Search results for "TELESCOPE"
showing 10 items of 499 documents
Performance of the First ANTARES Detector Line
2009
In this paper we report on the data recorded with the first Antares detector line. The line was deployed on the 14th of February 2006 and was connected to the readout two weeks later. Environmental data for one and a half years of running are shown. Measurements of atmospheric muons from data taken from selected runs during the first six months of operation are presented. Performance figures in terms of time residuals and angular resolution are given. Finally the angular distribution of atmospheric muons is presented and from this the depth profile of the muon intensity is derived.
First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. V. Physical Origin of the Asymmetric Ring
2019
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has mapped the central compact radio source of the elliptical galaxy M87 at 1.3 mm with unprecedented angular resolution. Here we consider the physical implications of the asymmetric ring seen in the 2017 EHT data. To this end, we construct a large library of models based on general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations and synthetic images produced by general relativistic ray tracing. We compare the observed visibilities with this library and confirm that the asymmetric ring is consistent with earlier predictions of strong gravitational lensing of synchrotron emission from a hot plasma orbiting near the black hole event horizon. The ring rad…
Active shape correction of a thin glass/plastic x-ray mirror
2015
Optics for future X-ray telescopes will be characterized by very large aperture and focal length, and will be made of lightweight materials like glass or plastic in order to keep the total mass within acceptable limits. Optics based on thin slumped glass foils are currently in use in the NuSTAR telescope and are being developed at various institutes like INAF/OAB, aiming at improving the angular resolution to a few arcsec HEW. Another possibility would be the use of thin plastic foils, being developed at SAO and the Palermo University. Even if relevant progresses in the achieved angular resolution were recently made, a viable possibility to further improve the mirror figure would be the app…
Thin-shell plastic lenses for space and laboratory applications
2004
We have identified an inexpensive, readily available, mechanically stable, extremely smooth, elastic, and mechanically uniform plastic suitable for thin film X-ray optics. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is easily deformed without losing its elastic properties or surface smoothness. Most important, PET can be coated with mono- or multilayers that reflect X-rays at grazing incidence. We have used these properties to produce X-ray optics made either as a concentric nest of cylinders or as a spiral. We have produced accurately formed shells in precisely machined vacuum mandresl or used a pin and wheel structure to form a continuously wound spiral. The wide range of medical, industrial and sci…
Realization and drive tests of active thin glass x-ray mirrors
2016
A technique to obtain lightweight and high-resolution focusing mirror segments for large aperture X-ray telescopes is the hot slumping of thin glass foils. In this approach, already successfully experimented to manufacture the optics of the NuSTAR X-ray telescope, thin glasses are formed at high temperature onto a precisely figured mould. The formed glass foils are subsequently stacked onto a stiff backplane with a common axis and focus to form an XOU (X-ray Optical Unit), to be later integrated in the telescope optic structure. In this process, the low thickness of the glass foils guarantees a low specific mass and a very low obstruction of the effective area. However, thin glasses are sub…
Electrical connections and driving electronics for piezo-actuated x-ray thin glass optics
2016
Use of thin glass modular optics is a technology currently under study to build light, low cost, large area X-ray telescopes for high energy astrophysics space missions. The angular resolution of such telescopes is limited by local deviations from the ideal shape of the mirrors. One possible strategy to improve it consists in actively correcting the mirror profile by gluing thin ceramic piezo-electric actuators on the back of the glasses. A large number of actuators, however, requires several electrical connections to drive them with the different needed voltages. We have developed a process for depositing conductive paths directly on the back of non-planar thin foil mirrors by means of a p…
Dust Production and Particle Acceleration in Supernova 1987A Revealed with ALMA
2013
Supernova (SN) explosions are crucial engines driving the evolution of galaxies by shock heating gas, increasing the metallicity, creating dust, and accelerating energetic particles. In 2012 we used the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array to observe SN 1987A, one of the best-observed supernovae since the invention of the telescope. We present spatially resolved images at 450um, 870um, 1.4mm, and 2.8mm, an important transition wavelength range. Longer wavelength emission is dominated by synchrotron radiation from shock-accelerated particles, shorter wavelengths by emission from the largest mass of dust measured in a supernova remnant (>0.2Msun). For the first time we show unambig…
Effective collecting area of lobster eye optics and optimal value of effective angle
2019
Effective collecting area represents one of principal parameters of optical systems. The common requirement is to obtain as large effective collecting area as it is possible. The paper presents an analytical method of calculating effective collecting length and its maximization for lobster eye optics. The results are applicable for a Schmidt as well as for an Angel lobster eye geometry used in an astronomical telescope where the source is at infinity such that the incoming rays are parallel. The dependence of effective collecting area vs. geometrical parameters is presented in a form of a simple compact equation. We show that the optimal ratio between mirrors depth and distance (effective a…
SEARCHES FOR POINT-LIKE AND EXTENDED NEUTRINO SOURCES CLOSE TO THE GALACTIC CENTER USING THE ANTARES NEUTRINO TELESCOPE
2014
A search for cosmic neutrino sources using six years of data collected by the ANTARES neutrino telescope has been performed. Clusters of muon neutrinos over the expected atmospheric background have been looked for. No clear signal has been found. The most signal-like accumulation of events is located at equatorial coordinates R.A. = -46º.8 and decl. = -64º.9 and corresponds to a 2.2 sigma background fluctuation. In addition, upper limits on the flux normalization of an E-2 muon neutrino energy spectrum have been set for 50 pre-selected astrophysical objects. Finally, motivated by an accumulation of seven events relatively close to the Galactic Center in the recently reported neutrino sample…
Nuclear medium modification of the structure function
2011
Abstract We study the nuclear effects in the electromagnetic structure function F 2 ( x , Q 2 ) in the deep inelastic lepton–nucleus scattering process by taking into account Fermi motion, binding, pion and rho meson cloud contributions. Calculations have been done in a local density approximation using relativistic nuclear spectral functions which include nucleon correlations. The ratios R F 2 A ( x , Q 2 ) = 2 F 2 A ( x , Q 2 ) A F 2 D ( x , Q 2 ) are obtained and compared with recent JLab results for light nuclei with special attention to the slope of the x distributions. This magnitude shows a non-trivial A dependence and it is insensitive to possible normalization uncertainties. The re…