Extragalactic Cosmic Rays
Although kilometer-scale neutrino detectors such as IceCube are discovery
instruments, their conceptual design is very much anchored to the observational
fact that Nature produces protons and photons with energies in excess of
10^{20} eV and 10^{13} eV, respectively. The puzzle of where and how Nature
accelerates the highest energy cosmic particles is unresolved almost a century
after their discovery. We will discuss how the cosmic ray connection sets the
scale of the anticipated cosmic neutrino fluxes. In this context, we discuss
the first results of the completed AMANDA detector and the science reach of its
extension, IceCube.Comment: 13 pages, Latex2e, 3 postscript figures included. Talk presented at
the International Workshop on Energy Budget in the High Energy Universe,
Kashiwa, Japan, February 200
The clustering of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and their sources
The sky distribution of cosmic rays with energies above the 'GZK cutoff'
holds important clues to their origin. The AGASA data, although consistent with
isotropy, shows evidence for small-angle clustering, and it has been argued
that such clusters are aligned with BL Lacertae objects, implicating these as
sources. It has also been suggested that clusters can arise if the cosmic rays
come from the decays of very massive relic particles in the Galactic halo, due
to the expected clumping of cold dark matter. We examine these claims and show
that both are in fact not justified.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, version in press at Phys. Rev.
Anisotropy at the end of the cosmic ray spectrum?
The starburst galaxies M82 and NGC253 have been proposed as the primary
sources of cosmic rays with energies above eV. For energies \agt
10^{20.3} eV the model predicts strong anisotropies. We calculate the
probabilities that the latter can be due to chance occurrence. For the highest
energy cosmic ray events in this energy region, we find that the observed
directionality has less than 1% probability of occurring due to random
fluctuations. Moreover, during the first 5 years of operation at Auger, the
observation of even half the predicted anisotropy has a probability of less
than to occur by chance fluctuation. Thus, this model can be subject
to test at very small cost to the Auger priors budget and, whatever the outcome
of that test, valuable information on the Galactic magnetic field will be
obtained.Comment: Final version to be published in Physical Review
Gamma-Ray Bursts: The Underlying Model
A pedagogical derivation is presented of the ``fireball'' model of gamma-ray
bursts, according to which the observable effects are due to the dissipation of
the kinetic energy of a relativistically expanding wind, a ``fireball.'' The
main open questions are emphasized, and key afterglow observations, that
provide support for this model, are briefly discussed. The relativistic outflow
is, most likely, driven by the accretion of a fraction of a solar mass onto a
newly born (few) solar mass black hole. The observed radiation is produced once
the plasma has expanded to a scale much larger than that of the underlying
``engine,'' and is therefore largely independent of the details of the
progenitor, whose gravitational collapse leads to fireball formation. Several
progenitor scenarios, and the prospects for discrimination among them using
future observations, are discussed. The production in gamma- ray burst
fireballs of high energy protons and neutrinos, and the implications of burst
neutrino detection by kilometer-scale telescopes under construction, are
briefly discussed.Comment: In "Supernovae and Gamma Ray Bursters", ed. K. W. Weiler, Lecture
Notes in Physics, Springer-Verlag (in press); 26 pages, 2 figure
Sensitivity of the IceCube Detector to Astrophysical Sources of High Energy Muon Neutrinos
We present the results of a Monte-Carlo study of the sensitivity of the
planned IceCube detector to predicted fluxes of muon neutrinos at TeV to PeV
energies. A complete simulation of the detector and data analysis is used to
study the detector's capability to search for muon neutrinos from sources such
as active galaxies and gamma-ray bursts. We study the effective area and the
angular resolution of the detector as a function of muon energy and angle of
incidence. We present detailed calculations of the sensitivity of the detector
to both diffuse and pointlike neutrino emissions, including an assessment of
the sensitivity to neutrinos detected in coincidence with gamma-ray burst
observations. After three years of datataking, IceCube will have been able to
detect a point source flux of E^2*dN/dE = 7*10^-9 cm^-2s^-1GeV at a 5-sigma
significance, or, in the absence of a signal, place a 90% c.l. limit at a level
E^2*dN/dE = 2*10^-9 cm^-2s^-1GeV. A diffuse E-2 flux would be detectable at a
minimum strength of E^2*dN/dE = 1*10^-8 cm^-2s^-1sr^-1GeV. A gamma-ray burst
model following the formulation of Waxman and Bahcall would result in a 5-sigma
effect after the observation of 200 bursts in coincidence with satellite
observations of the gamma-rays.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figures, 6 table
Cosmic Neutrinos from the Sources of Galactic and Extragalactic Cosmic Rays
Although kilometer-scale neutrino detectors such as IceCube are discovery
instruments, their conceptual design is very much anchored to the observational
fact that Nature produces protons and photons with energies in excess of 10^20
eV and 10^13 eV, respectively. The puzzle of where and how Nature accelerates
the highest energy cosmic particles is unresolved almost a century after their
discovery. From energetics considerations we anticipate order 10~100 neutrino
events per kilometer squared per year pointing back at the source(s) of both
galactic and extragalactic cosmic rays. In this context, we discuss the results
of the AMANDA and IceCube neutrino telescopes which will deliver a
kilometer-square-year of data over the next 3 years.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
All-sky search for periodic gravitational waves in the O1 LIGO data
We report on an all-sky search for periodic gravitational waves in the frequency band 20-475 Hz and with a frequency time derivative in the range of [-1.0,+0.1]Ăâ10-8 Hz/s. Such a signal could be produced by a nearby spinning and slightly nonaxisymmetric isolated neutron star in our galaxy. This search uses the data from Advanced LIGO\u27s first observational run, O1. No periodic gravitational wave signals were observed, and upper limits were placed on their strengths. The lowest upper limits on worst-case (linearly polarized) strain amplitude h0 are âËÂź4Ăâ10-25 near 170 Hz. For a circularly polarized source (most favorable orientation), the smallest upper limits obtained are âËÂź1.5Ăâ10-25. These upper limits refer to all sky locations and the entire range of frequency derivative values. For a population-averaged ensemble of sky locations and stellar orientations, the lowest upper limits obtained for the strain amplitude are âËÂź2.5Ăâ10-25
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
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
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