626 research outputs found
Section on Prospects for Dark Matter Detection of the White Paper on the Status and Future of Ground-Based TeV Gamma-Ray Astronomy
This is a report on the findings of the dark matter science working group for
the white paper on the status and future of TeV gamma-ray astronomy. The white
paper was commissioned by the American Physical Society, and the full white
paper can be found on astro-ph (arXiv:0810.0444). This detailed section
discusses the prospects for dark matter detection with future gamma-ray
experiments, and the complementarity of gamma-ray measurements with other
indirect, direct or accelerator-based searches. We conclude that any
comprehensive search for dark matter should include gamma-ray observations,
both to identify the dark matter particle (through the charac- teristics of the
gamma-ray spectrum) and to measure the distribution of dark matter in galactic
halos.Comment: Report from the Dark Matter Science Working group of the APS
commissioned White paper on ground-based TeV gamma ray astronomy (19 pages, 9
figures
Development of a SiPM Camera for a Schwarzschild-Couder Cherenkov Telescope for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
We present the development of a novel 11328 pixel silicon photomultiplier
(SiPM) camera for use with a ground-based Cherenkov telescope with
Schwarzschild-Couder optics as a possible medium-sized telescope for the
Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). The finely pixelated camera samples air-shower
images with more than twice the optical resolution of cameras that are used in
current Cherenkov telescopes. Advantages of the higher resolution will be a
better event reconstruction yielding improved background suppression and
angular resolution of the reconstructed gamma-ray events, which is crucial in
morphology studies of, for example, Galactic particle accelerators and the
search for gamma-ray halos around extragalactic sources. Packing such a large
number of pixels into an area of only half a square meter and having a fast
readout directly attached to the back of the sensors is a challenging task. For
the prototype camera development, SiPMs from Hamamatsu with through silicon via
(TSV) technology are used. We give a status report of the camera design and
highlight a number of technological advancements that made this development
possible.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic
Ray Conference (ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands. All CTA contributions
at arXiv:1508.0589
Simultaneous administration of adjuvant donor bone marrow in pancreas transplant recipients
Objective: The effect of donor bone marrow was evaluated for its potentially favorable effect in the authors' simultaneous pancreas/kidney transplant program. Methods: From July 1994 to January 1999, 177 pancreas transplants were performed, 151 of which were simultaneous pancreas/kidney transplants. All patients received tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil, and steroids for immunosuppression (azathioprine was used in the first year of the program). Fifty-three simultaneous pancreas/kidney transplant recipients received perioperative unmodified donor bone marrow, 3 to 6 x 108 cells/kg. Results: Overall actuarial survival rates at 1 and 3 years were 98% and 95% (patient), 95% and 87% (kidney), and 86% and 80% (pancreas), respectively. In the adjuvant bone marrow group, 1- and 3-year survival rates were 96% and 91% (patient), 95% and 87% (kidney), and 83% and 83% (pancreas), respectively. For 98 recipients who did not receive bone marrow, survival rates at 1 and 3 years were 100% and 98% (patient), 96% and 86% (kidney), and 87% and 79% (pancreas), respectively. No pancreas allografts were lost after 3 months in bone marrow recipients, and seven in the non-bone marrow recipients were lost to rejection at 0.7, 6.7, 8.8, 14.6, 24.1, 24.3, and 25.5 months. Twenty-two percent of bone marrow patients were steroid-free at 1 year, 45% at 2 years, and 67% at 3 years. Nineteen percent of the non-bone marrow recipients were steroid-free at 1 year, 38% at 2 years, and 45% (p = 0.02) at 3 years. The mean acute cellular rejection rate was 0.94 ± 1.1 in the bone marrow group and 1.57 ± 1.3 (p = 0.003) in the non-bone marrow group (includes borderline rejection and multiple rejections). The level of donor cell chimerism in the peripheral blood of bone marrow patients was at least two logs higher than in controls. Conclusion: In this series, which represents the largest experience with adjuvant bone marrow infusion in pancreas recipients, there was a higher steroid withdrawal rate (p = 0.02), fewer rejection episodes, and no pancreas graft loss after 3 months in bone marrow recipients compared with contemporaneous controls. All pancreas allografts lost to chronic rejection (n = 6) were in the non-bone marrow group. Donor bone marrow administered around the time of surgery may have a protective effect in pancreas transplantation
Cosmic-Ray Proton and Helium Spectra from the First CREAM Flight
Cosmic-ray proton and helium spectra have been measured with the
balloon-borne Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass experiment flown for 42 days in
Antarctica in the 2004-2005 austral summer season. High-energy cosmic-ray data
were collected at an average altitude of ~38.5 km with an average atmospheric
overburden of ~3.9 g cm. Individual elements are clearly separated with
a charge resolution of ~0.15 e (in charge units) and ~0.2 e for protons and
helium nuclei, respectively. The measured spectra at the top of the atmosphere
are represented by power laws with a spectral index of -2.66 0.02 for
protons from 2.5 TeV to 250 TeV and -2.58 0.02 for helium nuclei from 630
GeV/nucleon to 63 TeV/nucleon. They are harder than previous measurements at a
few tens of GeV/nucleon. The helium flux is higher than that expected from the
extrapolation of the power law fitted to the lower-energy data. The relative
abundance of protons to helium nuclei is 9.1 0.5 for the range from 2.5
TeV/nucleon to 63 TeV/nucleon. This ratio is considerably smaller than the
previous measurements at a few tens of GeV/nucleon.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figure
A Search for Dark Matter Annihilation with the Whipple 10m Telescope
We present observations of the dwarf galaxies Draco and Ursa Minor, the local
group galaxies M32 and M33, and the globular cluster M15 conducted with the
Whipple 10m gamma-ray telescope to search for the gamma-ray signature of
self-annihilating weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) which may
constitute astrophysical dark matter (DM). We review the motivations for
selecting these sources based on their unique astrophysical environments and
report the results of the data analysis which produced upper limits on excess
rate of gamma rays for each source. We consider models for the DM distribution
in each source based on the available observational constraints and discuss
possible scenarios for the enhancement of the gamma-ray luminosity. Limits on
the thermally averaged product of the total self-annihilation cross section and
velocity of the WIMP, , are derived using conservative estimates for
the magnitude of the astrophysical contribution to the gamma-ray flux. Although
these limits do not constrain predictions from the currently favored
theoretical models of supersymmetry (SUSY), future observations with VERITAS
will probe a larger region of the WIMP parameter phase space, and
WIMP particle mass (m_\chi).Comment: 33 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
Multiwavelength Observations of Markarian 421 in March 2001: an Unprecedented View on the X-ray/TeV Correlated Variability
(Abridged) We present a detailed analysis of week-long simultaneous
observations of the blazar Mrk421 at 2-60 keV X-rays (RXTE) and TeV gamma-rays
(Whipple and HEGRA) in 2001. The unprecedented quality of this dataset enables
us to establish firmly the existence of the correlation between the TeV and
X-ray luminosities, and to start unveiling some of its more detailed
characteristics, in particular its energy dependence, and time variability. The
source shows strong, highly correlated variations in X-ray and gamma-ray. No
evidence of X-ray/gamma-ray interband lag is found on the full week dataset (<3
ks). However, a detailed analysis of the March 19 flare reveals that data are
not consistent with the peak of the outburst in the 2-4 keV X-ray and TeV band
being simultaneous. We estimate a 2.1+/-0.7 ks TeV lag. The amplitudes of the
X-ray and gamma-ray variations are also highly correlated, and the TeV
luminosity increases more than linearly w.r.t. the X-ray one. The strong
correlation supports the standard model in which a unique electrons population
produces the X-rays by synchrotron radiation and the gamma-ray component by
inverse Compton scattering. However, for the individual best observed flares
the gamma-ray flux scales approximately quadratically w.r.t. the X-ray flux,
posing a serious challenge to emission models for TeV blazars. Rather special
conditions and/or fine tuning of the temporal evolution of the physical
parameters of the emission region are required in order to reproduce the
quadratic correlation.Comment: Correction to authorship. Minor editorial changes to text, figures,
references. 22 pages (emulateapj), 12 figures (47 postscript files) Published
in ApJ, 2008 April 20 (ADS: 2008ApJ...677..906F
- …