Search results for " Telescopes"
showing 10 items of 59 documents
AMADEUS-The acoustic neutrino detection test system of the ANTARES deep-sea neutrino telescope
2011
The AMADEUS (ANTARES Modules for the Acoustic Detection Under the Sea) system which is described in this article aims at the investigation of techniques for acoustic detection of neutrinos in the deep sea. It is integrated into the ANTARES neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea. Its acoustic sensors, installed at water depths between 2050 and 2300 m, employ piezo-electric elements for the broad-band recording of signals with frequencies ranging up to 125 kHz. The typical sensitivity of the sensors is around - 145 dB re 1 V/mu Pa (including preamplifier). Completed in May 2008, AMADEUS consists of six "acoustic clusters", each comprising six acoustic sensors that are arranged at distanc…
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…
Time calibration of the ANTARES neutrino telescope
2011
The ANTARES deep-sea neutrino telescope comprises a three-dimensional array of photomultipliers to detect the Cherenkov light induced by upgoing relativistic charged particles originating from neutrino interactions in the vicinity of the detector. The large scattering length of light in the deep sea facilitates an angular resolution of a few tenths of a degree for neutrino energies exceeding 10 TeV. In order to achieve this optimal performance, the time calibration procedures should ensure a relative time calibration between the photomultipliers at the level of ~1 ns. The methods developed to attain this level of precision are described.
ANTARES: The first undersea neutrino telescope
2011
The ANTARES Neutrino Telescope was completed in May 2008 and is the first operational Neutrino Telescope in the Mediterranean Sea. The main purpose of the detector is to perform neutrino astronomy and the apparatus also offers facilities for marine and Earth sciences. This paper describes the design, the construction and the installation of the telescope in the deep sea, offshore from Toulon in France. An illustration of the detector performance is given. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
The ANTARES telescope neutrino alert system
2012
The ANTARES telescope has the capability to detect neutrinos produced in astrophysical transient sources. Potential sources include gamma-ray bursts, core collapse supernovae, and flaring active galactic nuclei. To enhance the sensitivity of ANTARES to such sources, a new detection method based on coincident observations of neutrinos and optical signals has been developed. A fast online muon track reconstruction is used to trigger a network of small automatic optical telescopes. Such alerts are generated for special events, such as two or more neutrinos, coincident in time and direction, or single neutrinos of very high energy.
Measurement of the atmospheric muon flux with a 4 GeV threshold in the ANTARES neutrino telescope
2010
A new method for the measurement of the muon flux in the deep-sea ANTARES neutrino telescope and its dependence on the depth is presented. The method is based on the observation of coincidence signals in adjacent storeys of the detector. This yields an energy threshold of about 4 GeV. The main sources of optical background are the decay of 40K and the bioluminescence in the sea water. The 40K background is used to calibrate the efficiency of the photo-multiplier tubes.
Acoustic transmitters for underwater neutrino telescopes.
2012
In this paper acoustic transmitters that were developed for use in underwater neutrino telescopes are presented. Firstly, an acoustic transceiver has been developed as part of the acoustic positioning system of neutrino telescopes. These infrastructures are not completely rigid and require a positioning system in order to monitor the position of the optical sensors which move due to sea currents. To guarantee a reliable and versatile system, the transceiver has the requirements of reduced cost, low power consumption, high pressure withstanding (up to 500 bars), high intensity for emission, low intrinsic noise, arbitrary signals for emission and the capacity of acquiring and processing recei…
Search for Neutrino-Induced Cascades with AMANDA
2004
We report on a search for electro-magnetic and/or hadronic showers (cascades) induced by high energy neutrinos in the data collected with the AMANDA II detector during the year 2000. The observed event rates are consistent with the expectations for atmospheric neutrinos and muons. We place upper limits on a diffuse flux of extraterrestrial electron, tau and muon neutrinos. A flux of neutrinos with a spectrum $\Phi \propto E^{-2}$ which consists of an equal mix of all flavors, is limited to $E^2 \Phi(E)=8.6 x 10^{-7} GeV/(cm^{2} s sr)$ at a 90% confidence level for a neutrino energy range 50 TeV to 5 PeV. We present bounds for specific extraterrestrial neutrino flux predictions. Several of t…
Magnetic shielding of soft protons in future X-ray telescopes: the case of the ATHENA Wide Field Imager
2018
Both the interplanetary space and the Earth magnetosphere are populated by low energy ($\leq300$ keV) protons that are potentially able to scatter on the reflecting surface of Wolter-I optics of X-ray focusing telescopes and reach the focal plane. This phenomenon, depending on the X-ray instrumentation, can dramatically increase the background level, reducing the sensitivity or, in the most extreme cases, compromising the observation itself. The use of a magnetic diverter, deflecting protons away from the field of view, requires a detailed characterization of their angular and energy distribution when exiting the mirror. We present the first end-to-end Geant4 simulation of proton scattering…
Flux limits on ultra high energy neutrinos with AMANDA-B10
2005
Abstract Data taken during 1997 with the AMANDA-B10 detector are searched for a diffuse flux of neutrinos of all flavors with energies above 10 16 eV. At these energies the Earth is opaque to neutrinos, and thus neutrino induced events are concentrated at the horizon. The background are large muon bundles from down-going atmospheric air shower events. No excess events above the background expectation are observed and a neutrino flux following E −2 , with an equal mix of all flavors, is limited to E 2 Φ (10 15 eV E 18 eV) ⩽ 0.99 × 10 −6 GeV cm −2 s −1 sr −1 at 90% confidence level. This is the most restrictive experimental bound placed by any neutrino detector at these energies. Bound…