65 research outputs found
Cosmic-ray electron injection from the ionization of nuclei
We show that the secondary electrons ejected from the ionization of heavy
ions can be injected into the acceleration process that occurs at supernova
remnant shocks. This electron injection mechanism works since ions are ionized
during the acceleration when they move already with relativistic speed, just
like ejected electrons do. Using the abundances of heavy nuclei measured in
cosmic rays at Earth, we estimate the electron/proton ratio at the source to be
~10^-4, big enough to account for the nonthermal synchrotron emission observed
in young SNRs. We also show that the ionization process can limit the maximum
energy that heavy ions can reach.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in Physical Review
Letter
Simulation of neutrino and charged particle production and propagation in the atmosphere
A precise evaluation of the secondary particle production and propagation in
the atmosphere is very important for the atmospheric neutrino oscillation
studies. The issue is addressed with the extension of a previously developed
full 3-Dimensional Monte-Carlo simulation of particle generation and transport
in the atmosphere, to compute the flux of secondary protons, muons and
neutrinos. Recent balloon borne experiments have performed a set of accurate
flux measurements for different particle species at different altitudes in the
atmosphere, which can be used to test the calculations for the atmospheric
neutrino production, and constrain the underlying hadronic models. The
simulation results are reported and compared with the latest flux measurements.
It is shown that the level of precision reached by these experiments could be
used to constrain the nuclear models used in the simulation. The implication of
these results for the atmospheric neutrino flux calculation are discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure
Turbulent diffusion and drift in galactic magnetic fields and the explanation of the knee in the cosmic ray spectrum
We reconsider the scenario in which the knee in the cosmic ray spectrum is
explained as due to a change in the escape mechanism of cosmic rays from the
Galaxy from one dominated by transverse diffusion to one dominated by drifts.
We solve the diffusion equations adopting realistic galactic field models and
using diffusion coefficients appropriate for strong turbulence (with a
Kolmogorov spectrum of fluctuations) and consistent with the assumed magnetic
fields. We show that properly taking into account these effects leads to a
natural explanation of the knee in the spectrum, and a transition towards a
heavier composition above the knee is predicted.Comment: 17 pp., 6 figures; revised version with minor changes. To appear in
JHE
An Upper Limit on the Infrared Background Density from HEGRA data on Mkn501
The energy spectrum of Mkn501 in the TeV energy regime, as measured by the
HEGRA (High Energy Gamma Ray Astronomy) Cerenkov telescopes during its low
state in 1995/96 and during a fraction of the 1997 outburst in the TeV energy
regime, is shown to place stringent upper limits on the still unknown infrared
photon density in the energy region between 3 x 10**(-3) and 3 xt 10**(-1) eV.
Assuming two different shapes for the unknown infrared photon spectrum in this
energy range we calculate upper limits on the infrared photon density on the
basis of the power-law fit obtained for the observed spectrum up to the maximum
energy.Comment: 11 pages, 6 Postscript figures, Accepted for publication in
Astroparticle Physic
Measurement of the gluon PDF at small x with neutrino telescopes
We analyze the possibility that neutrino telescopes may provide an
experimental determination of the slope lambda of the gluon distribution in the
proton at momentum fractions x smaller than the accelerator reach. The method
is based on a linear relation between lambda and the spectral index (slope) of
the down-going atmospheric muon flux above 100 TeV, for which there is no
background. Considering the uncertainties in the charm production cross section
and in the cosmic ray composition, we estimate the error on the measurement of
lambda through this method, excluding the experimental error of the telescopes,
to be ~ +/- 0.2Comment: 16 pages with 16 figures - new version, comments added, same results
and figure
Measurement of the cosmic ray hadron spectrum up to 30 TeV at mountain altitude: the primary proton spectrum
The flux of cosmic ray hadrons at the atmospheric depth of 820 g/cm^2 has
been measured by means of the EAS-TOP hadron calorimeter (Campo Imperatore,
National Gran Sasso Laboratories, 2005 m a.s.l.). The hadron spectrum is well
described by a single power law : S(E_h) = (2.25 +- 0.21 +- 0.34(sys))
10^(-7)(E_h/1000)^(-2.79 +- 0.05) m^(-2) s^(-1) sr^(-1) GeV^(-1) over the
energy range 30 GeV-30 TeV. The procedure and the accuracy of the measurement
are discussed. The primary proton spectrum is derived from the data by using
the CORSIKA/QGSJET code to compute the local hadron flux as a function of the
primary proton spectrum and to calculate and subtract the heavy nuclei
contribution (basing on direct measurements). Over a wide energy range E_0 =
0.5-50 TeV its best fit is given by a single power law : S(E_0) = (9.8 +- 1.1
+- 1.6(sys)) 10^(-5) (E_0/1000)^(-2.80 +- 0.06) m^(-2) s^(-1) sr^(-1) GeV^(-1).
The validity of the CORSIKA/QGSJET code for such application has been checked
using the EAS-TOP and KASCADE experimental data by reproducing the ratio of the
measured hadron fluxes at the two experimental depths (820 and 1030 g/cm^2
respectively) at better than 10% in the considered energy range.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Astroparticle
Physic
A Survey of the Northern Sky for TeV Point Sources
A search for steady TeV point sources anywhere in the northern sky has been
made with data from the Milagrito air-shower-particle detector. Over 3 x 10**9
events collected from 1997 February to 1998 May have been used in this study.
No statistically significant excess above the background from the isotropic
flux of cosmic rays was found for any direction of the sky with declination
between -5 degrees and 71.7 degrees. Upper limits are derived for the photon
flux above 1 TeV from any steady point source in the northern sky.Comment: 2 Figure
Energy spectra of cosmic-ray nuclei at high energies
We present new measurements of the energy spectra of cosmic-ray (CR) nuclei
from the second flight of the balloon-borne experiment Cosmic Ray Energetics
And Mass (CREAM). The instrument included different particle detectors to
provide redundant charge identification and measure the energy of CRs up to
several hundred TeV. The measured individual energy spectra of C, O, Ne, Mg,
Si, and Fe are presented up to eV. The spectral shape looks
nearly the same for these primary elements and it can be fitted to an power law in energy. Moreover, a new measurement of the absolute
intensity of nitrogen in the 100-800 GeV/ energy range with smaller errors
than previous observations, clearly indicates a hardening of the spectrum at
high energy. The relative abundance of N/O at the top of the atmosphere is
measured to be (stat.)(sys.) at 800
GeV/, in good agreement with a recent result from the first CREAM flight.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in Astrophysical
Journa
- …