Antarctic permafrost soils have not received as much geocryological and biological study as has been devoted to the ice sheet, though the permafrost is more stable and older and inhabited by more ...microbes. This makes these soils potentially more informative and a more significant microbial repository than ice sheets. Due to the stability of the subsurface physicochemical regime, Antarctic permafrost is not an extreme environment but a balanced natural one. Up to 10(4) viable cells/g, whose age presumably corresponds to the longevity of the permanently frozen state of the sediments, have been isolated from Antarctic permafrost. Along with the microbes, metabolic by-products are preserved. This presumed natural cryopreservation makes it possible to observe what may be the oldest microbial communities on Earth. Here, we describe the Antarctic permafrost habitat and biodiversity and provide a model for martian ecosystems.
We present the results of the two-year (2021-2022) monitoring of absorption and scattering lengths of light with wavelength 400-620 nm within the effective volume of the deep underwater neutrino ...telescope Baikal-GVD, which were measured by a device Baikal-5D No.2. The Baikal-5D No.2. was installed during the 2021 winter expedition at a depth of 1180 m. The absorption and scattering lengths were measured every week in 9 spectral points. The device Baikal-5D No.2 also has the ability to measure detailed scattering and absorption spectra. The data obtained make it possible to estimate the range of changes in the absorption and scattering lengths over a sufficiently long period of time and to investigate the relationship between the processes of changes in absorption and scattering. An analysis was made of changes in absorption and scattering spectra for the period 2021-2022.
The Baikal-GVD is a deep-underwater neutrino telescope being constructed in Lake Baikal. After the winter 2023 deployment campaign the detector consists of 3456 optical modules installed on 96 ...vertical strings. The status of the detector and progress in data analysis are discussed in present report. The Baikal-GVD data collected in 2018-2022 indicate the presence of cosmic neutrino flux in high-energy cascade events consistent with observations by the IceCube neutrino telescope. Analysis of track-like events results in identification of first high-energy muon neutrino candidates. These and other results from 2018-2022 data samples are reviewed in this report.
The Baikal-GVD neutrino detector is a deep-underwater neutrino telescope under construction and recently after the winter 2023 deployment it consists of 3456 optical modules attached on 96 vertical ...strings. This 3-dimensional array of photo-sensors allows to observe ambient light in the vicinity of the Baikal-GVD telescope that is associated mostly with water luminescence. Results on time and space variations of the luminescent activity are reviewed based on data collected in 2018-2022.
Reconstructed tracks of muons produced in neutrino interactions provide the precise probe for the neutrino direction. Therefore, track-like events are a powerful tool to search for neutrino point ...sources. Recently, Baikal-GVD has demonstrated the first sample of low-energy neutrino candidate events extracted from the data of the season 2019 in a so-called single-cluster analysis - treating each cluster as an independent detector. In this paper, the extension of the track-like event analysis to a wider data set is discussed and the first high-energy track-like events are demonstrated. The status of multi-cluster track reconstruction and that of the event analysis are also discussed.
We calculate the atmospheric flux of prompt neutrinos, produced in decays of the charmed particles at energies beyond 1 TeV. Cross sections of the \(D\)-mesons and \({\Lambda}^{+}_{c}\) baryons ...production in pA and \(\pi\)A collisions are calculated in the phenomenological quark-gluon string model (QGSM) which is updated using of the recent measurements of cross sections of the charmed meson production in the LHC experiments. A new estimate of the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux is obtained and compared with the limit of the IceCube experiment as well as with predictions of other charm production models.
We present a new procedure for time calibration of the Baikal-GVD neutrino telescope. The track reconstruction quality depends on accurate measurements of arrival times of Cherenkov photons. ...Therefore, it is crucial to achieve a high precision in time calibration. For that purpose, in addition to other calibration methods, we employ a new procedure using atmospheric muons reconstructed in a single-cluster mode. The method is based on iterative determination of effective time offsets for each optical module. This paper focuses on the results of the iterative reconstruction procedure with time offsets from the previous iteration and the verification of the method developed. The theoretical muon calibration precision is estimated to be around 1.5-1.6ns.
The paper is a review of the current literature data on the use of various materials and drugs for the prevention of the development of postoperative lumbar epidural fibrosis. Literature searches ...were performed in the Pubmed, Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and eLibrary databases. The formation and growth of fibrous tissue in the epidural space, followed by tissue adhesion to the dura mater, is the leading cause of pain afferentation in the lumbar spine and/or lower extremities. Several molecular and cellular mechanisms play an important role in the pathophysiology of connective tissue formation in the epidural space. An analysis of experimental and clinical studies examining the effectiveness of various materials and drugs is presented. The authors present the current data on new therapeutic approaches to the prevention of postoperative epidural fibrosis. Topical, unresolved issues which necessitate further research on the pathophysiology of epidural fibrosis are indicated.
Baikal-GVD has recently published its first measurement of the diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux, performed using high-energy cascade-like events. We further explore the Baikal-GVD cascade dataset ...collected in 2018-2022, with the aim to identify possible associations between the Baikal-GVD neutrinos and known astrophysical sources. We leverage the relatively high angular resolution of the Baikal-GVD neutrino telescope (2-3 deg.), made possible by the use of liquid water as the detection medium, enabling the study of astrophysical point sources even with cascade events. We estimate the telescope's sensitivity in the cascade channel for high-energy astrophysical sources and refine our analysis prescriptions using Monte-Carlo simulations. We primarily focus on cascades with energies exceeding 100 TeV, which we employ to search for correlation with radio-bright blazars. Although the currently limited neutrino sample size provides no statistically significant effects, our analysis suggests a number of possible associations with both extragalactic and Galactic sources. Specifically, we present an analysis of an observed triplet of neutrino candidate events in the Galactic plane, focusing on its potential connection with certain Galactic sources, and discuss the coincidence of cascades with several bright and flaring blazars.
The deployment of the Baikal-GVD deep underwater neutrino telescope is continuing in Lake Baikal. By April 2022, ten clusters of the telescope were put into operation, with 2880 optical modules in ...total. One of the relevant tasks in this context is to study the possibilities of increasing the efficiency of the detector based on the experience of its operation and the results obtained at other neutrino telescopes in recent years. In this paper, a variant of optimizing the configuration of the telescope is considered, based on the installation of additional strings of optical modules between the clusters (external strings). An experimental version of the external string was installed in Lake Baikal in April 2022. This paper presents a first estimate of the impact of adding external strings on the neutrino detection efficiency, as well as the technical implementation of the detection and data acquisition systems of the external string and first results of its in-situ tests.
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