Energy losses of Q-balls in Matter, Earth and Detectors

We present a sudy of the interactions of Q-balls with matter, and their energy losses in the earth, for a large range of velocities. These calculations are used to computethe fractional geometrical acceptance of underground detectors. Furthermore we computed the light yield in liquidscintillators, the ionization in streamer tubes and the Restricted Energy Loss in nuclear track detectors.Comment: 8 pages, Invited talk at COSMO99, ICTP-Trieste September 199

Discovery of Very High Energy gamma - ray emission from the extreme BL Lac object H2356-309 with H.E.S.S

The understanding of acceleration mechanisms in active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets and the measurement of the extragalactic-background-light (EBL) density are closely linked and require the detection of a large sample of very-high-energy (VHE) emitting extragalactic objects at varying redshifts. We report here on the discovery with the H.E.S.S. (High Energy Stereoscopic System) atmospheric-Cherenkov telescopes of the VHE Gamma-ray emission from H2356 - 309, an extreme BL Lac object located at a redshift of 0.165. The observations of this object, which was previously proposed as a southern-hemisphere VHE candidate source, were performed between June and December 2004. The total exposure is 38.9 hours live time, after data quality selection, which yields the detection of a signal at the level of 9.0$\sigma$ (standard deviations) .Comment: To appear on proceeding of 29th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2005

Q-balls in Underground Experiments

In this paper we present some features of Q-balls and we discuss their interactions with matter, and their energy losses in the Earth, for a large range of velocities. These calculations are used to compute the fractional geometrical acceptance of the MACRO detector. Furthermore a systematic analysis of the energy losses of Q-balls in three types of detectors is investigated. More specifically we have computed the light yield in liquid scintillators, the ionization in streamer tubes and the Restricted Energy Loss in the CR39 nuclear track detectors.Comment: 7 pages, 4 PS figures included with epsfig, uses espcrc2.sty Talk given at the Sixth Topical Seminar on Neutrino and Astroparticle Physics, San Miniato, Italy, 17-21 May 199

Luxation obturatrice de la hanche: un traumatisme rare en pratique sportive

Les luxations antérieures traumatiques de la hanche sans fracture du cotyle ou de la tête fémorale sont rares. Elles sont souvent secondaires à des accidents de haute énergie cinétique. La prise en charge thérapeutique nécessite un chirurgien vigilant et prévenu du risque de complications. Nous rapportons le cas d'une luxation obturatrice (antéro-inférieure) chez un jeune de 18 ans pratiquant le rolle

Aging Studies for the Large Honeycomb Drift Tube System of the Outer Tracker of HERA-B

The HERA-B Outer Tracker consists of drift tubes folded from polycarbonate foil and is operated with Ar/CF4/CO2 as drift gas. The detector has to stand radiation levels which are similar to LHC conditions. The first prototypes exposed to radiation in HERA-B suffered severe radiation damage due to the development of self-sustaining currents (Malter effect). In a subsequent extended R&D program major changes to the original concept for the drift tubes (surface conductivity, drift gas, production materials) have been developed and validated for use in harsh radiation environments. In the test program various aging effects (like Malter currents, gain loss due to anode aging and etching of the anode gold surface) have been observed and cures by tuning of operation parameters have been developed.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the International Workshop On Aging Phenomena In Gaseous Detectors, 2-5 Oct 2001, Hamburg, German

Results of the Search for Strange Quark Matter and Q-balls with the SLIM Experiment

The SLIM experiment at the Chacaltaya high altitude laboratory was sensitive to nuclearites and Q-balls, which could be present in the cosmic radiation as possible Dark Matter components. It was sensitive also to strangelets, i.e. small lumps of Strange Quark Matter predicted at such altitudes by various phenomenological models. The analysis of 427 m^2 of Nuclear Track Detectors exposed for 4.22 years showed no candidate event. New upper limits on the flux of downgoing nuclearites and Q-balls at the 90% C.L. were established. The null result also restricts models for strangelets propagation through the Earth atmosphere.Comment: 14 pages, 11 EPS figure

The Outer Tracker Detector of the HERA-B Experiment. Part II: Front-End Electronics

The HERA-B Outer Tracker is a large detector with 112674 drift chamber channels. It is exposed to a particle flux of up to 2x10^5/cm^2/s thus coping with conditions similar to those expected for the LHC experiments. The front-end readout system, based on the ASD-8 chip and a customized TDC chip, is designed to fulfil the requirements on low noise, high sensitivity, rate tolerance, and high integration density. The TDC system is based on an ASIC which digitizes the time in bins of about 0.5 ns within a total of 256 bins. The chip also comprises a pipeline to store data from 128 events which is required for a deadtime-free trigger and data acquisition system. We report on the development, installation, and commissioning of the front-end electronics, including the grounding and noise suppression schemes, and discuss its performance in the HERA-B experiment