Search results for "telescope"
showing 10 items of 499 documents
Background light in potential sites for the ANTARES undersea neutrino telescope
2000
The ANTARES collaboration has performed a series of {\em in situ} measurements to study the background light for a planned undersea neutrino telescope. Such background can be caused by $^{40}$K decays or by biological activity. We report on measurements at two sites in the Mediterranean Sea at depths of 2400~m and 2700~m, respectively. Three photomultiplier tubes were used to measure single counting rates and coincidence rates for pairs of tubes at various distances. The background rate is seen to consist of three components: a constant rate due to $^{40}$K decays, a continuum rate that varies on a time scale of several hours simultaneously over distances up to at least 40~m, and random bur…
THE RELATION BETWEEN AGN GAMMA-RAY EMISSION AND PARSEC-SCALE RADIO JETS
2009
We have compared the radio emission from a sample of parsec-scale AGN jets as measured by the VLBA at 15 GHz, with their associated gamma-ray properties that are reported in the Fermi LAT 3-month bright source list. We find in our radio-selected sample that the gamma-ray photon flux correlates well with the quasi-simultaneously measured compact radio flux density. The LAT-detected jets in our radio-selected complete sample generally have higher compact radio flux densities, and their parsec-scale cores are brighter (i.e., have higher brightness temperature) than the jets in the LAT non-detected objects. This suggests that the jets of bright gamma-ray AGN have preferentially higher Doppler-b…
A precise photometric ratio via laser excitation of the sodium layer - I. One-photon excitation using 342.78 nm light
2020
The largest uncertainty on measurements of dark energy using type Ia supernovae is presently due to systematics from photometry; specifically to the relative uncertainty on photometry as a function of wavelength in the optical spectrum. We show that a precise constraint on relative photometry between the visible and near-infrared can be achieved in upcoming surveys (such as in LSST at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory) via a mountaintop-located laser source tuned to the 342.78 nm vacuum excitation wavelength of neutral sodium atoms. Using a high-power (500 W) laser modified from laser guide star studies, this excitation will produce an artificial star (which we term a "laser photometric ratio s…
Prolonged sub-luminous state of the new transitional pulsar candidate CXOU J110926.4-650224
2019
We report on a multi-wavelength study of the unclassified X-ray source CXOU J110926.4-650224 (J1109). We identified the optical counterpart as a blue star with a magnitude of $\sim$20.1 (3300-10500 $\require{mediawiki-texvc} \AA$). The optical emission was variable on timescales from hundreds to thousands of seconds. The spectrum showed prominent emission lines with variable profiles at different epochs. Simultaneous XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations revealed a bimodal distribution of the X-ray count rates on timescales as short as tens of seconds, as well as sporadic flaring activity. The average broad-band (0.3-79 keV) spectrum was adequately described by an absorbed power law model with…
The MuPix Telescope: A Thin, high Rate Tracking Telescope
2016
The MuPix Telescope is a particle tracking telescope, optimized for tracking low momentum particles and high rates. It is based on the novel High-Voltage Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (HV-MAPS), designed for the Mu3e tracking detector. The telescope represents a first application of the HV-MAPS technology and also serves as test bed of the Mu3e readout chain. The telescope consists of up to eight layers of the newest prototypes, the MuPix7 sensors, which send data self-triggered via fast serial links to FPGAs, where the data is time-ordered and sent to the PC. A particle hit rate of 1 MHz per layer could be processed. Online tracking is performed with a subset of the incoming data. The ge…
The design and performance of IceCube DeepCore
2011
The IceCube neutrino observatory in operation at the South Pole, Antarctica, comprises three distinct components: a large buried array for ultrahigh energy neutrino detection, a surface air shower array, and a new buried component called DeepCore. DeepCore was designed to lower the IceCube neutrino energy threshold by over an order of magnitude, to energies as low as about 10 GeV. DeepCore is situated primarily 2100 m below the surface of the icecap at the South Pole, at the bottom center of the existing IceCube array, and began taking physics data in May 2010. Its location takes advantage of the exceptionally clear ice at those depths and allows it to use the surrounding IceCube detector a…
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…
Gamma-ray burst afterglow light curves from realistic density profiles
2011
The afterglow emission that follows gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) contains valuable information about the circumburst medium and, therefore, about the GRB progenitor. Theoretical studies of GRB blast waves, however, are often limited to simple density profiles for the external medium (mostly constant density and power-law R^{-k} ones). We argue that a large fraction of long-duration GRBs should take place in massive stellar clusters where the circumburst medium is much more complicated. As a case study, we simulate the propagation of a GRB blast wave in a medium shaped by the collision of the winds of O and Wolf-Rayet stars, the typical distance of which is d /sim 0.1 - 1 pc. Assuming a spherical…
The $T_{z} = \pm 1 \to 0$ and $\pm 2 \to \pm 1$ Mirror Gamow--Teller Transitions in $pf$-shell Nuclei
2016
Gamow–Teller (GT) transitions are the most common weak-interaction processes in the Universe. They play important roles in various processes of nucleosynthesis, for example, in the rapid proton-capture process (rp-process). In the pf-shell region, the rp-process runs through neutron-deficient nuclei with Tz = −2, −1, and 0 mainly by means of GT and Fermi transitions, where Tz is the z component of isospin T defined by Tz = (N − Z)∕2. Under the assumption of isospin symmetry, mirror nuclei with reversed Z and N numbers, and thus with opposite signs of Tz, have the same structure. Therefore, symmetry is also expected for the GT transitions starting from and ending up in mirror nuclei. We have…
SPI/INTEGRAL observation of the Cygnus region
2003
We present the analysis of the first observations of the Cygnus region by the SPI spectrometer onboard the Integral Gamma Ray Observatory, encompassing ${\sim}$ 600 ks of data. Three sources namely Cyg X-1, Cyg X-3 and EXO 2030+375 were clearly detected. Our data illustrate the temporal variability of Cyg X-1 in the energy range from 20 keV to 300 keV. The spectral analysis shows a remarkable stability of the Cyg X-1 spectra when averaged over one day timescale. The other goal of these observations is SPI inflight calibration and performance verification. The latest objective has been achieved as demonstrated by the results presented in this paper.