Introducing TAXI: a Transportable Array for eXtremely large area Instrumentation studies

A common challenge in many experiments in high-energy astroparticle physics is the need for sparse instrumentation in areas of 100 km2 and above, often in remote and harsh environments. All these arrays have similar requirements for read-out and communication, power generation and distribution, and synchronization. Within the TAXI project we are developing a transportable, modular four-station test-array that allows us to study different approaches to solve the aforementioned problems in the laboratory and in the field. Well-defined interfaces will provide easy interchange of the components to be tested and easy transport and setup will allow in-situ testing at different sites. Every station consists of three well-understood 1 m2 scintillation detectors with nanosecond time resolution, which provide an air shower trigger. An additional sensor, currently a radio antenna for air shower detection in the 100 MHz band, is connected for testing and calibration purposes. We introduce the TAXI project and report the status and performance of the first TAXI station deployed at the Zeuthen site of DESY.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, presented at ARENA 2014, Annapolis, MD, June 201

Limits on diffuse fluxes of high energy extraterrestrial neutrinos with the AMANDA-B10 detector

Data from the AMANDA-B10 detector taken during the austral winter of 1997 have been searched for a diffuse flux of high energy extraterrestrial muon-neutrinos, as predicted from, e.g., the sum of all active galaxies in the universe. This search yielded no excess events above those expected from the background atmospheric neutrinos, leading to upper limits on the extraterrestrial neutrino flux. For an assumed E^-2 spectrum, a 90% classical confidence level upper limit has been placed at a level E^2 Phi(E) = 8.4 x 10^-7 GeV cm^-2 s^-1 sr^-1 (for a predominant neutrino energy range 6-1000 TeV) which is the most restrictive bound placed by any neutrino detector. When specific predicted spectral forms are considered, it is found that some are excluded.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review Letter

Search for Point Sources of High Energy Neutrinos with AMANDA

This paper describes the search for astronomical sources of high-energy neutrinos using the AMANDA-B10 detector, an array of 302 photomultiplier tubes, used for the detection of Cherenkov light from upward traveling neutrino-induced muons, buried deep in ice at the South Pole. The absolute pointing accuracy and angular resolution were studied by using coincident events between the AMANDA detector and two independent telescopes on the surface, the GASP air Cherenkov telescope and the SPASE extensive air shower array. Using data collected from April to October of 1997 (130.1 days of livetime), a general survey of the northern hemisphere revealed no statistically significant excess of events from any direction. The sensitivity for a flux of muon neutrinos is based on the effective detection area for through-going muons. Averaged over the Northern sky, the effective detection area exceeds 10,000 m^2 for E_{mu} ~ 10 TeV. Neutrinos generated in the atmosphere by cosmic ray interactions were used to verify the predicted performance of the detector. For a source with a differential energy spectrum proportional to E_{nu}^{-2} and declination larger than +40 degrees, we obtain E^2(dN_{nu}/dE) <= 10^{-6}GeVcm^{-2}s^{-1} for an energy threshold of 10 GeV.Comment: 46 pages, 22 figures, 4 tables, submitted to Ap.

Sensitivity of the IceCube Detector to Astrophysical Sources of High Energy Muon Neutrinos

We present the results of a Monte-Carlo study of the sensitivity of the planned IceCube detector to predicted fluxes of muon neutrinos at TeV to PeV energies. A complete simulation of the detector and data analysis is used to study the detector's capability to search for muon neutrinos from sources such as active galaxies and gamma-ray bursts. We study the effective area and the angular resolution of the detector as a function of muon energy and angle of incidence. We present detailed calculations of the sensitivity of the detector to both diffuse and pointlike neutrino emissions, including an assessment of the sensitivity to neutrinos detected in coincidence with gamma-ray burst observations. After three years of datataking, IceCube will have been able to detect a point source flux of E^2*dN/dE = 7*10^-9 cm^-2s^-1GeV at a 5-sigma significance, or, in the absence of a signal, place a 90% c.l. limit at a level E^2*dN/dE = 2*10^-9 cm^-2s^-1GeV. A diffuse E-2 flux would be detectable at a minimum strength of E^2*dN/dE = 1*10^-8 cm^-2s^-1sr^-1GeV. A gamma-ray burst model following the formulation of Waxman and Bahcall would result in a 5-sigma effect after the observation of 200 bursts in coincidence with satellite observations of the gamma-rays.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figures, 6 table

Limits to the muon flux from WIMP annihilation in the center of the Earth with the AMANDA detector

A search for nearly vertical up-going muon-neutrinos from neutralino annihilations in the center of the Earth has been performed with the AMANDA-B10 neutrino detector. The data sample collected in 130.1 days of live-time in 1997, ~10^9 events, has been analyzed for this search. No excess over the expected atmospheric neutrino background is oberved. An upper limit at 90% confidence level on the annihilation rate of neutralinos in the center of the Earth is obtained as a function of the neutralino mass in the range 100 GeV-5000 GeV, as well as the corresponding muon flux limit.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures. Version accepted for publication in Physical Review

NectarCAM : a camera for the medium size telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array

NectarCAM is a camera proposed for the medium-sized telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) covering the central energy range of ~100 GeV to ~30 TeV. It has a modular design and is based on the NECTAr chip, at the heart of which is a GHz sampling Switched Capacitor Array and a 12-bit Analog to Digital converter. The camera will be equipped with 265 7-photomultiplier modules, covering a field of view of 8 degrees. Each module includes the photomultiplier bases, high voltage supply, pre-amplifier, trigger, readout and Ethernet transceiver. The recorded events last between a few nanoseconds and tens of nanoseconds. The camera trigger will be flexible so as to minimize the read-out dead-time of the NECTAr chips. NectarCAM is designed to sustain a data rate of more than 4 kHz with less than 5\% dead time. The camera concept, the design and tests of the various subcomponents and results of thermal and electrical prototypes are presented. The design includes the mechanical structure, cooling of the electronics, read-out, clock distribution, slow control, data-acquisition, triggering, monitoring and services.Comment: In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands. All CTA contributions at arXiv:1508.0589

Irreducible triangulations of surfaces with boundary

A triangulation of a surface is irreducible if no edge can be contracted to produce a triangulation of the same surface. In this paper, we investigate irreducible triangulations of surfaces with boundary. We prove that the number of vertices of an irreducible triangulation of a (possibly non-orientable) surface of genus g>=0 with b>=0 boundaries is O(g+b). So far, the result was known only for surfaces without boundary (b=0). While our technique yields a worse constant in the O(.) notation, the present proof is elementary, and simpler than the previous ones in the case of surfaces without boundary

Partial-wave analysis of the eta pi+ pi- system produced in the reaction pi-p --> eta pi+ pi- n at 18 GeV/c

A partial-wave analysis of 9082 eta pi+ pi- n events produced in the reaction pi- p --> eta pi+ pi- n at 18.3 GeV/c has been carried out using data from experiment 852 at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The data are dominated by J^{PC} = 0^{-+} partial waves consistent with observation of the eta(1295) and the eta(1440). The mass and width of the eta(1295) were determined to be 1282 +- 5 MeV and 66 +- 13 Mev respectively while the eta(1440) was observed with a mass of 1404 +- 6 MeV and width of 80 +- 21 MeV. Other partial waves of importance include the 1++ and the 1+- waves. Results of the partial wave analysis are combined with results of other experiments to estimate f1(1285) branching fractions. These values are considerably different from current values determined without the aid of amplitude analyses.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure

Limits on the high-energy gamma and neutrino fluxes from the SGR 1806-20 giant flare of December 27th, 2004 with the AMANDA-II detector

On December 27th 2004, a giant gamma flare from the Soft Gamma-ray Repeater 1806-20 saturated many satellite gamma-ray detectors. This event was by more than two orders of magnitude the brightest cosmic transient ever observed. If the gamma emission extends up to TeV energies with a hard power law energy spectrum, photo-produced muons could be observed in surface and underground arrays. Moreover, high-energy neutrinos could have been produced during the SGR giant flare if there were substantial baryonic outflow from the magnetar. These high-energy neutrinos would have also produced muons in an underground array. AMANDA-II was used to search for downgoing muons indicative of high-energy gammas and/or neutrinos. The data revealed no significant signal. The upper limit on the gamma flux at 90% CL is dN/dE < 0.05 (0.5) TeV^-1 m^-2 s^-1 for gamma=-1.47 (-2). Similarly, we set limits on the normalization constant of the high-energy neutrino emission of 0.4 (6.1) TeV^-1 m^-2 s^-1 for gamma=-1.47 (-2).Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure