1,537 research outputs found
Investigations of fast neutron production by 190 GeV/c muon interactions on different targets
The production of fast neutrons (1 MeV - 1 GeV) in high energy muon-nucleus
interactions is poorly understood, yet it is fundamental to the understanding
of the background in many underground experiments. The aim of the present
experiment (CERN NA55) was to measure spallation neutrons produced by 190 GeV/c
muons scattering on carbon, copper and lead targets. We have investigated the
energy spectrum and angular distribution of spallation neutrons, and we report
the result of our measurement of the neutron production differential cross
section.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures ep
R&D results on a CsI-TTGEM based photodetector
The very high momentum particle identification detector proposed for the
ALICE upgrade is a focusing RICH using a C4F10 gaseous radiator. For the
detection of Cherenkov photons, one of the options currently under
investigation is to use a CsI coated Triple-Thick-GEM (CsI-TTGEM) with metallic
or resistive electrodes. We will present results from the laboratory studies as
well as preliminary results of beam tests of a RICH detector prototype
consisting of a CaF2 radiator coupled to a 10x10 cm2 CsI-TTGEM equipped with a
pad readout and GASSIPLEX-based front-end electronics. With such a prototype
the detection of Cherenkov photons simultaneously with minimum ionizing
particles has been achieved for the first time in a stable operation mode
Probing compact dark matter objects with microlensing in gravitationally lensed quasars
The microlensing signal in the light curves of gravitationally lensed quasars can shed light on the dark matter (DM) composition in their lensing galaxies. Here, we investigate a sample of six lensed quasars from the most recent and best COSMOGRAIL observations: HE 1104-1805, HE 0435-1223, RX J1131-1231, WFI 2033-4723, PG 1115+080, and J1206+4332, yielding a total of eight microlensing light curves, when combining independent image pairs and typically spanning ten years. We explore the microlensing signals to determine whether the standard assumptions on the stellar populations are sufficient to account for the amplitudes of the measured signals or whether additional microlenses are needed. We use the most detailed lens models to date from the H0LiCOW/TDCOSMO collaboration to derive the microlensing parameters, such as the convergence, shear, and stellar/dark matter mass fraction at the position of the quasar images. We use these parameters to generate simulated microlensing light curves. Finally, we propose a methodology based on the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to verify whether the observed microlensing amplitudes in our data are compatible with the most standard scenario, whereby galaxies are composed of stars as compact bodies and smoothly distributed DM. Given our current sample, we show that the standard scenario cannot be rejected, in contrast with previous results by Hawkins (2020a, A&A, 633, A107), claiming that a population of stellar mass primordial black holes (PBHs) is necessary to explain the observed amplitude of the microlensing signal in lensed quasar light curves. We further estimate the number of microlensing light curves needed to effectively distinguish between the standard scenario with stellar microlensing and a scenario that describes that all the DM contained in galaxies is in the form of compact objects such as PBHs, with a mean mass of 0.2 Mo. We find that about 900 microlensing curves from the Rubin Observatory will be sufficient to discriminate between the two extreme scenarios at a 95% confidence level.</p
Photosensitive Strip RETHGEM
An innovative photosensitive gaseous detector, consisting of a GEM like
amplification structure with double layered electrodes (instead of commonly
used metallic ones) coated with a CsI reflective photocathode, is described. In
one of our latest designs, the inner electrode consists of a metallic grid and
the outer one is made of resistive strips; the latter are manufactured by a
screen printing technology on the top of the metallic strips grid The inner
metallic grid is used for 2D position measurements whereas the resistive layer
provides an efficient spark protected operation at high gains - close to the
breakdown limit. Detectors with active areas of 10cm x10cm and 10cm x20cm were
tested under various conditions including the operation in photosensitive gas
mixtures containing ethylferrocene or TMAE vapors. The new technique could have
many applications requiring robust and reliable large area detectors for UV
visualization, as for example, in Cherenkov imaging devices.Comment: Presentes at the International Conference NDIP 2008, July 2008,
Franc
The current progress of the ALICE Ring Imaging Cherenkov Detector
Recently, the last two modules (out of seven) of the ALICE High Momentum
Particle Identification detector (HMPID) were assembled and tested. The full
detector, after a pre-commissioning phase, has been installed in the
experimental area, inside the ALICE solenoid, at the end of September 2006. In
this paper we review the status of the ALICE/HMPID project and we present a
summary of the series production of the CsI photo-cathodes. We describe the key
features of the production procedure which ensures high quality photo-cathodes
as well as the results of the quality assessment performed by means of a
specially developed 2D scanner system able to produce a detailed map of the CsI
photo-current over the entire photo-cathode surface.
Finally we present our recent R&D efforts toward the development of a novel
generation of imaging Cherenkov detectors with the aim to identify, in heavy
ions collisions, hadrons up to 30 GeV/c.Comment: Presented at the Imaging-2006 Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, June
200
Radial flow afterburner for event generators and the baryon puzzle
A simple afterburner including radial flow to the randomized transverse
momentum obtained from event generators, Pythia and Hijing, has been
implemented to calculate the ratios and compare them with available
data. A coherent trend of qualitative agreement has been obtained in
collisions and in for various centralities. Those results indicate that
the radial flow does play an important role in the so called baryon puzzle
anomaly.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. To appear in Journal of Physics
Aging of large area CsI photocathodes for the ALICE HMPID prototypes
The ALICE HMPID RICH detector is equipped with CsI photocathodes in a MWPC for the detection of Cherenkov photons. The long term operational experience with large area CsI photocathodes will be described. The RICH prototypes have shown a very high stability of operation and performance, at a gain of 10 \5 and with rates up to 2x10 \4 cm-2 s-1. When exposure to air has been avoided, no degradation of the CsI quantum efficiency has been observed on photocathodes periodically exposed to test-beams over 7 years, corresponding to local integrated charge densities of ~ 1 mC cm-2. The results of limited exposures to oxygen and humidity will also be presented
First observation of Cherenkov rings with a large area CsI-TGEM-based RICH prototype
We have built a RICH detector prototype consisting of a liquid C6F14 radiator
and six triple Thick Gaseous Electron Multipliers (TGEMs), each of them having
an active area of 10x10 cm2. One triple TGEM has been placed behind the liquid
radiator in order to detect the beam particles, whereas the other five have
been positioned around the central one at a distance to collect the Cherenkov
photons. The upstream electrode of each of the TGEM stacks has been coated with
a 0.4 micron thick CsI layer.
In this paper, we will present the results from a series of laboratory tests
with this prototype carried out using UV light, 6 keV photons from 55Fe and
electrons from 90Sr as well as recent results of tests with a beam of charged
pions where for the first time Cherenkov Ring images have been successfully
recorded with TGEM photodetectors. The achieved results prove the feasibility
of building a large area Cherenkov detector consisting of a matrix of TGEMs.Comment: Presented at the International Conference NDIP-11, Lyon,July201
COSMOGRAIL: XVII. Time delays for the quadruply imaged quasar PG 1115+080
IndexaciĂłn: Scopus.Acknowledgements. The authors would like to thank R. Gredel for his help in setting up the program at the ESO MPIA 2.2 m telescope, and the anonymous referee for his or her comments on this work. This work is supported by the Swiss National Fundation. This research made use of Astropy, a community-developed core Python package for Astronomy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013, 2018) and the 2D graphics environment Matplotlib (Hunter 2007). K.R. acknowledge support from PhD fellowship FIB-UV 2015/2016 and Becas de Doctorado Nacional CONICYT 2017 and thanks the LSSTC Data Science Fellowship Program, her time as a Fellow has benefited this work. M.T. acknowledges support by the DFG grant Hi 1495/2-1. G. C.-F. C. acknowledges support from the Ministry of Education in Taiwan via Government Scholarship to Study Abroad (GSSA). D. C.-Y. Chao and S. H. Suyu gratefully acknowledge the support from the Max Planck Society through the Max Planck Research Group for S. H. Suyu. T. A. acknowledges support by the Ministry for the Economy, Development, and Tourism’s Programa Inicativa CientĂfica Milenio through grant IC 12009, awarded to The Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS).We present time-delay estimates for the quadruply imaged quasar PG 1115+080. Our results are based on almost daily observations for seven months at the ESO MPIA 2.2 m telescope at La Silla Observatory, reaching a signal-to-noise ratio of about 1000 per quasar image. In addition, we re-analyze existing light curves from the literature that we complete with an additional three seasons of monitoring with the Mercator telescope at La Palma Observatory. When exploring the possible source of bias we considered the so-called microlensing time delay, a potential source of systematic error so far never directly accounted for in previous time-delay publications. In 15 yr of data on PG 1115+080, we find no strong evidence of microlensing time delay. Therefore not accounting for this effect, our time-delay estimates on the individual data sets are in good agreement with each other and with the literature. Combining the data sets, we obtain the most precise time-delay estimates to date on PG 1115+080, with Δt(AB) = 8.3+1.5 -1.6 days (18.7% precision), Δt(AC) = 9.9+1.1 -1.1 days (11.1%) and Δt(BC) = 18.8+1.6 -1.6 days (8.5%). Turning these time delays into cosmological constraints is done in a companion paper that makes use of ground-based Adaptive Optics (AO) with the Keck telescope. © ESO 2018.https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2018/08/aa33287-18/aa33287-18.htm
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