0000000000324960
AUTHOR
Piero Vallania
showing 13 related works from this author
Calibration of the RPC charge readout in the ARGO-YBJ experiment
2012
""The charge readout of Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) is implemented in the ARGO-YBJ experiment to measure the charged particle density of the shower front up to 10^4\\\/m^2, enabling the study of the primary cosmic rays with energies in the ''knee'' region. As the first time for RPCs being used this way, a telescope with RPCs and scintillation detectors is setup to calibrate the number of charged particles hitting a RPC versus its charge readout. Air shower particles are taken as the calibration beam. The telescope was tested at sea level and then moved to the ARGO-YBJ site for coincident operation with the ARGO-YBJ experiment. The charge readout shows good linearity with the particle de…
Software Timing Calibration of the ARGO-YBJ Detector
2009
The ARGO-YBJ experiment is mainly devoted to search for astronomical gamma sources. The arrival direction of air showers is reconstructed thanks to the times measured by the pixels of the detector. Therefore, the timing calibration of the detector pixels is crucial in order to get the best angular resolution and pointing accuracy. Because of the large number of pixels a hardware timing calibration is practically impossible. Therefore an off-line software calibration has been adopted. Here, the details of the procedure and the results are presented. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Mean Interplanetary Magnetic Field Measurement Using the ARGO-YBJ Experiment
2011
The sun blocks cosmic ray particles from outside the solar system, forming a detectable shadow in the sky map of cosmic rays detected by the ARGO-YBJ experiment in Tibet. Because the cosmic ray particles are positive charged, the magnetic field between the sun and the earth deflects them from straight trajectories and results in a shift of the shadow from the true location of the sun. Here we show that the shift measures the intensity of the field which is transported by the solar wind from the sun to the earth.
The cosmic ray proton plus helium energy spectrum measured by the ARGO-YBJ experiment in the energy range 3-300 TeV
2015
The ARGO-YBJ experiment is a full-coverage air shower detector located at the Yangbajing Cosmic Ray Observatory (Tibet, People's Republic of China, 4300 m a.s.l.). The high altitude, combined with the full-coverage technique, allows the detection of extensive air showers in a wide energy range and offer the possibility of measuring the cosmic ray proton plus helium spectrum down to the TeV region, where direct balloon/space-borne measurements are available. The detector has been in stable data taking in its full configuration from November 2007 to February 2013. In this paper the measurement of the cosmic ray proton plus helium energy spectrum is presented in the region 3-300 TeV by analyzi…
Early warning for VHE gamma-ray flares with the ARGO-YBJ detector
2011
Detecting and monitoring emissions from flaring gamma-ray sources in the very-high-energy (VHE, > 100 GeV) band is a very important topic in gamma-ray astronomy. The ARGO-YBJ detector is characterized by a high duty cycle and a wide field of view. Therefore, it is particularly capable of detecting flares from extragalactic objects. Based on fast reconstruction and analysis, real-time monitoring of 33 selected VHE extragalactic sources is implemented. Flares exceeding a specific threshold are reported timely, hence enabling the follow-up observation of these objects using more sensitive detectors, such as Cherenkov telescopes. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Extensive air showers and diffused Cherenkov light detection: The ULTRA experiment
2007
Abstract The Uv Light Transmission and Reflection in the Atmosphere (ULTRA) experiment has been designed to provide quantitative measurements of the backscattered Cherenkov signal associated to the Extensive Air Showers (EAS) at the impact point on the Earth surface. The knowledge of such information will test the possibility to detect the diffused Cherenkov light spot from space within the Ultra high-energy cosmic ray observation. The Cherenkov signal is necessary to give an absolute reference for the track, allowing the measurement of the shower maximum and easing the separation between neutrino and hadronic showers. In this paper we discuss the experimental set-up with detailed informati…
Energy spectrum of cosmic protons and helium nuclei by a hybrid measurement at 4300 m a.s.l.
2014
The energy spectrum of cosmic Hydrogen and Helium nuclei has been measured, below the so-called "knee", by using a hybrid experiment with a wide field-of-view Cherenkov telescope and the Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) array of the ARGO-YBJ experiment at 4300 m above sea level. The Hydrogen and Helium nuclei have been well separated from other cosmic ray components by using a multi-parameter technique. A highly uniform energy resolution of about 25% is achieved throughout the whole energy range (100 TeV - 700 TeV). The observed energy spectrum is compatible with a single power law with index gamma=-2.63+/-0.06.
ARGO-YBJ constraints on very high energy emission from GRBs
2009
The ARGO-YBJ (Astrophysical Radiation Ground-based Observatory at YangBaJing) experiment is designed for very high energy $\gamma$-astronomy and cosmic ray researches. Due to the full coverage of a large area ($5600 m^2$) with resistive plate chambers at a very high altitude (4300 m a.s.l.), the ARGO-YBJ detector is used to search for transient phenomena, such as Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Because the ARGO-YBJ detector has a large field of view ($\sim$2 sr) and is operated with a high duty cycle ($>$90%), it is well suited for GRB surveying and can be operated in searches for high energy GRBs following alarms set by satellite-borne observations at lower energies. In this paper, the sensitivit…
Highlights from the ARGO-YBJ Experiment
2012
""The ARGO-YBJ experiment at YangBaJing in Tibet (4300m a.s.l.) has been taking data with its full layout since October 2007. Here we present a few significant results obtained in gamma-ray astronomy and cosmic-ray physics. Emphasis is placed on the analysis of gamma-ray emission from point-like sources (Crab Nebula, MRK 421), on the preliminary limit on the antiproton\\\/proton flux ratio, on the large-scale cosmic-ray anisotropy and on the proton-air cross-section. The performance of the detector is also discussed, and the perspectives of the experiment are outlined.""
Temperature effect on RPC performance in the ARGO-YBJ experiment
2009
The ARGO-YBJ experiment has been taking data for nearly 2 years. In order to monitor continuously the performance of the Resistive Plate Chamber detectors and to study the daily temperature effects on the detector performance, a cosmic ray muon telescope was setup near the carpet detector array in the ARGO-YBJ laboratory. Based on the measurements performed using this telescope, it is found that, at the actual operating voltage of 7.2kV, the temperature effect on the RPC time resolution is about 0.04ns/degrees C and on the particle detection efficiency is about 0.03%/degrees C. Based on these figures we conclude that the environmental effects do not affect substantially the angular resoluti…
TeV gamma-ray survey of the Northern sky using the ARGO-YBJ detector
2013
The ARGO-YBJ detector is an extensive air shower array that has been used to monitor the northern $\gamma$-ray sky at energies above 0.3 TeV from 2007 November to 2013 January. In this paper, we present the results of a sky survey in the declination band from $-10^{\circ}$ to $70^{\circ}$, using data recorded over the past five years. With an integrated sensitivity ranging from 0.24 to $\sim$1 Crab units depending on the declination, six sources have been detected with a statistical significance greater than 5 standard deviations. Several excesses are also reported as potential $\gamma$-ray emitters. The features of each source are presented and discussed. Additionally, $95\%$ confidence le…
Intrinsic linearity of bakelite Resistive Plate Chambers operated in streamer mode
2019
Abstract Resistive Plate Chambers have largely been used in High Energy Physics and Cosmic Ray research. In view of using this detector for calorimetry applications it is important to know the maximum measurable particle density, or its intrinsic linearity limit, which is tightly related to the dimension of the discharge region. In this paper we report the results of measurements performed at the Beam Test Facility (INFN National Laboratory of Frascati, Italy) where the intrinsic linearity of bakelite RPCs operated in streamer mode has been tested at different impinging particle densities.
Observation of the thunderstorm-related ground cosmic ray flux variations by ARGO-YBJ
2017
A correlation between the secondary cosmic ray flux and the near-earth electric field intensity, measured during thunderstorms, has been found by analyzing the data of the ARGO-YBJ experiment, a full coverage air shower array located at the Yangbajing Cosmic Ray Laboratory (4300 m a. s. l., Tibet, China). The counting rates of showers with different particle multiplicities, have been found to be strongly dependent upon the intensity and polarity of the electric field measured during the course of 15 thunderstorms. In negative electric fields (i.e. accelerating negative charges downwards), the counting rates increase with increasing electric field strength. In positive fields, the rates decr…