852 research outputs found
Testing two nuclear physics approximations used in the standard leaky box model for the spallogenic production of LiBeB
The spallative production rates of Lithium, Beryllium and Boron (LiBeB) are a
necessary component in any calculation of the evolution of these nuclei in the
Galaxy. Previous calculations of these rates relied on two assumptions relating
to the nuclear physics aspects: the straight-ahead approximation that describes
the distribution of fragment energies and the assumption that the major
contributor to the production rate arises from single-step reactions between
primary cosmic ray projectiles and interstellar medium targets. We examine both
assumptions by using a semi-empirical description for the spall's energy
distribution and by including the reactions that proceed via intermediary
fragments. After relaxing the straight-ahead approximation we find the changes
in the production rates and emerging fluxes are small and do not warrant
rejection of this approximation. In contrast we discover that two-step
reactions can alter the production rate considerably leading to noticeable
increases in the efficiency of producing the LiBeB nuclei. Motivated by this
result we introduce a cascade technique to compute the production rates exactly
and find that the results differ only slightly from those of our two-step
calculations. We thus conclude that terminating the reaction network at the
two-step order is sufficiently accurate for current studies of spallation.Comment: accepted in Ap
Refractive elastic scattering of carbon and oxygen nuclei: The mean field analysis and Airy structures
The experimental data on the OC and OC elastic
scatterings and their optical model analysis are presented. Detailed and
complete elastic angular distributions have been measured at the Strasbourg
Vivitron accelerator at several energies covering the energy range between 5
and 10 MeV per nucleon. The elastic scattering angular distributions show the
usual diffraction pattern and also, at larger angles, refractive effects in the
form of nuclear rainbow and associated Airy structures. The optical model
analysis unambiguously shows the evolution of the refractive scattering
pattern. The observed structure, namely the Airy minima, can be consistently
described by a nucleus-nucleus potential with a deep real part and a weakly
absorptive imaginary part. The difference in absorption in the two systems is
explained by an increased imaginary (mostly surface) part of the potential in
the OC system. The relation between the obtained potentials and
those reported for the symmetrical OO and CC
systems is drawn.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, Phys. rev. C in pres
Limits on diffuse fluxes of high energy extraterrestrial neutrinos with the AMANDA-B10 detector
Data from the AMANDA-B10 detector taken during the austral winter of 1997
have been searched for a diffuse flux of high energy extraterrestrial
muon-neutrinos, as predicted from, e.g., the sum of all active galaxies in the
universe. This search yielded no excess events above those expected from the
background atmospheric neutrinos, leading to upper limits on the
extraterrestrial neutrino flux. For an assumed E^-2 spectrum, a 90% classical
confidence level upper limit has been placed at a level E^2 Phi(E) = 8.4 x
10^-7 GeV cm^-2 s^-1 sr^-1 (for a predominant neutrino energy range 6-1000 TeV)
which is the most restrictive bound placed by any neutrino detector. When
specific predicted spectral forms are considered, it is found that some are
excluded.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review Letter
Search for Point Sources of High Energy Neutrinos with AMANDA
This paper describes the search for astronomical sources of high-energy
neutrinos using the AMANDA-B10 detector, an array of 302 photomultiplier tubes,
used for the detection of Cherenkov light from upward traveling
neutrino-induced muons, buried deep in ice at the South Pole. The absolute
pointing accuracy and angular resolution were studied by using coincident
events between the AMANDA detector and two independent telescopes on the
surface, the GASP air Cherenkov telescope and the SPASE extensive air shower
array. Using data collected from April to October of 1997 (130.1 days of
livetime), a general survey of the northern hemisphere revealed no
statistically significant excess of events from any direction. The sensitivity
for a flux of muon neutrinos is based on the effective detection area for
through-going muons. Averaged over the Northern sky, the effective detection
area exceeds 10,000 m^2 for E_{mu} ~ 10 TeV. Neutrinos generated in the
atmosphere by cosmic ray interactions were used to verify the predicted
performance of the detector. For a source with a differential energy spectrum
proportional to E_{nu}^{-2} and declination larger than +40 degrees, we obtain
E^2(dN_{nu}/dE) <= 10^{-6}GeVcm^{-2}s^{-1} for an energy threshold of 10 GeV.Comment: 46 pages, 22 figures, 4 tables, submitted to Ap.
Extended Hauser-Feshbach Method for Statistical Binary-Decay of Light-Mass Systems
An Extended Hauser-Feshbach Method (EHFM) is developed for light heavy-ion
fusion reactions in order to provide a detailed analysis of all the possible
decay channels by including explicitly the fusion-fission phase-space in the
description of the cascade chain. The mass-asymmetric fission component is
considered as a complex-fragment binary-decay which can be treated in the same
way as the light-particle evaporation from the compound nucleus in
statistical-model calculations. The method of the phase-space integrations for
the binary-decay is an extension of the usual Hauser-Feshbach formalism to be
applied to the mass-symmetric fission part. The EHFM calculations include
ground-state binding energies and discrete levels in the low excitation-energy
regions which are essential for an accurate evaluation of the phase-space
integrations of the complex-fragment emission (fission). In the present
calculations, EHFM is applied to the first-chance binary-decay by assuming that
the second-chance fission decay is negligible. In a similar manner to the
description of the fusion-evaporation process, the usual cascade calculation of
light-particle emission from the highly excited complex fragments is applied.
This complete calculation is then defined as EHFM+CASCADE. Calculated
quantities such as charge-, mass- and kinetic-energy distributions are compared
with inclusive and/or exclusive data for the S+Mg and
Cl+C reactions which have been selected as typical examples.
Finally, the missing charge distributions extracted from exclusive measurements
are also successfully compared with the EHFM+CASCADE predictions.Comment: 34 pages, 6 Figures available upon request, Phys. Rev. C (to be
published
IceCube - the next generation neutrino telescope at the South Pole
IceCube is a large neutrino telescope of the next generation to be
constructed in the Antarctic Ice Sheet near the South Pole. We present the
conceptual design and the sensitivity of the IceCube detector to predicted
fluxes of neutrinos, both atmospheric and extra-terrestrial. A complete
simulation of the detector design has been used to study the detector's
capability to search for neutrinos from sources such as active galaxies, and
gamma-ray bursts.Comment: 8 pages, to be published with the proceedings of the XXth
International Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics, Munich 200
Muon Track Reconstruction and Data Selection Techniques in AMANDA
The Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA) is a high-energy
neutrino telescope operating at the geographic South Pole. It is a lattice of
photo-multiplier tubes buried deep in the polar ice between 1500m and 2000m.
The primary goal of this detector is to discover astrophysical sources of high
energy neutrinos. A high-energy muon neutrino coming through the earth from the
Northern Hemisphere can be identified by the secondary muon moving upward
through the detector. The muon tracks are reconstructed with a maximum
likelihood method. It models the arrival times and amplitudes of Cherenkov
photons registered by the photo-multipliers. This paper describes the different
methods of reconstruction, which have been successfully implemented within
AMANDA. Strategies for optimizing the reconstruction performance and rejecting
background are presented. For a typical analysis procedure the direction of
tracks are reconstructed with about 2 degree accuracy.Comment: 40 pages, 16 Postscript figures, uses elsart.st
Sensitivity of the IceCube Detector to Astrophysical Sources of High Energy Muon Neutrinos
We present the results of a Monte-Carlo study of the sensitivity of the
planned IceCube detector to predicted fluxes of muon neutrinos at TeV to PeV
energies. A complete simulation of the detector and data analysis is used to
study the detector's capability to search for muon neutrinos from sources such
as active galaxies and gamma-ray bursts. We study the effective area and the
angular resolution of the detector as a function of muon energy and angle of
incidence. We present detailed calculations of the sensitivity of the detector
to both diffuse and pointlike neutrino emissions, including an assessment of
the sensitivity to neutrinos detected in coincidence with gamma-ray burst
observations. After three years of datataking, IceCube will have been able to
detect a point source flux of E^2*dN/dE = 7*10^-9 cm^-2s^-1GeV at a 5-sigma
significance, or, in the absence of a signal, place a 90% c.l. limit at a level
E^2*dN/dE = 2*10^-9 cm^-2s^-1GeV. A diffuse E-2 flux would be detectable at a
minimum strength of E^2*dN/dE = 1*10^-8 cm^-2s^-1sr^-1GeV. A gamma-ray burst
model following the formulation of Waxman and Bahcall would result in a 5-sigma
effect after the observation of 200 bursts in coincidence with satellite
observations of the gamma-rays.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figures, 6 table
The Prelude to the Deep Minimum between Solar Cycles 23 and 24: Interplanetary Scintillation Signatures in the Inner Heliosphere
Extensive interplanetary scintillation (IPS) observations at 327 MHz obtained
between 1983 and 2009 clearly show a steady and significant drop in the
turbulence levels in the entire inner heliosphere starting from around ~1995.
We believe that this large-scale IPS signature, in the inner heliosphere,
coupled with the fact that solar polar fields have also been declining since
~1995, provide a consistent result showing that the buildup to the deepest
minimum in 100 years actually began more than a decade earlier.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Geophysical Research
Letters on 28 September 201
Results from the Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA)
We show new results from both the older and newer incarnations of AMANDA
(AMANDA-B10 and AMANDA-II, respectively). These results demonstrate that AMANDA
is a functioning, multipurpose detector with significant physics and
astrophysics reach. They include a new higher-statistics measurement of the
atmospheric muon neutrino flux and preliminary results from searches for a
variety of sources of ultrahigh energy neutrinos: generic point sources,
gamma-ray bursters and diffuse sources producing muons in the detector, and
diffuse sources producing electromagnetic or hadronic showers in or near the
detector.Comment: Invited talk at the XXth International Conference on Neutrino Physics
and Astrophysics (Neutrino 2002), Munich, Germany, May 25-30, 200
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