Detecting the Neutrino Mass Hierarchy with a Supernova at IceCube

IceCube, a future km^3 antarctic ice Cherenkov neutrino telescope, is highly sensitive to a galactic supernova (SN) neutrino burst. The Cherenkov light corresponding to the total energy deposited by the SN neutrinos in the ice can be measured relative to background fluctuations with a statistical precision much better than 1%. If the SN is viewed through the Earth, the matter effect on neutrino oscillations can change the signal by more than 5%, depending on the flavor-dependent source spectra and the neutrino mixing parameters. Therefore, IceCube together with another high-statistics experiment like Hyper-Kamiokande can detect the Earth effect, an observation that would identify specific neutrino mixing scenarios that are difficult to pin down with long-baseline experiments. In particular, the normal mass hierarchy can be clearly detected if the third mixing angle is not too small, sin^2 theta_13 < 10^-3. The small flavor-dependent differences of the SN neutrino fluxes and spectra that are found in state-of-the-art simulations suffice for this purpose. Although the absolute calibration uncertainty at IceCube may exceed 5%, the Earth effect would typically vary by a large amount over the duration of the SN signal, obviating the need for a precise calibration. Therefore, IceCube with its unique geographic location and expected longevity can play a decisive role as a "co-detector" to measure SN neutrino oscillations. It is also a powerful stand-alone SN detector that can verify the delayed-explosion scenario.Comment: 19 pages, 6 Figs, final version accepted by JCAP, some references adde

The AMANDA Neutrino Telescope and the Indirect Search for Dark Matter

With an effective telescope area of order 10^4 m^2, a threshold of ~50 GeV and a pointing accuracy of 2.5 degrees, the AMANDA detector represents the first of a new generation of high energy neutrino telescopes, reaching a scale envisaged over 25 years ago. We describe its performance, focussing on the capability to detect halo dark matter particles via their annihilation into neutrinos.Comment: Latex2.09, 16 pages, uses epsf.sty to place 15 postscript figures. Talk presented at the 3rd International Symposium on Sources and Detection of Dark Matter in the Universe (DM98), Santa Monica, California, Feb. 199

The AMANDA Neutrino Telescope: Principle of Operation and First Results

AMANDA is a high-energy neutrino telescope presently under construction at the geographical South Pole. In the Antarctic summer 1995/96, an array of 80 optical modules (OMs) arranged on 4 strings (AMANDA-B4) was deployed at depths between 1.5 and 2 km. In this paper we describe the design and performance of the AMANDA-B4 prototype, based on data collected between February and November 1996. Monte Carlo simulations of the detector response to down-going atmospheric muon tracks show that the global behavior of the detector is understood. We describe the data analysis method and present first results on atmospheric muon reconstruction and separation of neutrino candidates. The AMANDA array was upgraded with 216 OMs on 6 new strings in 1996/97 (AMANDA-B10), and 122 additional OMs on 3 strings in 1997/98.Comment: 36 pages, 23 figures, submitted to Astroparticle Physic

Limits to the muon flux from neutralino annihilations in the Sun with the AMANDA detector

A search for an excess of muon-neutrinos from neutralino annihilations in the Sun has been performed with the AMANDA-II neutrino detector using data collected in 143.7 days of live-time in 2001. No excess over the expected atmospheric neutrino background has been observed. An upper limit at 90% confidence level has been obtained on the annihilation rate of captured neutralinos in the Sun, as well as the corresponding muon flux limit at the Earth, both as functions of the neutralino mass in the range 100 GeV-5000 GeV.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to Astropart. Phy

Предварительное исследование применения системы спектрального регулирования для ТВС реактора ВВЭР-1000

Повышение топливных характеристик ядерных реакторов за счет применения концепции управления спектральным сдвигом (SSC) вместо традиционных методов, основанных на поглощении, является многообещающим подходом к снижению стоимости топливного цикла и увеличению использования топливных ресурсов (U, Pu). В данной работе было проведено исследование применения химического метода SSC для модели топливной сборки ВВЭР-1000 с низкообогащенным ураном, в которой контроль реактивности осуществляется путем изменения доли D2O относительно легководного замедлителя (D2O/H2O), и сравнение с поглощающими материалами, в которых содержится 600 ppm H3BO3 и 4,0 мас.% Gd2O3

Brn3a and Islet1 Act Epistatically to Regulate the Gene Expression Program of Sensory Differentiation

The combinatorial expression of transcription factors frequently marks cellular identity in the nervous system, yet how these factors interact to determine specific neuronal phenotypes is not well understood. Sensory neurons of the trigeminal ganglion (TG) and dorsal root ganglia (DRG) coexpress the homeodomain transcription factors Brn3a and Islet1, and past work has revealed partially overlapping programs of gene expression downstream of these factors. Here we examine sensory development in Brn3a/Islet1 double knock-out (DKO) mice. Sensory neurogenesis and the formation of the TG and DRG occur in DKO embryos, but the DRG are dorsally displaced, and the peripheral projections of the ganglia are markedly disturbed. Sensory neurons in DKO embryos show a profound loss of all early markers of sensory subtypes, including the Ntrk neurotrophin receptors, and the runt-family transcription factors Runx1 and Runx3. Examination of global gene expression in the E12.5 DRG of single and double mutant embryos shows that Brn3a and Islet1 are together required for nearly all aspects of sensory-specific gene expression, including several newly identified sensory markers. On a majority of targets, Brn3a and Islet1 exhibit negative epistasis, in which the effects of the individual knock-out alleles are less than additive in the DKO. Smaller subsets of targets exhibit positive epistasis, or are regulated exclusively by one factor. Brn3a/Islet1 double mutants also fail to developmentally repress neurogenic bHLH genes, and in vivo chromatin immunoprecipitation shows that Islet1 binds to a known Brn3a-regulated enhancer in the neurod4 gene, suggesting a mechanism of interaction between these genes

Measurement of the cosmic ray composition at the knee with the SPASE-2/AMANDA-B10 detectors

The mass composition of high-energy cosmic rays at energies above 10 15 eV can provide crucial information for the understanding of their origin. Air showers were measured simultaneously with the SPASE-2 air shower array and the AMANDA-B10 Cherenkov telescope at the South Pole. This combination has the advantage to sample almost all high-energy shower muons and is thus a new approach to the determination of the cosmic ray composition. The change in the cosmic ray mass composition was measured versus existing data from direct measurements at low energies. Our data show an increase of the mean log atomic mass 〈ln A 〉 by about 0.8 between 500 TeV and 5 PeV. This trend of an increasing mass through the “knee” region is robust against a variety of systematic effects