0000000000722875
AUTHOR
Q. Zhu
Underground multimuon experiment in the Pyhäsalmi mine
An experiment to observe simultaneous, multiple muon events originating from extensive air showers is under preparation. The experiment will be situated in shallow depths in the Pyhasalmi mine in Finland, where the existing free caverns will be used. The aim is to cover an area of about 200 - 300 m(2). The detection of the multimuon events is motivated by partly unknown composition of the primary cosmic rays in the energy region of 10(15) - 10(16) eV, i.e. the 'knee' region. A prototype detector is under construction and is expected to be running at the spring 2005.
Gamma-Ray Flares from Mrk421 in 2008 observed with the ARGO-YBJ detector
In 2008 the blazar Markarian 421 entered a very active phase and was one of the brightest sources in the sky at TeV energies, showing frequent flaring episodes. Using the data of ARGO-YBJ, a full coverage air shower detector located at Yangbajing (4300 m a.s.l., Tibet, China), we monitored the source at gamma ray energies E > 0.3 TeV during the whole year. The observed flux was variable, with the strongest flares in March and June, in correlation with X-ray enhanced activity. While during specific episodes the TeV flux could be several times larger than the Crab Nebula one, the average emission from day 41 to 180 was almost twice the Crab level, with an integral flux of (3.6 +-0.6) 10^-1…
EMMA - A New Underground Cosmic-Ray Experiment
A new type of cosmic-ray experiment is under construction in the Pyh\"asalmi mine in the underground laboratory of the University of Oulu, Finland. It aims to study the composition of cosmic rays at and above the knee region. The experiment, called EMMA, will cover approximately 150 square-metres of detector area. The array is capable of measuring the multiplicity and the lateral distribution of underground muons, and the arrival direction of the air shower. The full-size detector is expected to run by the end of 2007.