1. |
- Aglietta, M, et al.
(författare)
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The cosmic ray primary composition between 10(15) and 10(16) eV from Extensive Air Showers electromagnetic and TeV muon data
- 2004
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Ingår i: Astroparticle physics. - : Elsevier. - 0927-6505 .- 1873-2852. ; 20:6, s. 641-652
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The cosmic ray primary composition in the energy range between 10(15) and 10(16) eV, i.e., around the "knee" of the primary spectrum, has been studied through the combined measurements of the EAS-TOP air shower array (2005 m a. s.l., 10(5) m(2) collecting area) and the MACRO underground detector (963 m.a.s.l., 3100 m w.e. of minimum rock overburden, 920 m(2) effective area) at the National Gran Sasso Laboratories. The used observables are the air shower size (N-c) measured by EAS-TOP and the muon number (N-mu) recorded by MACRO. The two detectors are separated on average by 1200 m of rock, and located at a respective zenith angle of about 30degrees. The energy threshold at the surface for muons reaching the MACRO depth is approximately 1.3 TeV. Such muons are produced in the early stages of the shower development and in a kinematic region quite different from the one relevant for the usual N-mu - N-e studies. The measurement leads to a primary composition becoming heavier at the knee of the primary spectrum, the knee itself resulting from the steepening of the spectrum of a primary light component (p, He) of Deltay = 0.7 +/- 0.4 at E-0 similar to 4 x 10(15) eV. The result confirms the ones reported from the observation of the low energy muons at the surface (typically in the GeV energy range), showing that the conclusions do not depend on the production region kinematics. Thus, the hadronic interaction model used (CORSIKA/QGSJET) provides consistent composition results from data related to secondaries produced in a rapidity region exceeding the central one. Such an evolution of the composition in the knee region supports the "standard" galactic acceleration/propagation models that imply rigidity dependent breaks of the different components.. and therefore breaks occurring at lower energies in the spectra of the light nuclei. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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2. |
- Aglietta, M, et al.
(författare)
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The cosmic ray proton, helium and CNO fluxes in the 100 TeV energy region from TeV muons and EAS atmospheric Cherenkov light observations of MACRO and EAS-TOP
- 2004
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Ingår i: Astroparticle physics. - : Elsevier. - 0927-6505 .- 1873-2852. ; 21:3, s. 223-240
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The primary cosmic ray (CR) proton, helium and CNO fluxes in the energy range 80-300 TeV are studied at the National Gran Sasso Laboratories by means of EAS-TOP (Campo Imperatore, 2005 m a.s.l.) and MACRO (deep underground, 3100 m w.e., the surface energy threshold for a muon reaching the detector being E-mu(th) approximate to 1.3 TeV). The measurement is based on: (a) the selection of primaries based on their energy/nucleon (i.e., with energy/nucleon sufficient to produce a muon with energy larger than 1.3 TeV) and the reconstruction of the shower geometry by means of the muons recorded by MACRO in the deep underground laboratories; (b) the detection of the associated atmospheric Cherenkov light (C.l.) signals by means of the C.l. detector of EAS-TOP. The C.l. density at core distance r > 100 m is directly related to the total primary energy E-0. Proton and helium ("p + He") and proton, helium and CNO ("p + He + CNO") primaries are thus selected at E-0 approximate to 80 TeV, and at E-0 similar or equal to 250 TeV, respectively. Their flux is measured: J(p+He)(80 TeV) = (1.8 +/- 0.4) x 10(-6) m(-1)-s(-1) sr(-1) TeV-1, and J(p+He+CNO)(250 TeV) = (1.1 +/- 0.3) x 10(-7) m(-2)-s(-1) sr(-1) TeV-1, their relative weights being J(p+He)(J(p+He+CNO)) over bar (250 TeV) = 0.78 +/- 0.17. By using the measurements of the proton spectrum obtained from the direct experiments and hadron flux data in the atmosphere, we obtain for the relative weights of the three components at 250 TeV: J(p) : J(He) : J(CNO) = (0.20 +/- 0.08) : (0.58 +/- 0.19) : (0.22 +/- 0.17). This corresponds to the dominance of helium over proton primaries at 100-1000 TeV, and a possible non-negligible contribution from CNO. The lateral distribution of Cherenkov light in Extensive Air Showers (EASs), which is related to the rate of energy deposit of the primary in the atmosphere, is measured for a selected proton and helium primary beam, and good agreement is found when compared with the one calculated with the CORSIKA/QGSJET simulation model. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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3. |
- Ankowski, A., et al.
(författare)
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Energy reconstruction of electromagnetic showers from Ν0 decays with the ICARUS T600 liquid argon TPC
- 2010
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Ingår i: Acta Physica Polonica, Series B.. - 1509-5770 .- 0587-4254. ; 41:1, s. 103-125
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We discuss the ICARUS T600 detector capabilities in electromagnetic shower reconstruction through the analysis of a sample of 212 events, coming from the 2001 Pavia surface test run, of hadronic interactions leading to the production of π 0 mesons. Methods of shower energy and shower direction measurements were developed and the invariant mass of the photon pairs was reconstructed. The (γγ) invariant mass was found to be consistent with the value of the π 0 mass. The resolution of the reconstructed π 0 mass was found to be equal to 27.3%. An improved analysis, carried out in order to clean the full event sample from the events measured in the crowded environment, mostly due to the trigger conditions, gave a π 0 mass resolution of 16.1%, significantly better than the one evaluated for the full event sample. The trigger requirement of the coincidence of at least four photo-multiplier signals favored the selection of events with a strong pile up of cosmic ray tracks and interactions. Hence a number of candidate π 0 events were heavily contaminated by other tracks and had to be rejected. Monte Carlo simulations of events with π 0 production in hadronic and neutrino interactions confirmed the validity of the shower energy and shower direction reconstruction methods applied to the real data.
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4. |
- Ankowski, A, et al.
(författare)
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Energy reconstruction of electromagnetic showers from π0 decays with the ICARUS T600 liquid argon TPC
- 2010
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Ingår i: Acta Physica Polonica B. - : Jagellonian University. - 0587-4254 .- 1509-5770. ; 41:1, s. 103-125
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We discuss the ICARUS T600 detector capabilities in electromagnetic shower reconstruction through the analysis of a sample of 212 events, coming from the 2001 Pavia surface test run, of hadronic interactions leading to the production of π0 mesons. Methods of shower energy and shower direction measurements were developed and the invariant mass of the photon pairs was reconstructed. The (γ,γ) invariant mass was found to be consistent with the value of the π0 mass. The resolution of the reconstructed π0 mass was found to be equal to 27.3%. An improved analysis, carried out in order to clean the full event sample from the events measured in the crowded environment, mostly due to the trigger conditions, gave a π0 mass resolution of 16.1%, significantly better than the one evaluated for the full event sample. The trigger requirement of the coincidence of at least four photo-multiplier signals favored the selection of events with a strong pile up of cosmic ray tracks and interactions. Hence a number of candidate π0 events were heavily contaminated by other tracks and had to be rejected. Monte Carlo simulations of events with π0 production in hadronic and neutrino interactions confirmed the validity of the shower energy and shower direction reconstruction methods applied to the real data.
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5. |
- Rubbia, C, et al.
(författare)
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Underground operation of the ICARUS T600 LAr-TPC : first results
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Instrumentation. ; 6:07
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Important open questions are still present in fundamental Physics and Cosmology, like the nature of Dark Matter, the matter-antimatter asymmetry and the validity of the Standard Model of particle interactions. Addressing these questions requires a new generation of massive particle detectors to explore the subatomic and astrophysical worlds. ICARUS T600 is the first large mass (760 tons) example of a new generation of detectors able to combine the imaging capabilities of the old famous “bubble chamber” with the excellent energy measurement of huge electronic detectors. ICARUS T600 now operates at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory and is used to study cosmic rays, neutrino oscillations and the proton decay. The potential for doing physics of this novel telescope is presented through a few examples of neutrino interactions reconstructed with unprecedented detail. Detector design and early operation are also reported.
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