Correlation of cosmic-ray intensity and solar activity

The present International Geophysical Year was chosen to include the most likely period of maximum activity of the sun. It is probably too early to tell whether or not the maximum of the current cycle has yet been reached, but it is already certain that the yearly average of the Zurich sunspot numbers for 1957 is much higher than ever before observed.(1) It is therefore of interest to see what has been the effect on cosmic rays

Correlation of cosmic-ray ionization measurements at high altitudes, at sea level, and neutron intensities at mountain tops

Although fluctuations in cosmic rays have been measured at sea level and high altitudes for a number of years, no serious attempt seems to have been made to correlate the two. As a result of a rather long series of balloon flights in the summer of 1951 it now becomes possible to correlate ionization measurements at high and low altitudes. Recent neutron intensity measurements during the same period by Simpson et al. permit a further comparison with this component. There seems to be a good correlation, during this period of observation, between the fluctuations as measured in (1) the ionization at 70,000 ft over North Dakota, (2) the meson component at Cheltenham, Maryland, (3) the meson component at the geomagnetic equator, and (4) the neutron component at mountain tops in Colorado and New Mexico

The T2K ND280 Off-Axis Pi-Zero Detector

The Pi-Zero detector (P{\O}D) is one of the subdetectors that makes up the off-axis near detector for the Tokai-to-Kamioka (T2K) long baseline neutrino experiment. The primary goal for the P{\O}D is to measure the relevant cross sections for neutrino interactions that generate pi-zero's, especially the cross section for neutral current pi-zero interactions, which are one of the dominant sources of background to the electron neutrino appearance signal in T2K. The P{\O}D is composed of layers of plastic scintillator alternating with water bags and brass sheets or lead sheets and is one of the first detectors to use Multi-Pixel Photon Counters (MPPCs) on a large scale.Comment: 17 pages, submitted to NIM

A description of nesting behaviors, including factors impacting nest site selection, in black‐and‐white ruffed lemurs (Varecia variegata)

Nest site selection is at once fundamental to reproduction and a poorly understood component of many organisms’ reproductive investment. This study investigates the nesting behaviors of black-and-white ruffed lemurs, Varecia variegata, a litter-bearing primate from the southeastern rainforests of Madagascar. Using a combination of behavioral, geospatial, and demographic data, I test the hypotheses that environmental and social cues influence nest site selection and that these decisions ultimately impact maternal reproductive success. Gestating females built multiple large nests throughout their territories. Of these, females used only a fraction of the originally constructed nests, as well as several parking locations as infants aged. Nest construction was best predicted by environmental cues, including the size of the nesting tree and density of feeding trees within a 75 m radius of the nest, whereas nest use depended largely on the size and average distance to feeding trees within that same area. Microhabitat characteristics were unrelated to whether females built or used nests. Although unrelated to nest site selection, social cues, specifically the average distance to conspecifics’ nest and park sites, were related to maternal reproductive success; mothers whose litters were parked in closer proximity to others’ nests experienced higher infant survival than those whose nests were more isolated. This is likely because nesting proximity facilitated communal crèche use by neighboring females. Together, these results suggest a complex pattern of nesting behaviors that involves females strategically building nests in areas with high potential resource abundance, using nests in areas according to their realized productivity, and communally rearing infants within a network of nests distributed throughout the larger communal territory

Transport and Acceleration of Energetic Charged Particles near an Oblique Shock

We have developed a numerical simulation code that treats the transport and acceleration of charged particles crossing an idealized oblique, non-relativistic shock within the framework of pitch angle transport using a finite-difference method. We consider two applications: 1) to study the steady-state acceleration of energetic particles at an oblique shock, and 2) to explain observed precursors of Forbush decreases of galactic cosmic rays before the arrival of an interplanetary shock induced by solar activity. For the former, we find that there is a jump in the particle intensity at the shock, which is stronger for more oblique shocks. Detailed pitch angle distributions are also presented. The simple model of a Forbush decrease explains the key features of observed precursors, an enhanced diurnal anisotropy extending several mean free paths upstream of the shock and a depletion of particles in a narrow loss cone at ~0.1 mean free path from the shock. Such precursors have practical applications for space weather prediction.Comment: 20 pages + 12 figures, aas2pp4.sty included, to appear in Astrophys. J. (vol. 515, no. 2, April 20, 1999

Single hadron response measurement and calorimeter jet energy scale uncertainty with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K_s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5% for central isolated hadrons and 1-3% for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.Comment: 24 pages plus author list (36 pages total), 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to European Physical Journal

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011