Optimization of multivariate analysis for IACT stereoscopic systems

Multivariate methods have been recently introduced and successfully applied for the discrimination of signal from background in the selection of genuine very-high energy gamma-ray events with the H.E.S.S. Imaging Atmospheric Cerenkov Telescope. The complementary performance of three independent reconstruction methods developed for the H.E.S.S. data analysis, namely Hillas, model and 3D-model suggests the optimization of their combination through the application of a resulting efficient multivariate estimator. In this work the boosted decision tree method is proposed leading to a significant increase in the signal over background ratio compared to the standard approaches. The improved sensitivity is also demonstrated through a comparative analysis of a set of benchmark astrophysical sources.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic

A multivariate analysis approach for the Imaging atmospheric Cerenkov Telescopes System H.E.S.S.

International audienceWe present a multivariate classification approach applied to the analysis of data from the H.E.S.S. Very High Energy (VHE) gamma-ray IACT stereoscopic system. This approach combines three complementary analysis methods already successfully applied in the H.E.S.S. data analysis. The proposed approach, with the combined effective estimator Xeff, is conceived to improve the signal-to-background ratio and therefore particularly relevant to the morphological studies of faint extended sources

A robust approach for the determination of Gurson model parameters

Among the most promising models introduced in recent years, with which it is possible to obtain very useful results for a better understanding of the physical phenomena involved in the macroscopic mechanism of crack propagation, the one proposed by Gurson and Tvergaard links the propagation of a crack to the nucleation, growth and coalescence of micro-voids, which is likely to connect the micromechanical characteristics of the component under examination to crack initiation and propagation up to a macroscopic scale. It must be pointed out that, even if the statistical character of some of the many physical parameters involved in the said model has been put in evidence, no serious attempt has been made insofar to link the corresponding statistic to the experimental and macroscopic results, as for example crack initiation time, material toughness, residual strength of the cracked component (R-Curve), and so on. In this work, such an analysis was carried out in a twofold way: the former concerned the study of the influence exerted by each of the physical parameters on the material toughness, and the latter concerned the use of the Stochastic Design Improvement (SDI) technique to perform a "robust" numerical calibration of the model evaluating the nominal values of the physical and correction parameters, which fit a particular experimental result even in the presence of their "natural" variability

Young star clusters as gamma ray emitters and their detection with Cherenkov Telescopes

Young massive star clusters as sites of strong stellar winds and supernova explosions may accelerate charged particles at high energies and produce gamma-rays. These sources may also contribute to the production of cosmic rays in our galaxy. At TeV energies several candidates have already been detected: Cygnus OB2, Westerlund 1 \& 2, W43, Pismis 22 and W49A. Our study addresses the issue of very young star clusters where no supernova has occurred yet. During the lifetime of a massive star (M$> 20 M_{\odot}$), supersonic stellar winds do indeed release as much energy as a supernova explosion. As supernova remnants are already known as gamma-ray emitters our purpose is to avoid any ambiguity on the origin of a possible gamma ray emission and to fully assume a stellar wind contribution. In this work we first present a catalogue of potential gamma-ray emitting clusters and discuss the criteria used to built the catalogue. We hence model the expected energetic particle spectrum including escapes and losses. We deduce gamma-ray luminosities produced by Inverse Compton and pion decay emission of each cluster and their associated HII regions. We finally compare these gamma-ray luminosities with HESS-II and CTA Cherenkov telescopes sensitivities

NaNet: a Low-Latency, Real-Time, Multi-Standard Network Interface Card with GPUDirect Features

While the GPGPU paradigm is widely recognized as an effective approach to high performance computing, its adoption in low-latency, real-time systems is still in its early stages. Although GPUs typically show deterministic behaviour in terms of latency in executing computational kernels as soon as data is available in their internal memories, assessment of real-time features of a standard GPGPU system needs careful characterization of all subsystems along data stream path. The networking subsystem results in being the most critical one in terms of absolute value and fluctuations of its response latency. Our envisioned solution to this issue is NaNet, a FPGA-based PCIe Network Interface Card (NIC) design featuring a configurable and extensible set of network channels with direct access through GPUDirect to NVIDIA Fermi/Kepler GPU memories. NaNet design currently supports both standard - GbE (1000BASE-T) and 10GbE (10Base-R) - and custom - 34~Gbps APElink and 2.5~Gbps deterministic latency KM3link - channels, but its modularity allows for a straightforward inclusion of other link technologies. To avoid host OS intervention on data stream and remove a possible source of jitter, the design includes a network/transport layer offload module with cycle-accurate, upper-bound latency, supporting UDP, KM3link Time Division Multiplexing and APElink protocols. After NaNet architecture description and its latency/bandwidth characterization for all supported links, two real world use cases will be presented: the GPU-based low level trigger for the RICH detector in the NA62 experiment at CERN and the on-/off-shore data link for KM3 underwater neutrino telescope

Improved sensitivity of H.E.S.S.-II through the fifth telescope focus system

The Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope (IACT) works by imaging the very short flash of Cherenkov radiation generated by the cascade of relativistic charged particles produced when a TeV gamma ray strikes the atmosphere. This energetic air shower is initiated at an altitude of 10-30 km depending on the energy and the arrival direction of the primary gamma ray. Whether the best image of the shower is obtained by focusing the telescope at infinity and measuring the Cherenkov photon angles or focusing on the central region of the shower is a not obvious question. This is particularly true for large size IACT for which the depth of the field is much smaller. We address this issue in particular with the fifth telescope (CT5) of the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.); a 28 m dish large size telescope recently entered in operation and sensitive to an energy threshold of tens of GeVs. CT5 is equipped with a focus system, its working principle and the expected effect of focusing depth on the telescope sensitivity at low energies (50-200 GeV) is discussed.Comment: In Proceedings of the 33rd International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2013), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil

Parametric simulation of LVI test onto CFRP plates

The paper deals with the study of the structural behaviour of laminated composite plates under low velocity impacts. Three test cases, respectively with 6J, 10J and 13J impact energies have been experimentally carried out under ASTM D7136 (American Standard Test Method for Measuring the Damage Resistance of a Fiber –Reinforced Polymer Matrix Composite to a Drop-Weight Impact) requirements. Within this work, virtual simulations of such impact tests have been developed by using the finite element code Abaqus®. The numerical model, based on explicit finite element theory, allows predicting the onset and evolution of both inter-laminar and intra-laminar damages. The former have been considered by using special-purpose elements (cohesive elements); the latter thanks to Hashin criteria. For validation purpose, numerical results have been compared with the experimental ones. After the validation phase, a parametric analysis has been numerically performed; the size of the panel support fixture has been considered as main parameter