The OPERA neutrino experiment in the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS) was designed to perform the first detection of neutrino oscillations in direct appearance mode in the νμ → ντ channel, ...the ντ signature being the identification of the τ-lepton created in its charged current interaction. The hybrid apparatus consists of a large mass emulsion film lead target complemented by electronic detectors. Placed in the LNGS, it is exposed to the high-energy long-baseline CERN Neutrino beam to Gran Sasso (CNGS) 730 km away from the neutrino source. The observation of a first ντ candidate event was reported in 2010. In this paper, we discuss the result of the analysis of the data taken during the first two years of operation (2008-2009) underlining the major improvements brought to the analysis chain and to the Monte Carlo simulations. The statistical significance of the one event observed so far is then evaluated to 95%.
Letter of intent for KM3NeT 2.0 Adrián-Martínez, S; Aharonian, F; Aiello, S ...
Journal of physics. G, Nuclear and particle physics,
08/2016, Letnik:
43, Številka:
8
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The main objectives of the KM3NeT Collaboration are (i) the discovery and subsequent observation of high-energy neutrino sources in the Universe and (ii) the determination of the mass hierarchy of ...neutrinos. These objectives are strongly motivated by two recent important discoveries, namely: (1) the high-energy astrophysical neutrino signal reported by IceCube and (2) the sizable contribution of electron neutrinos to the third neutrino mass eigenstate as reported by Daya Bay, Reno and others. To meet these objectives, the KM3NeT Collaboration plans to build a new Research Infrastructure consisting of a network of deep-sea neutrino telescopes in the Mediterranean Sea. A phased and distributed implementation is pursued which maximises the access to regional funds, the availability of human resources and the synergistic opportunities for the Earth and sea sciences community. Three suitable deep-sea sites are selected, namely off-shore Toulon (France), Capo Passero (Sicily, Italy) and Pylos (Peloponnese, Greece). The infrastructure will consist of three so-called building blocks. A building block comprises 115 strings, each string comprises 18 optical modules and each optical module comprises 31 photo-multiplier tubes. Each building block thus constitutes a three-dimensional array of photo sensors that can be used to detect the Cherenkov light produced by relativistic particles emerging from neutrino interactions. Two building blocks will be sparsely configured to fully explore the IceCube signal with similar instrumented volume, different methodology, improved resolution and complementary field of view, including the galactic plane. One building block will be densely configured to precisely measure atmospheric neutrino oscillations.
A fast automatic plate changer for the analysis of nuclear emulsions Balestra, S.; Bertolin, A.; Bozza, C. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
07/2013, Letnik:
716
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This paper describes the design and performance of a computer controlled emulsion Plate Changer for the automatic placement and removal of nuclear emulsion films for the European Scanning System ...microscopes. The Plate Changer is used for mass scanning and measurement of the emulsions of the OPERA neutrino oscillation experiment at the Gran Sasso lab on the CNGS neutrino beam. Unlike other systems it works with both dry and oil objectives. The film changing takes less than 20s and the accuracy on the positioning of the emulsion films is about 10μm. The final accuracy in retrieving track coordinates after fiducial marks measurement is better than 1μm.
The OPERA detector, designed to search for $\nu_{\mu} \to \nu_{\tau}$ oscillations in the CNGS beam, is located in the underground Gran Sasso laboratory, a privileged location to study TeV-scale ...cosmic rays. For the analysis here presented, the detector was used to measure the atmospheric muon charge ratio in the TeV region. OPERA collected charge-separated cosmic ray data between 2008 and 2012. More than 3 million atmospheric muon events were detected and reconstructed, among which about 110000 multiple muon bundles. The charge ratio $R_{\mu} \equiv N_{\mu^+}/N_{\mu^-}$ was measured separately for single and for multiple muon events. The analysis exploited the inversion of the magnet polarity which was performed on purpose during the 2012 Run. The combination of the two data sets with opposite magnet polarities allowed minimizing systematic uncertainties and reaching an accurate determination of the muon charge ratio. Data were fitted to obtain relevant parameters on the composition of primary cosmic rays and the associated kaon production in the forward fragmentation region. In the surface energy range 1-20 TeV investigated by OPERA, $R_{\mu}$ is well described by a parametric model including only pion and kaon contributions to the muon flux, showing no significant contribution of the prompt component. The energy independence supports the validity of Feynman scaling in the fragmentation region up to $200$ TeV/nucleon primary energy.
K
S
0,
Λ,
Ξ,
Ω and negative particle yields and transverse mass spectra have been measured at central rapidity in Pb–Pb and p–Pb collisions at 158
A GeV/
c. Yields are studied as a function of the ...number of nucleons participating in the collision
N
part, which is estimated with the Glauber model. From p–Pb to Pb–Pb collisions the particle yields per participant increase substantially. The enhancement is more pronounced for multistrange particles, and exceeds an order of magnitude for the
Ω. For a number of participants,
N
part, greater than 100, however, all yields per participant appear to be constant.
A novel series of tetrahydrothieno2,3-
hcinnolinone derivatives were synthesized and evaluated in vitro for their ability to inhibit aldose reductase (ALR2), an enzyme involved in the appearance of ...diabetic complications. Compounds
2e and
2j exert a remarkable inhibitory effect, with IC
50 of 7.6 and 18
μM, respectively. These compounds incorporate a valid pharmacophore for aldose reductase inhibitory activity represented by a thienocinnolinone template linked through a pentamethylene spacer to a carboxylic function.
KM3NeT will be a network of deep-sea neutrino telescopes in the Mediterranean Sea. The KM3NeT/ARCA detector, to be installed at the Capo Passero site (Italy), is optimised for the detection of ...high-energy neutrinos of cosmic origin. Thanks to its geographical location on the Northern hemisphere, KM3NeT/ARCA can observe upgoing neutrinos from most of the Galactic Plane, including the Galactic Centre. Given its effective area and excellent pointing resolution, KM3NeT/ARCA will measure or significantly constrain the neutrino flux from potential astrophysical neutrino sources. At the same time, it will test flux predictions based on gamma-ray measurements and the assumption that the gamma-ray flux is of hadronic origin. Assuming this scenario, discovery potentials and sensitivities for a selected list of Galactic sources and to generic point sources with an E−2 spectrum are presented. These spectra are assumed to be time independent. The results indicate that an observation with 3σ significance is possible in about six years of operation for the most intense sources, such as Supernovae Remnants RX J1713.7-3946 and Vela Jr. If no signal will be found during this time, the fraction of the gamma-ray flux coming from hadronic processes can be constrained to be below 50% for these two objects.
The PEANUT experiment was designed to study the NuMi neutrino beam at Fermilab. The detector uses a hybrid technique, being made of nuclear emulsions and scintillator trackers. Emulsion films act as ...a micrometric tracking device and are interleaved with lead plates used as passive material. The detector is designed to precisely reconstruct the topology of neutrino interactions and hence to measure the different contributions to the cross section. We present here the full reconstruction and analysis of 147 neutrino interactions and the measurement of the quasi-elastic, resonance and deep-inelastic contributions to the total charged current cross section at the energies of the NuMi neutrino beam. This technique could be applied for beam monitoring in future neutrino facilities, and this paper shows its proof-of-principle.
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