Meaurement of Cosmic Ray elemental composition from the CAKE balloon experiment

CAKE (Cosmic Abundances below Knee Energies) was a prototype balloon experiment for the determination of the charge spectra and of abundances of the primary cosmic-rays (CR) with Z$>$10. It was a passive instrument made of layers of CR39 and Lexan nuclear track detectors; it had a geometric acceptance of $\sim$0.7 m$^2$sr for Fe nuclei. Here, the scanning and analysis strategies, the algorithms used for the off-line filtering and for the tracking in automated mode of the primary cosmic rays are presented, together with the resulting CR charge distribution and their abundances.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figure

KM3NeT:a large underwater neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea

High energy neutrinos produced in astrophysical processes will allow for a new way of studying the universe. In order to detect the expected flux of high energy neutrinos from specific astrophysical sources, neutrino telescopes of a scale of a km^3 of water will be needed. A Northern Hemisphere detector is being proposed to be sited in a deep area of the Mediterranean Sea. This detector will provide complimentary sky coverage to the IceCube detector being built at the South Pole. The three neutrino telescope projects in the Mediterranean (ANTARES, NEMO and NESTOR) are partners in an effort to design, and build such a km^3 size neutrino telescope, the KM3NeT. The EU is funding a 3-year Design Study; the status of the Design Study is presented and some technical issues are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Prepared for the 10th International Conference on Astroparticle and Underground Physics (TAUP 2007), Sendai, Japan, 11-15 Sep 200

Fragmentation cross sections of Fe^{26+}, Si^{14+} and C^{6+} ions of 0.3-10 A GeV on CR39, polyethylene and aluminum targets

New measurements of the total and partial fragmentation cross sections in the energy range 0.3-10 A GeV of Fe^{26+}, Si^{14+} and C^{6+} beams on polyethylene, CR39 and aluminum targets are presented. The exposures were made at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), USA, and Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC), Japan. The CR39 nuclear track detectors were used to identify the incident and survived beams and their fragments. The total fragmentation cross sections for all targets are almost energy independent while they depend on the target mass. The measured partial fragmentation cross sections are also discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 5 eps figures. Talk given at the 24th International Conference on Nuclear Tracks in Solids, Bologna, Italy, 1-5 September 200

Cosmic ray abundance measurements with the CAKE balloon experiment

We present the results from the CAKE (Cosmic Abundance below Knee Energy) balloon experiment which uses nuclear track detectors. The final experiment goal is the determination of the charge spectrum of CR nuclei with Z > 30 in the primary cosmic radiation. The detector, which has a geometric acceptance of \~ 1.7 m2 sr, was exposed in a trans-mediterranean stratospheric balloon flight. Calibrations of the detectors used (CR39 and Lexan), scanning strategies and algorithms for tracking particles in an automatic mode are presented. The present status of the results is discussedComment: 5 pages, 3 figures, proceeding to 29 ICRC, 2005, Pune Indi

Search for magnetic monopoles with ten years of the ANTARES neutrino telescope

This work presents a new search for magnetic monopoles using data taken with the ANTARES neutrino telescope over a period of 10 years (January 2008 to December 2017). Compared to previous ANTARES searches, this analysis uses a run-by-run simulation strategy, with a larger exposure as well as a new simulation of magnetic monopoles taking into account the Kasama, Yang and Goldhaber model for their interaction cross-section with matter. No signal compatible with the passage of relativistic magnetic monopoles is observed, and upper limits on the flux of magnetic monopoles with ß = v/c = 0.55, are presented. For ultra-relativistic magnetic monopoles the flux limit is ~ 7×10-18 cm-2 s -1 sr-1 .Postprint (author's final draft

Search for Intermediate Mass Magnetic Monopoles and Nuclearites with the SLIM experiment

SLIM is a large area experiment (440 m2) installed at the Chacaltaya cosmic ray laboratory since 2001, and about 100 m2 at Koksil, Himalaya, since 2003. It is devoted to the search for intermediate mass magnetic monopoles (107-1013 GeV/c2) and nuclearites in the cosmic radiation using stacks of CR39 and Makrofol nuclear track detectors. In four years of operation it will reach a sensitivity to a flux of about 10-15 cm-2 s-1 sr-1. We present the results of the calibration of CR39 and Makrofol and the analysis of a first sample of the exposed detector.Comment: Presented at the 22nd ICNTS, Barcelona 200