The impact of the solar activity on the heliosphere has a strong influence on the modulation of the flux of low energy galactic cosmic rays arriving at Earth. Different instruments, such as neutron ...monitors or muon detectors, have been recording the variability of the cosmic ray flux at ground level for several decades. Although the Pierre Auger Observatory was designed to observe cosmic rays at the highest energies, it also records the count rates of low energy secondary particles (the scaler mode) for the self-calibration of its surface detector array. From observations using the scaler mode at the Pierre Auger Observatory, modulation of galactic cosmic rays due to solar transient activity has been observed (e.g., Forbush decreases). Due to the high total count rate coming from the combined area of its detectors, the Pierre Auger Observatory (its detectors have a total area greater than 16,000m2) detects a flux of secondary particles of the order of ∼108 counts per minute. Time variations of the cosmic ray flux related to the activity of the heliosphere can be determined with high accuracy. In this paper we briefly describe the scaler mode and analyze a Forbush decrease together with the interplanetary coronal mass ejection that originated it. The Auger scaler data are now publicly available.
The ANDES Underground Laboratory is being planned and designed to be one of the largest and most shielded laboratories in the Southern Hemisphere, which will be located in the Andes Range, in the ...area of the current Paso AguaNegra that connects the provinces of San Juan (Argentina) and Elqui (Chile). The diversity of experiments that are being planned, including experiments for the direct and indirect search of dark matter and neutrino precision physics, requires a precise knowledge of the flux of high-energy atmospheric muons within the laboratory. These are produced during the interaction of astroparticles with energies between 1012and 1018eV denominated of high and ultra-high energy with the Earth’s atmosphere. In the high-energy component, muons with energies of tens of TeV can be found, capable of passing through thousands of meters of rock. Previous estimates made from reasonable assumptions about the type of rock expected in the area showed that the expected muon flux was compatible with other underground laboratories at an equivalent depth. In this work, extensive atmospheric showers flux simulations were performed at the laboratory site. Afterwards, there was a selection of those muons with sufficient energy to reach the laboratory-based on their angle of incidence and the height at which they enter the mountain. Then a transfer function was modeled using the new geological studies currently available that allow us to have a detailed model of the rock distribution inside the mountain. Finally, the interaction of these muons with the different types of rock was calculated numerically along their way to the laboratory using the continuous slowdown approximation, thus obtaining that the expected muon flux within the laboratory is 1,47±0,02 day−1m−2sr−1
We present a hybrid Muon Telescope, MuTe, designed and built for imaging active Colombian volcanoes. The MuTe has a resolution of tens of meters, low power consumption, robustness and ...transportability making it suitable for using in difficult access zones where active volcanoes usually are. The main feature of MuTe is the implementation of a hybrid detection technique combining two scintillation panels for particle tracking and a Water Cherenkov Detector for filtering background signals due to the electromagnetic component of extended air showers and multiple particle events. MuTe incorporates particle-identification techniques for reducing the background noise sources and a discrimination of fake events by a picosecond Time-of-Flight system. We also describe the mechanical behavior of the MuTe during typical tremors and wind conditions at the observation place, as well as the frontend electronics design and power consumption.
In this paper we present a complete and detailed computational model of the response of the hybrid Muon Telescope (MuTe), designed to perform muography volcanic studies. This instrument combines two ...particle detection techniques: first, a muon hodoscope based on two panels of plastic scintillator bars; and a Water Cherenkov detector located behind the rear scintillator panel acting both as a coincidence and a discriminating detector. The simulation model includes: materials, geometries, dimensions, and the photo-sensitiveness of the detectors. The simulation results, in agreement with the measured data, were used to set up the muon detector trigger for the expected energy dependent signal.
Resumo Conscientes de la problemática relacionada con la motivación en el estudio de las carreras científicas, presentamos dos experiencias en las cuales se expone a estudiantes universitarios a ...ambientes, metodologías y técnicas del descubrimiento abordando problemas contemporáneos. Estas experiencias se desarrollaron en dos contextos complementarios: un curso de Introducción a la Física, en el cual se motiva a estudiantes de Física a la participación temprana en investigación, y un semillero de investigación multidisciplinario para estudiantes avanzados de pregrado en Ciencias e Ingeniería, el cual produjo incluso contribuciones a eventos internacionales. Si bien los resultados son preliminares y requieren más ediciones para ser estadísticamente significativos, consideramos que son alentadores. En ambos entornos se observó un aumento de la motivación de los estudiantes para continuar sus carreras haciendo énfasis en la investigación. En este trabajo, además de presentar el marco contextual en el cual se soportan las experiencias, describimos seis actividades concretas para vincular a los estudiantes con los ambientes de descubrimiento, las cuales creemos pueden ser replicadas en ambientes similares de otras instituciones educativas.
The Large Aperture GRB Observatory (LAGO) project aims at the detection of high energy photons from Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB) using the single particle technique in ground-based water-Cherenkov ...detectors (WCD). To reach a reasonable sensitivity, high altitude mountain sites have been selected in Mexico (Sierra Negra, 4550
m a.s.l.), Bolivia (Chacaltaya, 5300
m a.s.l.) and Venezuela (Mérida, 4765
m a.s.l.). We report on detector calibration and operation at high altitude, search for bursts in 4 months of preliminary data, as well as search for signal at ground level when satellites report a burst.
The Latin American Giant Observatory (LAGO) consists of a network of water Cherenkov detectors (WCDs) installed in the Latin American region at various latitudes, from Sierra Negra in Mexico, 18°59′ ...N 97°18′ W to the Antarctic Peninsula, 64°14′ S 56°38′ W and altitudes from Lima, Peru at 20m a.s.l. to Chacaltaya, Bolivia at 5500m a.s.l.
The detectors of the network are built from commercial water tanks, so they have several geometries (cylindrical in general) and different water purification methods. All these features generate different profiles in the response to air shower particles measured by our detectors and produce pulse-shaped electronic signals. Common sources of noise in a WCD come from light leakage, electronic noise, and noise associated with the operation of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) such as thermionic emission and after-pulses; they all could produce detectable pulses recorded by the LAGO data acquisition (DAQ) system. In LAGO WCDs, these noise signals are expected to present a short pulse width (of a few nanoseconds), while secondary radiation typically produces pulses of several tens of nanoseconds.
We used data from the LAGO DAQ system, which digitises pulses at 40MHz sampling rate on windows of 300ns (12 temporal bins) and with a 10-bit resolution. The LAGO DAQ configuration uses a single threshold-based trigger in the third temporal bin. We proposed a secondary trigger threshold at the fourth bin to improve the noise rejection. In this work, we show how the optimal values for these triggers are now obtained from the measurement of the muon lifetime within the water volume and the resulting Michel spectrum. Our results were also simulated using the LAGO ARTI simulation framework to estimate the expected flux of secondary particles at the detector site; and the Meiga framework, a Geant4-based simulator used to estimate the WCDs response to the atmospheric radiation flux.
Abstract
A new analysis of the data set from the Pierre Auger Observatory provides evidence for anisotropy in the arrival directions of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays on an intermediate angular scale, ...which is indicative of excess arrivals from strong, nearby sources. The data consist of 5514 events above
with zenith angles up to 80° recorded before 2017 April 30. Sky models have been created for two distinct populations of extragalactic gamma-ray emitters: active galactic nuclei from the second catalog of hard
Fermi
-LAT sources (2FHL) and starburst galaxies from a sample that was examined with
Fermi
-LAT. Flux-limited samples, which include all types of galaxies from the
Swift
-BAT and 2MASS surveys, have been investigated for comparison. The sky model of cosmic-ray density constructed using each catalog has two free parameters, the fraction of events correlating with astrophysical objects, and an angular scale characterizing the clustering of cosmic rays around extragalactic sources. A maximum-likelihood ratio test is used to evaluate the best values of these parameters and to quantify the strength of each model by contrast with isotropy. It is found that the starburst model fits the data better than the hypothesis of isotropy with a statistical significance of 4.0
σ
, the highest value of the test statistic being for energies above
. The three alternative models are favored against isotropy with 2.7
σ
–3.2
σ
significance. The origin of the indicated deviation from isotropy is examined and prospects for more sensitive future studies are discussed.
Ultrahigh energy cosmic ray air showers probe particle physics at energies beyond the reach of accelerators. Here we introduce a new method to test hadronic interaction models without relying on the ...absolute energy calibration, and apply it to events with primary energy 6-16 EeV (E_{CM}=110-170 TeV), whose longitudinal development and lateral distribution were simultaneously measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory. The average hadronic shower is 1.33±0.16 (1.61±0.21) times larger than predicted using the leading LHC-tuned models EPOS-LHC (QGSJetII-04), with a corresponding excess of muons.
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are one of the brightest transient events detected, with energies in their prompt phase ranging from keV to GeV. Theoretical models predict emissions at higher energies in the ...early times of the afterglow emission, and recently GRB190114C was the first GRB detected at TeV energies by the MAGIC experiment. The Latin American Giant Observatory (LAGO) operates a network of water Cherenkov detectors (WCD) at different sites in Latin America. Spanning over different altitudes and geomagnetic rigidity cutoffs, the geographic distribution of the LAGO sites, combined with the new electronics for control, atmospheric sensing, and data acquisition, allows the realization of diverse astrophysics studies at a regional scale. LAGO WCDs located at high altitudes possess good sensitivity to electromagnetic secondary radiation, which is the main expected signature of this kind of high-energy event on the ground. Due to the characteristics of the WCD and the wide field of view, LAGO possesses a large aperture high-duty cycle. In this work, we present the results of the sensitivity of LAGO small arrays of WCDs for the detection of events like GRB190114C. Also, we extend the study to other TeV galactic emitters, such as pulsar wind nebulas, TeV-halos, and some additional sources with unidentified categorizations. These are interesting sources to study taking advantage of the long-term monitoring capabilities of LAGO. We use a dedicated simulation process: ARTI, a toolkit developed by LAGO for high-energy air showers, MEIGA, a framework to simulate the response of the detectors, and oneDataSim, the new high-performance computing and cloud-based implementation of our simulation framework.
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