0000000001048149
AUTHOR
Matthias Wolf
showing 31 related works from this author
Search for relativistic magnetic monopoles with IceCube
2012
We present the first results in the search for relativistic magnetic monopoles with the IceCube detector, a subsurface neutrino telescope located in the South Polar ice cap containing a volume of 1 km$^{3}$. This analysis searches data taken on the partially completed detector during 2007 when roughly 0.2 km$^{3}$ of ice was instrumented. The lack of candidate events leads to an upper limit on the flux of relativistic magnetic monopoles of $\Phi_{\mathrm{90%C.L.}}\sim 3\e{-18}\fluxunits$ for $\beta\geq0.8$. This is a factor of 4 improvement over the previous best experimental flux limits up to a Lorentz boost $\gamma$ below $10^{7}$. This result is then interpreted for a wide range of mass …
Photoproduction of neutral pion pairs from the proton
2000
Double neutral pion photoproduction from the proton has been measured at MAMI for photon energies between threshold and 820 MeV. The reaction was identified by an invariant mass and missing mass analysis. From threshold up to 370 MeV the total cross-section does not exceed 30 nb. For higher energies it shows a smooth rise until it reaches a maximum of about 10 μb at Eγ = 740 MeV. Dalitz plots of m2(π0π0) versusm2(p,π0) for seven bins of incident photon energy have been analysed. For Eγ > 610 MeV, a strong contribution of a sequential decay is observed with the Δ(1232)-resonance as intermediate state. A comparison to model calculations shows that these sequential decays presumably originate …
Compton scattering from the free and bound proton at backward angles above π-threshold
1999
Differential cross sections for Compton scattering from the free proton at Theta(gamma)(lab) = 130.7 degrees in the energy region from 200 MeV to 410 MeV and far quasi-free Compton scattering from the proton bound in the deuteron at Theta(gamma)(lab) = 148.8 degrees in the energy region from 200 MeV to 290 MeV have been measured. The free proton data are in agreement with dispersion-theory predictions based on standard parameters. The difference of the proton polarizabilities has been extracted from the quasi-free data. Our result, - = [9.1 +/- 1.7(stat + syst) +/- 1.2(mod)] x 10(-4) fm(3), is in reasonable agreement with the world average of the free proton data if the backward spin polari…
Constraints on ultra-high-energy cosmic ray sources from a search for neutrinos above 10 PeV with IceCube
2016
We report constraints on the sources of ultra-high-energy cosmic ray (UHECR) above $10^{9}$ GeV, based on an analysis of seven years of IceCube data. This analysis efficiently selects very high energy neutrino-induced events which have deposited energies from $\sim 10^6$ GeV to above $10^{11}$ GeV. Two neutrino-induced events with an estimated deposited energy of $(2.6 \pm 0.3) \times 10^6$ GeV, the highest neutrino energies observed so far, and $(7.7 \pm 2.0) \times 10^5$ GeV were detected. The atmospheric background-only hypothesis of detecting these events is rejected at 3.6$\sigma$. The hypothesis that the observed events are of cosmogenic origin is also rejected at $>$99% CL because of…
Cosmic ray composition and energy spectrum from 1–30 PeV using the 40-string configuration of IceTop and IceCube
2012
Astroparticle physics 42, 15 - 32 (2013). doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2012.11.003
Astrophysical neutrinos and cosmic rays observed by IceCube
2018
The core mission of the IceCube neutrino observatory is to study the origin and propagation of cosmic rays. IceCube, with its surface component IceTop, observes multiple signatures to accomplish this mission. Most important are the astrophysical neutrinos that are produced in interactions of cosmic rays, close to their sources and in interstellar space. IceCube is the first instrument that measures the properties of this astrophysical neutrino flux and constrains its origin. In addition, the spectrum, composition, and anisotropy of the local cosmic-ray flux are obtained from measurements of atmospheric muons and showers. Here we provide an overview of recent findings from the analysis of Ic…
Observation of High-Energy Astrophysical Neutrinos in Three Years of IceCube Data
2014
A search for high-energy neutrinos interacting within the IceCube detector between 2010 and 2012 provided the first evidence for a high-energy neutrino flux of extraterrestrial origin. Results from an analysis using the same methods with a third year (2012-2013) of data from the complete IceCube detector are consistent with the previously reported astrophysical flux in the 100 TeV - PeV range at the level of $10^{-8}\, \mathrm{GeV}\, \mathrm{cm}^{-2}\, \mathrm{s}^{-1}\, \mathrm{sr}^{-1}$ per flavor and reject a purely atmospheric explanation for the combined 3-year data at $5.7 \sigma$. The data are consistent with expectations for equal fluxes of all three neutrino flavors and with isotrop…
First Observation of PeV-Energy Neutrinos with IceCube
2013
We report on the observation of two neutrino-induced events which have an estimated deposited energy in the IceCube detector of 1.04 $\pm$ 0.16 and 1.14 $\pm$ 0.17 PeV, respectively, the highest neutrino energies observed so far. These events are consistent with fully contained particle showers induced by neutral-current $\nu_{e,\mu,\tau}$ ($\bar\nu_{e,\mu,\tau}$) or charged-current $\nu_{e}$ ($\bar\nu_{e}$) interactions within the IceCube detector. The events were discovered in a search for ultra-high energy neutrinos using data corresponding to 615.9 days effective livetime. The expected number of atmospheric background is $0.082 \pm 0.004 \text{(stat)}^{+0.041}_{-0.057} \text{(syst)}$. T…
Neutrino oscillation studies with IceCube-DeepCore
2016
IceCube, a gigaton-scale neutrino detector located at the South Pole, was primarily designed to search for astrophysical neutrinos with energies of PeV and higher. This goal has been achieved with the detection of the highest energy neutrinos to date. At the other end of the energy spectrum, the DeepCore extension lowers the energy threshold of the detector to approximately 10 GeV and opens the door for oscillation studies using atmospheric neutrinos. An analysis of the disappearance of these neutrinos has been completed, with the results produced being complementary with dedicated oscillation experiments. Following a review of the detector principle and performance, the method used to make…
An absence of neutrinos associated with cosmic-ray acceleration in gamma-ray bursts
2012
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) have been proposed as a leading candidate for acceleration of ultra high-energy cosmic rays, which would be accompanied by emission of TeV neutrinos produced in proton-photon interactions during acceleration in the GRB fireball. Two analyses using data from two years of the IceCube detector produced no evidence for this neutrino emission, placing strong constraints on models of neutrino and cosmic-ray production in these sources.
Search for Galactic PeV gamma rays with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory
2013
Gamma-ray induced air showers are notable for their lack of muons, compared to hadronic showers. Hence, air shower arrays with large underground muon detectors can select a sample greatly enriched in photon showers by rejecting showers containing muons. IceCube is sensitive to muons with energies above ~500 GeV at the surface, which provides an efficient veto system for hadronic air showers with energies above 1 PeV. One year of data from the 40-string IceCube configuration was used to perform a search for point sources and a Galactic diffuse signal. No sources were found, resulting in a 90% C.L. upper limit on the ratio of gamma rays to cosmic rays of 1.2 x 10^(-3)for the flux coming from …
Searches for small-scale anisotropies from neutrino point sources with three years of IceCube data
2015
Recently, IceCube found evidence for a diffuse signal of astrophysical neutrinos in an energy range of $60\,\mathrm{TeV}$ to the $\mathrm{PeV}$-scale. The origin of those events, being a key to understanding the origin of cosmic rays, is still an unsolved question. So far, analyses have not succeeded to resolve the diffuse signal into point-like sources. Searches including a maximum-likelihood-ratio test, based on the reconstructed directions and energies of the detected down- and up-going neutrino candidates, were also performed on IceCube data leading to the exclusion of bright point sources. In this paper, we present two methods to search for faint neutrino point sources in three years o…
The IceProd framework: distributed data processing for the IceCube neutrino observatory
2015
IceCube is a one-gigaton instrument located at the geographic South Pole, designed to detect cosmic neutrinos, identify the particle nature of dark matter, and study high-energy neutrinos themselves. Simulation of the IceCube detector and processing of data require a significant amount of computational resources. This paper presents the first detailed description of IceProd, a lightweight distributed management system designed to meet these requirements. It is driven by a central database in order to manage mass production of simulations and analysis of data produced by the IceCube detector. IceProd runs as a separate layer on top of other middleware and can take advantage of a variety of c…
Search for narrow dibaryon resonances in neutral pion photoproduction from the deuteron
2000
The reaction γd↦π0 X has been measured with TAPS at MAMI in the energy range E γ = 140-300 MeV. Using the Glasgow tagging spectrometer a photon energy resolution of 0.8 MeV was achieved. The energy excitation functions of integral and differential total cross-sections show no structures of statistical significance > 2σ. Upper limits for the production of narrow isoscalar or isovector dibaryons with masses m? 2100 MeV/c2 were deduced. They are in the range 2-5 μb averaged over the 0.8 MeV energy resolution.
Coherent and incoherent π0 photoproduction from the deuteron
2001
Differential cross-sections for the reactions d(gamma,pi (o))d and d(gamma,pi (o))pn have been measured at MAMI with the TAPS detector setup in the energy range 140 MeV > E- > 306 MeV. By use of the Glasgow tagging spectrometer an 0.8 MeV energy resolution for photons incident on the target was achieved. The (o) missing energy resolution was sufficient for a reliable separation of coherent and incoherent channels. The data for the break-up channel exhibit very strong final state interaction effects, whereas the observed angular dependence of the inclusive process d(gamma, pi (o))X is in quantitative agreement with predictions for a quasi-free process. The observed absolute d(gamma, pi (o))X…
Atmospheric and astrophysical neutrinos above 1 TeV interacting in IceCube
2015
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory was designed primarily to search for high-energy (TeV--PeV) neutrinos produced in distant astrophysical objects. A search for $\gtrsim 100$~TeV neutrinos interacting inside the instrumented volume has recently provided evidence for an isotropic flux of such neutrinos. At lower energies, IceCube collects large numbers of neutrinos from the weak decays of mesons in cosmic-ray air showers. Here we present the results of a search for neutrino interactions inside IceCube's instrumented volume between 1~TeV and 1~PeV in 641 days of data taken from 2010--2012, lowering the energy threshold for neutrinos from the southern sky below 10 TeV for the first time, far bel…
Characterization of the atmospheric muon flux in IceCube
2015
Muons produced in atmospheric cosmic ray showers account for the by far dominant part of the event yield in large-volume underground particle detectors. The IceCube detector, with an instrumented volume of about a cubic kilometer, has the potential to conduct unique investigations on atmospheric muons by exploiting the large collection area and the possibility to track particles over a long distance. Through detailed reconstruction of energy deposition along the tracks, the characteristics of muon bundles can be quantified, and individual particles of exceptionally high energy identified. The data can then be used to constrain the cosmic ray primary flux and the contribution to atmospheric …
Exclusive πo- and η-meson production in 40Ar + natCa at 800A MeV
1997
Abstract The impact-parameter dependence of π o - and η-meson production is reported for the system 40 Ar+ nat Ca at a beam energy of 800 A MeV. Scaling of the meson abundances with the transverse mass is observed. The experimental results are compared to calculations within the BUU model.
Measurement of coherent and incoherent π0 photoproduction off the deuteron with tagged photons up to the Δ region
2000
Coherent and incoherent pi(0) photoproduction off the deuteron has been measured for incident quasi-monoenergetic photons in the energy range from pi(0) threshold up to 300 MeV using the TAPS setup together with the Glasgow tagger at MAMI. Integral and differential cross sections over the full angular range have been obtained. Coherent and incoherent production are found to exhibit very different angle and energy dependences. The sum of both processes, the total pi(0) production off the deuteron is quantitatively extremely well described by a pure quasifree model, whereas the data for coherent and incoherent channels necessitate strong FSI effects for their description. Finally upper limits…
Low-energy Compton scattering and the polarizabilities of the proton
2001
Differential cross-sections for Compton scattering from the proton have been measured at the MAMI tagged photon facility using the TAPS setup. The data cover an angular range of θlab γ = 59°-155° and photon energies ranging from 55 MeV to 165 MeV. Our results are in good agreement with those from previous experiments, but yield higher precision. Using dispersion relations the proton polarizabilities have been determined to be = [11.9±0.5stat.±1.3syst.±0.3mod.] . 10-4 fm 3 and = [1.2±0.7stat.±0.3syst.±0.4mod.)] . 10-4 fm 3. These results confirm the Baldin sum rule which was re-evaluated to be + = [13.8±0.4] . 10-4 fm 3. We can also conclude that there is no significant additional asymptotic…
All-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum measured with 26 IceTop stations
2012
Astroparticle physics 44, 40 - 58 (2013). doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2013.01.016
Multi-year search for dark matter annihilations in the Sun with the AMANDA-II and IceCube detectors
2011
A search for an excess of muon-neutrinos from dark matter annihilations in the Sun has been performed with the AMANDA-II neutrino telescope using data collected in 812 days of livetime between 2001 and 2006 and 149 days of livetime collected with the AMANDA-II and the 40-string configuration of IceCube during 2008 and early 2009. No excess over the expected atmospheric neutrino background has been observed. We combine these results with the previously published IceCube limits obtained with data taken during 2007 to obtain a total livetime of 1065 days. We provide an upper limit at 90% confidence level on the annihilation rate of captured neutralinos in the Sun, as well as the corresponding …
Measurement of the AtmosphericνeSpectrum with IceCube
2015
We present a measurement of the atmospheric $\nu_e$ spectrum at energies between 0.1 TeV and 100 TeV using data from the first year of the complete IceCube detector. Atmospheric $\nu_e$ originate mainly from the decays of kaons produced in cosmic-ray air showers. This analysis selects 1078 fully contained events in 332 days of livetime, then identifies those consistent with particle showers. A likelihood analysis with improved event selection extends our previous measurement of the conventional $\nu_e$ fluxes to higher energies. The data constrain the conventional $\nu_e$ flux to be $1.3^{+0.4}_{-0.3}$ times a baseline prediction from a Honda's calculation, including the knee of the cosmic-…
IceTop : the surface component of IceCube
2012
IceTop, the surface component of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole, is an air shower array with an area of 1 km2. The detector allows a detailed exploration of the mass composition of primary cosmic rays in the energy range from about 100 TeV to 1 EeV by exploiting the correlation between the shower energy measured in IceTop and the energy deposited by muons in the deep ice. In this paper we report on the technical design, construction and installation, the trigger and data acquisition systems as well as the software framework for calibration, reconstruction and simulation. Finally the first experience from commissioning and operating the detector and the performance as an …
Double- π0 photoproduction from the deuteron
2000
The photoproduction of two neutral pions from the deuteron has been studied for incident photon energies from 200 MeV to 820 MeV with the TAPS spectrometer at MAMI (Mainz Microtron). The total cross-section was determined and used to deduce the cross-section from the neutron. Due to the good statistical quality of the data Dalitz plots for the three particles in the exit channel (pi (0)pi N-0) could be constructed. The invariant mass distributions derived from them are presented in this paper. They indicate that the important reaction mechanism in the second resonance region is a sequential decay pattern involving the population of the Delta (1232)-resonance as an intermediate state.
Compton scattering from the free and bound proton above π-threshold
2000
The differential cross sections for Compton scattering from the proton have been measured at MAMI with three different detector setups. There is a good agreement among all the results. The theoretical calculation based on dispersion relations shows that there is no drastic change necessary in the parameters of this approach.
Search for ultrahigh-energy tau neutrinos with IceCube
2012
The first dedicated search for ultrahigh-energy (UHE) tau neutrinos of astrophysical origin was performed using the IceCube detector in its 22-string configuration with an instrumented volume of roughly 0.25 km3. The search also had sensitivity to UHE electron and muon neutrinos. After application of all selection criteria to approximately 200 live-days of data, we expect a background of 0.60±0.19(stat)+0.56−0.58(syst) events and observe three events, which after inspection, emerge as being compatible with background but are kept in the final sample. Therefore, we set an upper limit on neutrinos of all flavors from UHE astrophysical sources at 90% C.L. of E2νΦ90(νx)<16.3×10−8 GeV cm−2…
Direct Observation of aρDecay of theD13(1520)Baryon Resonance
2001
The reaction {gamma}p{yields}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup 0}n has been measured at MAMI for photon energies up to 820MeV. Invariant mass spectra of the particles in the final state ({pi}{sup +}n) , ({pi}{sup 0}n) , ({pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup 0}) have been determined for several bins of incident photon energy. Differences in {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup 0} and simultaneously measured {pi}{sup 0}{pi}{sup 0} invariant mass distributions are assigned to a {rho} branch of the D{sub 13}(1520) nucleon resonance.
Near threshold photoproduction of η mesons from 4 He
1999
Photoproduction of η mesons from 4He has been measured for the first time. The experiment was performed at the Mainz Microtron (MAMI) using the TAPS photon spectrometer and the Glasgow/Mainz tagged photon facility. η mesons were identified in coincidence with recoil nucleons. Total and differential cross sections are presented in the photon energy range between threshold and 818 MeV. The exclusive data are used to determine the ratio of the elementary production cross sections on bound neutrons and protons, σn/σp= 0.68 ± 0.02 ± 0.09. In addition, upper limits for the total coherent cross section have been derived.
Threshold enhancement in η photoproduction from 2H and 4He
2002
The photoproduction of η-mesons from 2H and 4He has been studied for energies close to the production thresholds. The experiments were carried out with the tagged photon beam of the Mainz MAMI accelerator. The η-mesons were detected via their two photon decays with the electromagnetic calorimeter TAPS. Total cross-sections, angular and momentum distributions of the η-mesons have been determined for both reactions. The total cross-sections in the threshold region show a large enhancement over the predictions of a participant-spectator model, indicating significant final-state interaction effects. The results are compared to recent model calculations taking into account nucleon-nucleon and nu…
Observation of the rare B(s)(0) + decay from the combined analysis of CMS and LHCb data.
2015
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported licence.-- et al.