51 research outputs found
The atmospheric charged kaon/pion ratio using seasonal variation methods
Observed since the 1950's, the seasonal effect on underground muons is a well
studied phenomenon. The interaction height of incident cosmic rays changes as
the temperature of the atmosphere changes, which affects the production height
of mesons (mostly pions and kaons). The decay of these mesons produces muons
that can be detected underground. The production of muons is dominated by pion
decay, and previous work did not include the effect of kaons. In this work, the
methods of Barrett and MACRO are extended to include the effect of kaons. These
efforts give rise to a new method to measure the atmospheric K/ ratio at
energies beyond the reach of current fixed target experiments. These methods
were applied to data from the MINOS far detector. A method is developed for
making these measurements at other underground detectors, including OPERA,
Super-K, IceCube, Baksan and the MINOS near detector.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Astropart. Phy
Search for the Proton Decay Mode proton to neutrino K+ in Soudan 2
We have searched for the proton decay mode proton to neutrino K+ using the
one-kiloton Soudan 2 high resolution calorimeter. Contained events obtained
from a 3.56 kiloton-year fiducial exposure through June 1997 are examined for
occurrence of a visible K+ track which decays at rest into mu+ nu or pi+ pi0.
We found one candidate event consistent with background, yielding a limit,
tau/B > 4.3 10^{31} years at 90% CL with no background subtraction.Comment: 13 pages, Latex, 3 tables and 3 figures, Accepted by Physics Letters
Very-high energy gamma-ray astronomy: A 23-year success story in high-energy astroparticle physics
Very-high energy (VHE) gamma quanta contribute only a minuscule fraction -
below one per million - to the flux of cosmic rays. Nevertheless, being neutral
particles they are currently the best "messengers" of processes from the
relativistic/ultra-relativistic Universe because they can be extrapolated back
to their origin. The window of VHE gamma rays was opened only in 1989 by the
Whipple collaboration, reporting the observation of TeV gamma rays from the
Crab nebula. After a slow start, this new field of research is now rapidly
expanding with the discovery of more than 150 VHE gamma-ray emitting sources.
Progress is intimately related with the steady improvement of detectors and
rapidly increasing computing power. We give an overview of the early attempts
before and around 1989 and the progress after the pioneering work of the
Whipple collaboration. The main focus of this article is on the development of
experimental techniques for Earth-bound gamma-ray detectors; consequently, more
emphasis is given to those experiments that made an initial breakthrough rather
than to the successors which often had and have a similar (sometimes even
higher) scientific output as the pioneering experiments. The considered energy
threshold is about 30 GeV. At lower energies, observations can presently only
be performed with balloon or satellite-borne detectors. Irrespective of the
stormy experimental progress, the success story could not have been called a
success story without a broad scientific output. Therefore we conclude this
article with a summary of the scientific rationales and main results achieved
over the last two decades.Comment: 45 pages, 38 figures, review prepared for EPJ-H special issue "Cosmic
rays, gamma rays and neutrinos: A survey of 100 years of research
Supernova neutrino detection in NOvA
The NOvA long-baseline neutrino experiment uses a pair of large, segmented, liquid-scintillator calorimeters to study neutrino oscillations, using GeV-scale neutrinos from the Fermilab NuMI beam. These detectors are also sensitive to the flux of neutrinos which are emitted during a core-collapse supernova through inverse beta decay interactions on carbon at energies of O(10 MeV). This signature provides a means to study the dominant mode of energy release for a core-collapse supernova occurring in our galaxy. We describe the data-driven software trigger system developed and employed by the NOvA experiment to identify and record neutrino data from nearby galactic supernovae. This technique has been used by NOvA to self-trigger on potential core-collapse supernovae in our galaxy, with an estimated sensitivity reaching out to 10 kpc distance while achieving a detection efficiency of 23% to 49% for supernovae from progenitor stars with masses of 9.6 M☉ to 27 M☉, respectively
Adding memory to the PDP-9
The University of Minnesota has expanded its PDP-9 memory to the full 32 K word capacity of the machine. The expansion from 8 K to 18 K words, entailing the construction of the Extended Memory Interface, was the most difficult part of the project. The interfacing procedure is described. (WHK
HARD QUARK-QUARK SCATTERING WITH EXCLUSIVE REACTIONS*
Nous présentons les résultats pour les réactions π-p → π-p et π-p → [MATH]-p à θc.m. = 90° ou -t = 9 GeV2/c2. On observe un important signal ρ-p et le ρ- est fortement polarisé. Cette polarisation teste la prédiction de QCD selon laquelle les quarks ne peuvent pas renverser l'hélicité. Ce test est extrêmement mauvais.We present data from π-p → elastic and ρ-p final states for scattering at 90° center of mass, -t = 9 GeV2/c2. A large ρ-p signal is seen and the ρ- are strongly polarized. This polarization tests a QCD prediction that quarks cannot flip helicity. The test fails dramatically
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