112 research outputs found
Measurements of Atmospheric Antiprotons
We measured atmospheric antiproton spectra in the energy range 0.2 to 3.4
GeV, at sea level and at balloon altitude in the atmospheric depth range 4.5 to
26 g/cm^2. The observed energy spectra, including our previous measurements at
mountain altitude, were compared with estimated spectra calculated on various
assumptions regarding the energy distribution of antiprotons that interacted
with air nuclei.Comment: Accepted for publication in PL
Large-Area Scintillator Hodoscope with 50 ps Timing Resolution Onboard BESS
We describe the design and performance of a large-area scintillator hodoscope
onboard the BESS rigidity spectrometer; an instrument with an acceptance of 0.3
m^{2}sr.
The hodoscope is configured such that 10 and 12 counters are respectively
situated in upper and lower layers.
Each counter is viewed from its ends by 2.5 inch fine-mesh photomultiplier
tubes placed in a stray magnetic field of 0.2 Tesla.
Various beam-test data are presented.
Use of cosmic-ray muons at ground-level confirmed 50 ps timing resolution for
each layer, giving an overall time-of-flight resolution of 70 ps rms using a
pure Gaussian resolution function.
Comparison with previous measurements on a similar scintillator hodoscope
indicates good agreement with the scaling law that timing resolution is
proportional to 1/, where is the effective
number of photoelectrons.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figure
Measurements of 0.2 to 20 GeV/n cosmic-ray proton and helium spectra from 1997 through 2002 with the BESS spectrometer
We measured low energy cosmic-ray proton and helium spectra in the kinetic
energy range 0.215 - 21.5 GeV/n at different solar activities during a period
from 1997 to 2002. The observations were carried out with the BESS spectrometer
launched on a balloon at Lynn Lake, Canada. A calculation for the correction of
secondary particle backgrounds from the overlying atmosphere was improved by
using the measured spectra at small atmospheric depths ranging from 5 through
37 g/cm^2. The uncertainties including statistical and systematic errors of the
obtained spectra at the top of atmosphere are 5-7 % for protons and 6-9 % for
helium nuclei in the energy range 0.5 - 5 GeV/n.Comment: 27 pages, 7 Tables, 9 figures, Submitted to Astroparticle Physic
Measurements of Proton, Helium and Muon Spectra at Small Atmospheric Depths with the BESS Spectrometer
The cosmic-ray proton, helium, and muon spectra at small atmospheric depths
of 4.5 -- 28 g/cm^2 were precisely measured during the slow descending period
of the BESS-2001 balloon flight. The variation of atmospheric secondary
particle fluxes as a function of atmospheric depth provides fundamental
information to study hadronic interactions of the primary cosmic rays with the
atmosphere.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, 4 table
Measurement of cosmic-ray low-energy antiproton spectrum with the first BESS-Polar Antarctic flight
The BESS-Polar spectrometer had its first successful balloon flight over
Antarctica in December 2004. During the 8.5-day long-duration flight, almost
0.9 billion events were recorded and 1,520 antiprotons were detected in the
energy range 0.1-4.2 GeV. In this paper, we report the antiproton spectrum
obtained, discuss the origin of cosmic-ray antiprotons, and use antiprotons to
probe the effect of charge sign dependent drift in the solar modulation.Comment: 18 pages, 1 table, 5 figures, submitted to Physics Letters
Impact of the spectral hardening of TeV cosmic rays on the prediction of the secondary positron flux
The rise in the cosmic-ray positron fraction measured by the PAMELA satellite
is likely due to the presence of astrophysical sources of positrons, e.g.
pulsars, on the kpc scale around the Earth. Nevertheless, assessing the
properties of these sources from the positron data requires a good knowledge of
the secondary positron component generated by the interaction of cosmic rays
with the interstellar gas. In this paper, we investigate the impact of the
spectral hardening in the cosmic-ray proton and helium fluxes recently reported
by the ATIC2 and CREAM balloon experiments, on the predictions of the secondary
positron flux. We show that the effect is not negligible, leading to an
increase of the secondary positron flux by up to 60% above 100 GeV.
We provide fitting formulae that allow a straightforward utilization of our
results, which can help in deriving constraints on one's favorite primary
positron source, e.g. pulsars or dark matter.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures (accepted in MNRAS 04-01-2011
Measurements of Primary and Atmospheric Cosmic-Ray Spectra with the BESS-TeV Spectrometer
Primary and atmospheric cosmic-ray spectra were precisely measured with the
BESS-TeV spectrometer. The spectrometer was upgraded from BESS-98 to achieve
seven times higher resolution in momentum measurement. We report absolute
fluxes of primary protons and helium nuclei in the energy ranges, 1-540 GeV and
1-250 GeV/n, respectively, and absolute flux of atmospheric muons in the
momentum range 0.6-400 GeV/c.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables, Submitted to Phys. Lett.
Precise Measurements of Atmospheric Muon Fluxes with the BESS Spectrometer
The vertical absolute fluxes of atmospheric muons and muon charge ratio have
been measured precisely at different geomagnetic locations by using the BESS
spectrometer. The observations had been performed at sea level (30 m above sea
level) in Tsukuba, Japan, and at 360 m above sea level in Lynn Lake, Canada.
The vertical cutoff rigidities in Tsukuba (36.2 N, 140.1 E) and in Lynn Lake
(56.5 N, 101.0 W) are 11.4 GV and 0.4 GV, respectively. We have obtained
vertical fluxes of positive and negative muons in a momentum range from 0.6 to
20 GeV/c with systematic errors less than 3 % in both measurements. By
comparing the data collected at two different geomagnetic latitudes, we have
seen an effect of cutoff rigidity. The dependence on the atmospheric pressure
and temperature, and the solar modulation effect have been also clearly
observed. We also clearly observed the decrease of charge ratio of muons at low
momentum side with at higher cutoff rigidity region.Comment: 35 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to Astroparticle Physic
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