279 research outputs found
Ocular Manifestations In COVID-19: Clinical Case Reports And A Literature (Review)
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected more than 130 million people as of April 2021. During the current pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 has been found to cause conjunctivitis with anecdotal evidence of a wide range of manifestations from scleritis to retinitis, occlusive vasculitis and optic neuritis. The purpose of this study is to raise awareness about possible COVID-19 related ocular manifestations, including papillophlebitis, anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, uveitis and neuroretinitis. Further detailed analyses will be needed to elucidate the link between SARS-CoV-2 and ocular pathology
New Measurements of the Transverse Beam Asymmetry for Elastic Electron Scattering from Selected Nuclei
We have measured the beam-normal single-spin asymmetry An in the elastic scattering of 1-3 GeV transversely polarized electrons from H-1 and for the first time from He-4, C-12, and Pb-208. For H-1, He-4, and C-12, the measurements are in agreement with calculations that relate A(n) to the imaginary part of the two-photon exchange amplitude including inelastic intermediate states. Surprisingly, the Pb-208 result is significantly smaller than the corresponding prediction using the same formalism. These results suggest that a systematic set of new A(n) measurements might emerge as a new and sensitive probe of the structure of heavy nuclei
Gamma-ray Observations Under Bright Moonlight with VERITAS
Imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) are equipped with sensitive
photomultiplier tube (PMT) cameras. Exposure to high levels of background
illumination degrades the efficiency of and potentially destroys these
photo-detectors over time, so IACTs cannot be operated in the same
configuration in the presence of bright moonlight as under dark skies. Since
September 2012, observations have been carried out with the VERITAS IACTs under
bright moonlight (defined as about three times the night-sky-background (NSB)
of a dark extragalactic field, typically occurring when Moon illumination >
35%) in two observing modes, firstly by reducing the voltage applied to the
PMTs and, secondly, with the addition of ultra-violet (UV) bandpass filters to
the cameras. This has allowed observations at up to about 30 times previous NSB
levels (around 80% Moon illumination), resulting in 30% more observing time
between the two modes over the course of a year. These additional observations
have already allowed for the detection of a flare from the 1ES 1727+502 and for
an observing program targeting a measurement of the cosmic-ray positron
fraction. We provide details of these new observing modes and their performance
relative to the standard VERITAS observations
A New Measurement of the Radiative Decay Width
High precision measurements of the differential cross sections for
photoproduction at forward angles for two nuclei, C and Pb, have
been performed for incident photon energies of 4.9 - 5.5 GeV to extract the
decay width. The experiment was done at Jefferson
Lab using the Hall B photon tagger and a high-resolution multichannel
calorimeter. The decay width was extracted by
fitting the measured cross sections using recently updated theoretical models
for the process. The resulting value for the decay width is . With the 2.8% total uncertainty, this result is a factor of 2.5 more
precise than the current PDG average of this fundamental quantity and it is
consistent with current theoretical predictions.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Measurement of the 12C(e,e'p)11B Two-Body Breakup Reaction at High Missing Momentum Values
The five-fold differential cross section for the 12C(e,e'p)11B reaction was
determined over a missing momentum range of 200-400 MeV/c, in a kinematics
regime with Bjorken x > 1 and Q2 = 2.0 (GeV/c)2. A comparison of the results
and theoretical models and previous lower missing momentum data is shown. The
theoretical calculations agree well with the data up to a missing momentum
value of 325 MeV/c and then diverge for larger missing momenta. The extracted
distorted momentum distribution is shown to be consistent with previous data
and extends the range of available data up to 400 MeV/c.Comment: 12 pages, 1 table and 3 figures for submission to Journal Physics
Compton Scattering Cross Section on the Proton at High Momentum Transfer
Cross-section values for Compton scattering on the proton were measured at 25
kinematic settings over the range s = 5-11 and -t = 2-7 GeV2 with statistical
accuracy of a few percent. The scaling power for the s-dependence of the cross
section at fixed center of mass angle was found to be 8.0 +/ 0.2, strongly
inconsistent with the prediction of perturbative QCD. The observed
cross-section values are in fair agreement with the calculations using the
handbag mechanism, in which the external photons couple to a single quark.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Direct measurement of stellar angular diameters by the VERITAS Cherenkov Telescopes
The angular size of a star is a critical factor in determining its basic
properties. Direct measurement of stellar angular diameters is difficult: at
interstellar distances stars are generally too small to resolve by any
individual imaging telescope. This fundamental limitation can be overcome by
studying the diffraction pattern in the shadow cast when an asteroid occults a
star, but only when the photometric uncertainty is smaller than the noise added
by atmospheric scintillation. Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes used for
particle astrophysics observations have not generally been exploited for
optical astronomy due to the modest optical quality of the mirror surface.
However, their large mirror area makes them well suited for such
high-time-resolution precision photometry measurements. Here we report two
occultations of stars observed by the VERITAS Cherenkov telescopes with
millisecond sampling, from which we are able to provide a direct measurement of
the occulted stars' angular diameter at the milliarcsecond scale.
This is a resolution never achieved before with optical measurements and
represents an order of magnitude improvement over the equivalent lunar
occultation method. We compare the resulting stellar radius with empirically
derived estimates from temperature and brightness measurements, confirming the
latter can be biased for stars with ambiguous stellar classifications.Comment: Accepted for publication in Nature Astronom
Discovery of Very High Energy Gamma Rays from 1ES 1440+122
The BL Lacertae object 1ES 1440+122 was observed in the energy range from 85
GeV to 30 TeV by the VERITAS array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes.
The observations, taken between 2008 May and 2010 June and totalling 53 hours,
resulted in the discovery of -ray emission from the blazar, which has a
redshift =0.163. 1ES 1440+122 is detected at a statistical significance of
5.5 standard deviations above the background with an integral flux of
(2.8) 10
cm s (1.2\% of the Crab Nebula's flux) above 200 GeV. The
measured spectrum is described well by a power law from 0.2 TeV to 1.3 TeV with
a photon index of 3.1 0.4 0.2.
Quasi-simultaneous multi-wavelength data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope
(0.3--300 GeV) and the Swift X-ray Telescope (0.2--10 keV) are additionally
used to model the properties of the emission region. A synchrotron self-Compton
model produces a good representation of the multi-wavelength data. Adding an
external-Compton or a hadronic component also adequately describes the data.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
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