Search results for "Cosmic Ray"
showing 10 items of 301 documents
EUSO-A Space mission searching for Extreme Energy Cosmic Rays and neutrinos
2004
The “Extreme Universe Space Observatory – EUSO” is an international, multi-agency mission, led by ESA, aimed at measuring from a Low Altitude Earth Orbiting Space Platform the flux and investigating the nature and origin of the charged and neutral particles of the Extreme Energy Cosmic Ray (EECR) with energy above the conventional value (E = 5×10 19 eV) of the Greisen Zatsepin and Kuzmin (GZK) effect E GZK = 5×10 19 eV). EUSO will pioneer the observation from Space of EECR-induced Extensive Air Showers (EASs), making measurements of the primary energy, arrival direction and possibly composition of the incoming flux by using a sensitive area and target volume far greater than achievable from…
Measurements of the muon component of extensive air showers at 320m.w.e. underground
2003
Abstract The ALEPH detector at LEP has been supplemented with five scintillator telescopes to measure the muon component of cosmic ray air showers underground. The emphasis of the present analysis of a new data set is to measure coincidences over distances up to about 1 km which are sensitive to the forward production of hadronic interactions and the chemical composition of primary cosmic rays in the energy range around 1015 eV. First results indicate that the observed decoherence curve of muons is compatible with a light primary composition and the arrival directions of muons show no obvious clustering in galactic coordinates.
High energy gamma ray counterparts of astrophysical sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays
2004
If ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are accelerated at astrophysical point sources, the identification of such sources can be achieved if there is some kind of radiation at observable wavelengths that may be associated with the acceleration and/or propagation processes. No radiation of this type has so far been detected or at least no such connection has been claimed. The process of photopion production during the propagation of UHECRs from the sources to the Earth results in the generation of charged and neutral pions. The neutral (charged) pions in turn decay to gamma quanta and electrons that initiate an electromagnetic cascade in the universal photon background. We calculate the f…
Layout and performance of RPC used in the Argo-YBJ experiment
2006
The layout of the RPCs, used in the Argo-YBJ experiment to image with a high space-time granularity the atmospheric shower, is described in this paper. The detector has been assembled to provide both digital and analog informations in order to cover a wide particle density range with a time accuracy of 1 ns. The experimental results obtained operating the chambers in streamer mode at sea level with a standard gas mixture are presented. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Study of the background on a ZnS(Ag) alpha counter with a plastic veto detector
2006
Alpha counters based on the scintillation of ZnS(Ag) have been used widely to measure total alpha activity in environmental samples. The main difficulties for this kind of detectors consist of having a reasonable low background, i.e., around 10−3 counts/s. It is assumed that the background comes from natural sources (mainly radon) and there is no contribution from cosmic, beta or gamma rays since the efficiency for these sources is extremely low. However, the study of the background using a thin plastic veto detector shows that the cosmic ray contribution to the alpha background is about 5–50%, whereas the estimated gamma contribution is below 10%. Therefore, this anti-coincidence set-up ca…
Background in low Earth orbits measured by LEGRI telescope – short and long term variability
1999
Abstract In this paper we present the first Low Energy Gamma Ray Imager (LEGRI) background measurements which were carried out in the earlier nominal operation activities of LEGRI Instrument on board MINISAT-01, after initial spacecraft and instrument check-up procedures. Short term (daily) and expected long term background variability is presented. A background model is also discussed in order to be used for celestial γ-ray emitters observations.
Muon-pair production by atmospheric muons in cosmoALEPH
2006
Data from a dedicated cosmic ray run of the ALEPH detector were used in a study of muon trident production, i.e., muon pairs produced by muons. Here the overburden and the calorimeters are the target materials while the ALEPH time projection chamber provides the momentum measurements. A theoretical estimate of the muon trident cross section is obtained by developing a Monte Carlo simulation for muon propagation in the overburden and the detector. Two muon trident candidates were found to match the expected theoretical pattern. The observed production rate implies that the nuclear form factor cannot be neglected for muon tridents.
Effect of atmospheric flux uncertainties on the determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy
2016
The next generation of large-volume neutrino telescopes will include low-energy subarrays which will be able to measure neutrinos with energies of a few GeV. In this energy range the primary signal below the horizon is neutrinos created by cosmic ray interactions in the atmosphere. The measured event rate will depend on the neutrino mass hierarchy, allowing determination of this quantity to a significance level of about 3.5 sigma within a 5-year period, mostly limited by systematic uncertainties. We present here the impact of the uncertainties on the atmospheric neutrino flux normalization on the determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy. We suggest constraining the systematic uncertaint…
The EUSO Data Simulation and Analysis Tree
2004
The "Extreme Universe Space Observatory - EUSO" is the first Space mission devoted to the exploration of the outermost bounds of the Universe through the investigation of the Extremely-High Energy Cosmic Rays, EECR, using the Earth atmosphere as a giant detector. The objective is to obtain a detailed description of the Cosmic Ray spectrum beyond 5×1019 eV together with a map of the arrival directions. EUSO will detect EECR looking at the streak of fluorescence light produced when such a particle interacts with the atmosphere. The signal will be detected after its propagation upward from the dark Earth atmosphere to the EUSO telescope accommodated, as external payload, on the International S…
Atmospheric Background Measurement in the 300–400 nm Band with a Balloon Borne Experiment during a Nocturnal Flight
2001
The balloon borne experiment, named BABY (BAckground BYpass) belongs to a wider program, AIRWATCH-OWL, intended for the observation of high energy Cosmic Rays from space, detecting the faint UV fluorescence light emitted by the atmospheric Nitrogen as final result of a complex hadronic cascade. In this framework, one of the fundamental information concern the knowledge of the background level. This is one of the main parameters that contribute to the sensitivity of any kind of instrument. The apparatus used for the BABY experiment was designed and completely built at the IFCAI-CNR in Palermo. The instrument is composed by two filtered and collimated photomultipliers (PMT) that detect the UV…