530 research outputs found
Absolute measurement of the nitrogen fluorescence yield in air between 300 and 430 nm
The nitrogen fluorescence induced in air is used to detect ultra-high energy
cosmic rays and to measure their energy. The precise knowledge of the absolute
fluorescence yield is the key quantity to improve the accuracy on the cosmic
ray energy. The total yield has been measured in dry air using a 90Sr source
and a [300-430 nm] filter. The fluorescence yield in air is 4.23 0.20
photons per meter when normalized to 760 mmHg, 15 degrees C and with an
electron energy of 0.85 MeV. This result is consistent with previous
experiments made at various energies, but with an accuracy improved by a factor
of about 3. For the first time, the absolute continuous spectrum of nitrogen
excited by 90Sr electrons has also been measured with a spectrometer. Details
of this experiment are given in one of the author's PhD thesis [32].Comment: accepted for publication in NIM
UV Light Shower Simulator for Fluorescence and Cerenkov Radiation Studies
All experiments observing showers light use telescopes equipped with
pixellised photodetectors. Monte-Carlo (MC) simulations of the apparatus
operation in various situations (background light, shower energy, proximity of
tracks...) are mandatory, but never enter into detector details like pulse
shape, dead-time, or charge space effects which are finally responsible for the
data quality. An apparatus where each pixel receives light from individual 370
nm UV LEDs through silica fibers is being built. The LEDs receive voltage
through DACs, which get their input (which pixel, at what time, which
amplitude) from a shower plus noise generator code. The typical time constant
of a shower being one s (300 m for light), the pulses are one s wide.
This is rather long compared to the intrinsic time constant (around 10 ns) of
the light detectors, hence, these see "constant light" changing every s.
This is where important loading effects which are not included in MC code can
be observed. The fibers illuminate the pixels through a diffuser, and each
fiber illuminates only one pixel. The number of equipped pixels is such that it
englobes a full shower (much less than the full focal surface). Finally, this
equipment can be used also to calibrate the pixels
MEMPHYS:A large scale water Cerenkov detector at Fr\'ejus
A water \v{C}erenkov detector project, of megaton scale, to be installed in
the Fr\'ejus underground site and dedicated to nucleon decay, neutrinos from
supernovae, solar and atmospheric neutrinos, as well as neutrinos from a
super-beam and/or a beta-beam coming from CERN, is presented and compared with
competitor projects in Japan and in the USA. The performances of the European
project are discussed, including the possibility to measure the mixing angle
and the CP-violating phase .Comment: 1+33 pages, 14 figures, Expression of Interest of MEMPHYS projec
Establishing a nu_{mu,tau} Component in the Solar Neutrino Flux
We point out that the recoil electron kinetic energy spectra in the nu-e
elastic scattering are different for incident nu_{e} or nu_{mu,tau}, and hence
one can in principle establish the existence of the nu_{mu,tau} component in
the solar neutrino flux by fitting the shape of the spectrum. This would be a
new model-independent test of the solar neutrino oscillation in a single
experiment, free from astrophysical and nuclear physics uncertainties. For the
^7Be neutrinos, it is possible to determine the nu_{mu,tau} component at
BOREXINO or KamLAND, if the background is sufficiently low. Note that this
effect is different from the distortion in the incident neutrino energy
spectrum, which has been discussed in the literature.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, uses psfig. Figures reorganized, one corrected,
conclusions unchange
Progress on a spherical TPC for low energy neutrino detection
The new concept of the spherical TPC aims at relatively large target masses
with low threshold and background, keeping an extremely simple and robust
operation. Such a device would open the way to detect the neutrino-nucleus
interaction, which, although a standard process, remains undetected due to the
low energy of the neutrino-induced nuclear recoils. The progress in the
development of the fist 1 m prototype at Saclay is presented. Other physics
goals of such a device could include supernova detection, low energy neutrino
oscillations and study of non-standard properties of the neutrino, among
others.Comment: 3 pages, talk given at the 9th Workshop on Topics in Astroparticle
and Underground Physics, Zaragoza, September 10-1
Eigenvector Expansion and Petermann Factor for Ohmically Damped Oscillators
Correlation functions in ohmically damped
systems such as coupled harmonic oscillators or optical resonators can be
expressed as a single sum over modes (which are not power-orthogonal), with
each term multiplied by the Petermann factor (PF) , leading to "excess
noise" when . It is shown that is common rather than
exceptional, that can be large even for weak damping, and that the PF
appears in other processes as well: for example, a time-independent
perturbation \sim\ep leads to a frequency shift \sim \ep C_j. The
coalescence of () eigenvectors gives rise to a critical point, which
exhibits "giant excess noise" (). At critical points, the
divergent parts of contributions to cancel, while time-independent
perturbations lead to non-analytic shifts \sim \ep^{1/J}.Comment: REVTeX4, 14 pages, 4 figures. v2: final, 20 single-col. pages, 2
figures. Streamlined with emphasis on physics over formalism; rewrote Section
V E so that it refers to time-dependent (instead of non-equilibrium) effect
Muon-induced background to proton decay in the p→K+ν decay channel with large underground liquid argon TPC detectors
Large liquid argon TPC detector programs such as LBNE and LAGUNA-LBNO will be able to make measurements of the proton lifetime which will outperform Cherenkov detectors in the proton decay channel p→K+ν. At the large depths which are proposed for such experiments, a non-negligible source of isolated charged kaons may be produced in the showers of cosmogenic muons. We present an estimate of the cosmogenic muon background to proton decay in the p→K+ν channel. The simulation of muon transport to a depth of 4 km w.e. is performed in the MUSIC framework and the subsequent propagation of muons and secondary particles in the vicinity of a cylindrical 20 kt LAr target is performed using Geant4. An exposure time of 100 years is considered, with a rate of <0.0012 events/kt/year at 90% CL predicted from our simulations
A first measurement of the interaction cross section of the tau neutrino
The DONuT experiment collected data in 1997 and published first results in
2000 based on four observed charged-current (CC) interactions. The
final analysis of the data collected in the experiment is presented in this
paper, based on protons on target using the 800 GeV
Tevatron beam at Fermilab. The number of observed CC interactions is
9, from a total of 578 observed neutrino interactions. We calculated the
energy-independent part of the tau-neutrino CC cross section (), relative to the well-known and cross sections. The
ratio / was found to be
. The CC cross section was found to be cm. Both results are in
agreement the Standard Model.Comment: 37 pages, 15 figure
A New Upper Limit for the Tau-Neutrino Magnetic Moment
Using a prompt neutrino beam in which a nu_tau component was identified for
the first time, the nu_tau magnetic moment was measured based on a search for
an anomalous increase in the number of neutrino-electron interactions. One such
event was observed when 2.3 were expected from background processes, giving an
upper 90% confidence limit of 3.9x10^-7 Bohr magnetons.Comment: 9 pages; 1 figur
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Genetic analysis of a major international collection of cultivated apple varieties reveals previously unknown historic heteroploid and inbred relationships
Domesticated apple (Malus x domestica Borkh.) is a major global crop and the genetic diversity held within the pool of cultivated varieties is important for the development of future cultivars. The aim of this study was to investigate the diversity held within the domesticated form, through the analysis of a major international germplasm collection of cultivated varieties, the UK National Fruit Collection, consisting of over 2,000 selections of named cultivars and seedling varieties. We utilised Diversity Array Technology (DArT) markers to assess the genetic diversity within the collection. Clustering attempts, using the software STRUCTURE revealed that the accessions formed a complex and historically admixed group for which clear clustering was challenging. Comparison of accessions using the Jaccard similarity coefficient allowed us to identify clonal and duplicate material as well as revealing pairs and groups that appeared more closely related than a standard parent-offspring or full-sibling relations. From further investigation, we were able to propose a number of new pedigrees, which revealed that some historically important cultivars were more closely related than previously documented and that some of them were partially inbred. We were also able to elucidate a number of parent-offspring relationships that had resulted in a number of important polyploid cultivars. This included reuniting polyploid cultivars that in some cases dated as far back as the 18th century, with diploid parents that potentially date back as far as the 13th century
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