The upgraded MAGIC Cherenkov telescopes Tescaro, D.
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
12/2014, Volume:
766
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The MAGIC Cherenkov telescopes underwent a major upgrade in 2011 and 2012. A new 1039-pixel camera and a larger area digital trigger system were installed in MAGIC-I, making it essentially identical ...to the newer MAGIC-II telescope. The readout systems of both telescopes were also upgraded, with fully programmable receiver boards and DRS4-chip-based digitization systems. The upgrade eased the operation and maintenance of the telescopes and also improved significantly their performance. The system has now an integral sensitivity as good as 0.6% of the Crab Nebula flux (for E>400GeV), with an effective analysis threshold at 70 GeV. This allows MAGIC to secure one of the leading roles among the current major ground-based Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes for the next 5-10 years.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
A precision measurement by AMS of the antiproton flux and the antiproton-to-proton flux ratio in primary cosmic rays in the absolute rigidity range from 1 to 450 GV is presented based on 3.49×10^{5} ...antiproton events and 2.42×10^{9} proton events. The fluxes and flux ratios of charged elementary particles in cosmic rays are also presented. In the absolute rigidity range ∼60 to ∼500 GV, the antiproton pover ¯, proton p, and positron e^{+} fluxes are found to have nearly identical rigidity dependence and the electron e^{-} flux exhibits a different rigidity dependence. Below 60 GV, the (pover ¯/p), (pover ¯/e^{+}), and (p/e^{+}) flux ratios each reaches a maximum. From ∼60 to ∼500 GV, the (pover ¯/p), (pover ¯/e^{+}), and (p/e^{+}) flux ratios show no rigidity dependence. These are new observations of the properties of elementary particles in the cosmos.
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A precise measurement of the proton flux in primary cosmic rays with rigidity (momentum/charge) from 1 GV to 1.8 TV is presented based on 300 million events. Knowledge of the rigidity dependence of ...the proton flux is important in understanding the origin, acceleration, and propagation of cosmic rays. We present the detailed variation with rigidity of the flux spectral index for the first time. The spectral index progressively hardens at high rigidities.
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Knowledge of the rigidity dependence of the boron to carbon flux ratio (B/C) is important in understanding the propagation of cosmic rays. The precise measurement of the B/C ratio from 1.9 GV to 2.6 ...TV, based on 2.3 million boron and 8.3 million carbon nuclei collected by AMS during the first 5 years of operation, is presented. The detailed variation with rigidity of the B/C spectral index is reported for the first time. The B/C ratio does not show any significant structures in contrast to many cosmic ray models that require such structures at high rigidities. Remarkably, above 65 GV, the B/C ratio is well described by a single power law R^{Δ} with index Δ=-0.333±0.014(fit)±0.005(syst), in good agreement with the Kolmogorov theory of turbulence which predicts Δ=-1/3 asymptotically.
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Knowledge of the precise rigidity dependence of the helium flux is important in understanding the origin, acceleration, and propagation of cosmic rays. A precise measurement of the helium flux in ...primary cosmic rays with rigidity (momentum/charge) from 1.9 GV to 3 TV based on 50 million events is presented and compared to the proton flux. The detailed variation with rigidity of the helium flux spectral index is presented for the first time. The spectral index progressively hardens at rigidities larger than 100 GV. The rigidity dependence of the helium flux spectral index is similar to that of the proton spectral index though the magnitudes are different. Remarkably, the spectral index of the proton to helium flux ratio increases with rigidity up to 45 GV and then becomes constant; the flux ratio above 45 GV is well described by a single power law.
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MAGIC is a system of two Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes located in the Canary island of La Palma, Spain. During summer 2011 and 2012 it underwent a series of upgrades, involving the ...exchange of the MAGIC-I camera and its trigger system, as well as the upgrade of the readout system of both telescopes. We use observations of the Crab Nebula taken at low and medium zenith angles to assess the key performance parameters of the MAGIC stereo system. For low zenith angle observations, the standard trigger threshold of the MAGIC telescopes is ∼ 50GeV. The integral sensitivity for point-like sources with Crab Nebula-like spectrum above 220GeV is (0.66 ± 0.03)% of Crab Nebula flux in 50h of observations. The angular resolution, defined as the σ of a 2-dimensional Gaussian distribution, at those energies is ≲ 0.07°, while the energy resolution is 16%. We also re-evaluate the effect of the systematic uncertainty on the data taken with the MAGIC telescopes after the upgrade. We estimate that the systematic uncertainties can be divided in the following components: < 15% in energy scale, 11%–18% in flux normalization and ± 0.15 for the energy spectrum power-law slope.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Precision measurements by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station of the primary cosmic-ray electron flux in the range 0.5 to 700 GeV and the positron flux in the range 0.5 ...to 500 GeV are presented. The electron flux and the positron flux each require a description beyond a single power-law spectrum. Both the electron flux and the positron flux change their behavior at ∼30 GeV but the fluxes are significantly different in their magnitude and energy dependence. Between 20 and 200 GeV the positron spectral index is significantly harder than the electron spectral index. The determination of the differing behavior of the spectral indices versus energy is a new observation and provides important information on the origins of cosmic-ray electrons and positrons.
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A precision measurement by AMS of the positron fraction in primary cosmic rays in the energy range from 0.5 to 500 GeV based on 10.9 million positron and electron events is presented. This ...measurement extends the energy range of our previous observation and increases its precision. The new results show, for the first time, that above ∼200 GeV the positron fraction no longer exhibits an increase with energy.
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We present the precision measurement from May 2011 to May 2017 (79 Bartels rotations) of the proton fluxes at rigidities from 1 to 60 GV and the helium fluxes from 1.9 to 60 GV based on a total of ...1×10^{9} events collected with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer aboard the International Space Station. This measurement is in solar cycle 24, which has the solar maximum in April 2014. We observed that, below 40 GV, the proton flux and the helium flux show nearly identical fine structures in both time and relative amplitude. The amplitudes of the flux structures decrease with increasing rigidity and vanish above 40 GV. The amplitudes of the structures are reduced during the time period, which started one year after solar maximum, when the proton and helium fluxes steadily increase. Above ∼3 GV the p/He flux ratio is time independent. We observed that below ∼3 GV the ratio has a long-term decrease coinciding with the period during which the fluxes start to rise.
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We present a measurement of the cosmic ray (e^{+}+e^{-}) flux in the range 0.5 GeV to 1 TeV based on the analysis of 10.6 million (e^{+}+e^{-}) events collected by AMS. The statistics and the ...resolution of AMS provide a precision measurement of the flux. The flux is smooth and reveals new and distinct information. Above 30.2 GeV, the flux can be described by a single power law with a spectral index γ=-3.170±0.008(stat+syst)±0.008(energy scale).
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