64 research outputs found
The cosmic ray tagger of the short baseline neutrino experiment at Fermilab
The Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program at Fermilab will search for new physics in the neutrino oscillations parameters. The far detector will be interested by a ~25 kHz rate of cosmic ray events. An external cosmic ray tagging system will be implemented in order to prevent possible misidentification in the liquid argon time projection chamber.
This thesis is focused on the activities performed on the top cosmic ray tagging modules of the SBN experiment. The front-end electronics and the data acquisition software were tested and debugged. The performance evaluation techniques were first developed on the prototype module in Bologna and then applied to the assembled modules at the Frascati National Laboratories
The cosmic ray tagger of the ICARUS detector: construction, commissioning and performances in the first physics run
The Short Baseline Neutrino Program at Fermilab aims to confirm or definitely rule out the existence of sterile neutrinos at the eV mass scale. The program will perform the most sensitive search in both the nue appearance and numu disappearance channels along the Booster Neutrino Beamline. The far detector, ICARUS-T600, is a high-granularity Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber located at 600 m from the Booster neutrino source and at shallow depth, thus exposed to a large flux of cosmic particles. Additionally, ICARUS is located 6 degrees off axis with respect to the Neutrino beam from the Main Injector. This thesis presents the construction, installation and commissioning of the ICARUS Cosmic Ray Tagger system, providing a 4 pi coverage of the active liquid argon volume. By exploiting only the precise nanosecond scale synchronization of the cosmic tagger and the PMT optical flashes it is possible to determine if an event was likely triggered by a cosmic particle. The results show that using the Top Cosmic Ray Tagger alone a conservative rejection larger than 65% of the cosmic induced background can be achieved. Additionally, by requiring the absence of hits in the whole cosmic tagger system it is possible to perform a pre-selection of contained neutrino events ahead of the full event reconstruction
La fotografia scientifica astronomica
Saggio relativo alla sezione "Cielo" del catalogo della mostra "L'occhio della scienza. Un secolo di fotografia scientifica in Italia (1839-1939)" (Pisa, 11 novembre 2022 - 26 febbraio 2023), con elenco schede alle pp. 228-237
Dish Washer: a Software Tool for RFI Mitigation in Single-dish Radio Astronomical Observations
Radio Frequency Interference is one of the most pressing problems in cm-wavelength world-wide radio astronomy, in particular for single-dish telescope observations. Due to both the increasing abundance of man-made interfering signals and the improved performance of the telescope instrumentation, the impact of RFI at the Italian radio telescope sites is now a major concern, thus strategies for its mitigation are to be applied. Dish Washer is a new software tool for the detection and flagging of RFI in signals collected by single-dish radio telescopes. It implements both interactive flagging and some level of automatic detection of RFI through dedicated algorithms. Its first public release is foreseen as free software under the GNU General Public License
Towards coordinated site monitoring and common strategies for mitigation of Radio Frequency Interference at the Italian radio telescopes
We present a project to implement a national common strategy for the
mitigation of the steadily deteriorating Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)
situation at the Italian radio telescopes. The project involves the Medicina,
Noto, and Sardinia dish antennas and comprised the definition of a coordinated
plan for site monitoring as well as the implementation of state-of-the-art
hardware and software tools for RFI mitigation. Coordinated monitoring of
frequency bands up to 40 GHz has been performed by means of continuous
observations and dedicated measurement campaigns with fixed stations and mobile
laboratories. Measurements were executed on the frequency bands allocated to
the radio astronomy and space research service for shared or exclusive use and
on the wider ones employed by the current and under-development receivers at
the telescopes. Results of the monitoring campaigns provide a reference
scenario useful to evaluate the evolution of the interference situation at the
telescopes sites and a case series to test and improve the hardware and
software tools we conceived to counteract radio frequency interference. We
developed a multi-purpose digital backend for high spectral and time resolution
observations over large bandwidths. Observational results demonstrate that the
spectrometer robustness and sensitivity enable the efficient detection and
analysis of interfering signals in radio astronomical data. A prototype
off-line software tool for interference detection and flagging has been also
implemented. This package is capable to handle the huge amount of data
delivered by the most modern instrumentation on board of the Italian radio
telecsopes, like dense focal plane arrays, and its modularity easen the
integration of new algorithms and the re-usability in different contexts or
telescopes.Comment: 39 pages, 10 Figures and 7 Tables. INAF Technical Report n. 149
(2022). http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/3208
Starlight. La nascita dell'astrofisica in Italia / The origins of astrophysics in Italy
Starlight è una mostra a rete, con cinque sezioni dislocate in cinque osservatori diversi, raccordati virtualmente tramite l'omonima mostra virtuale bilingue. E' stata il prodotto finale del progetto "Analyzing starlight", finanziato da INAF con PDIN 2014, che include anche il catalogo cartaceo e la versione online della mostra. Le cinque sezioni sono così costituite: 1. Le origini dell'astrofisica a Firenze (sede: INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Firenze); 2. Roma, capitale dell'astrofisica (sede: INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monte Porzio Catone); 3. L'eclisse totale di sole del 1870 (sede: INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Napoli); 4. Lo sviluppo della fisica solare (sede: Chiesa di S. Maria delle Grazie, Palazzo dei Normanni, Palermo); 5. Una società scientifica italiana per l'astrofisica (sede: INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova
Solar radiation effects on the Sardinia Radio Telescope performances
The Sardinia Radio Telescope, a 64-metre diameter fully steerable radio telescope operated by INAF, will be upgraded in order to extend its current operating frequency range 0.3-26.5 GHz up to 116 GHz, thanks to a National Operational Program (PON) funding assigned to INAF by the Italian Ministry of University and Research. The PON project is organized in nine Work Packages, one of which is dedicated to the accomplishment of a sophisticated metrology system designed to monitor the cause of the pointing errors and the reflector surface deformations. The entire antenna structure will therefore be equipped with a network of sensors, like thermal sensors, inclinometers, accelerometers, collimators, anemometers, strain gauges and others, to study environmental stresses and how they affect the SRT performances. This work is devoted to the investigation of the thermal stress effects produced by solar radiation. In particular, two analyses are carried out to confirm the relevance of a thorough temperature monitoring system, both conducted using Finite Element Analysis. First, a possible approach for the simulation of realistic thermal scenarios due to insolation is proposed and the effects on the pointing accuracy are analysed. Second, a feasible method to study the impacts that a differential heating of the Back Up Structure (BUS) produces on the radio telescope main reflector surface is presented. Finally, these effects are analysed as optical aberrations and modelled in terms of Zernike polynomials
The high-frequency upgrade of the Sardinia Radio Telescope
We present the status of the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) and its forthcoming update planned in the next few years. The post-process scenario of the upgraded infrastructure will allow the national and international scientific community to use the SRT for the study of the Universe at high radio frequencies (up to 116 GHz), both in single dish and in interferometric mode. A telescope like SRT, operating at high frequencies, represents a unique resource for the scientific community. The telescope will be ideal for mapping quickly and with relatively high angular resolution extended radio emissions characterized by low surface brightness. It will also be essential for spectroscopic and polarimetric studies of both Galactic and extragalactic radio sources. With the use of the interferometric technique, SRT and the other Italian antennas (Medicina and Noto) will operate within the national and international radiotelescope network, allowing astronomers to obtain images of radio sources at very high angular resolution
Status of the High-Frequency Upgrade of the Sardinia Radio Telescope
The Sardinia Radio Telescope is going
through a major upgrade aimed at observing the
universe at up to 116 GHz. A budget of 18.700.000 E
has been awarded to the Italian National Institute of
Astrophysics to acquire new state-of-the-art receivers,
back-end, and high-performance computing, to develop
a sophisticated metrology system and to upgrade the
infrastructure and laboratories. This contribution draws
the status of the whole project at eight months from the
end of the funding scheme planned for August 2022
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