117775337
The GLAST Gamma‐Ray Telescope Mission
The Gamma‐ray Large Area Space Telescope, GLAST, is an orbital mission under construction to measure the cosmic gamma‐ray flux in the energy range 20 MeV to >300 GeV, with supporting measurements for gamma‐ray bursts from 10 keV to 25 MeV. With its launch in 2007, GLAST will open a new and important window on a wide variety of high energy phenomena, including black holes and active galactic nuclei; gamma‐ray bursts; the origin of cosmic rays and supernova remnants; and searches for hypothetical new phenomena such as supersymmetric dark‐matter annihilations, Lorentz‐invariance violation, and exotic relics from the Big Bang. In addition to a short review of the science opportunities, this talk will describe the high‐energy gamma‐ray telescope and its components and review the mission status.
2889124
The silicon tracker/converter for the gamma-ray large area space telescope
The Silicon Tracker/Converter of the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) will have an active area of 80 m2, representing one of the largest planned applications of the silicon-strip detector technology. The large number of channels (1.3 million) to read out, together with the requirement that the tracker provide the trigger to the data acquisition, force the readout electronics to be of very low noise. Furthermore, to "t into the power constraints of the satellite environment, the electronics must have an ultra-low power consumption. To ful"ll these requirements, plus others imposed by the space environment, such as redundancy, a mixed mode CMOS front-end readout chip and a digital readout controller chip have been designed and prototyped. In this article, we present the status of the readout electronics and the results from a test-beam study with a small GLAST tracker prototype. ( 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
23177219
Fermi-LAT Sensitivity to Dark Matter Annihilation in Via Lactea II Substructure
We present a study of the ability of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to detect dark matter (DM) annihilation signals from the Galactic subhalos predicted by the Via Lactea II N-body simulation. We implement an improved formalism for estimating the boost factor needed to account for the effect of DM clumping on scales below the resolution of the simulation, and we incorporate a detailed Monte Carlo simulation of the response of the Fermi-LAT, including a simulation of its all-sky observing mode integrated over a 10 year mission. We find that for WIMP masses up to about 150 GeV c –2 in standard supersymmetric models with σv = 3 × 10–26 cm3 s–1, a few subhalos could be detectable with >5 standard deviation significance and would likely deviate significantly from the appearance of a point source.
117359671
Measurements of charged two-particle exclusive states in photon-photon interactions
A description is given of an experiment performed at the PEP electron-positron storage ring, using the DELCO detector, to measure the formation of charged particle pairs from interactions of pairs of virtual photons radiated from the colliding electron beams. The final states which are measured are electron-positron pairs, charged pion pairs, charged kaon pairs, and proton pairs. Electron-positron pairs are separated from other data by use of gas Cerenkov counters. The shapes of all kinematic distributions are found to agree with predictions of quantum electrodynamics. These data also are used as an accurate normalization for subtraction of the muon-pair background and for measurement of the cross sections of the three hadronic channels. Pion pairs are measured in the mass range from 0.6 to 2.0 GeV, where production of the f (1270) resonance is observed to interfere with significant continuum production. The continuum is well described by single-pion exchange, allowing a measurement of the f two-photon partial width of 3.47 +- 0.37 keV. No a priori assumption is made about the ratio of helicity amplitudes, and the phenomenological model used in fitting the data is constrained to satisfy elastic unitarity. If unitarity is not required, then the fitted partial width ismore » a factor of 0.83 lower than the quoted value. The Q/sup 2/ dependence of the cross section is found to be consistent with predictions of the Generalized Vector Dominance Model. Kaon pairs and proton pairs are identified by time-of-flight measurements. Kaon pairs are measured in the mass range from 1.3 to 2.0 GeV, where production of the f' (1520) resonance is observed. The ratio of the f and f' two-photon partial widths is found to be consistent with SU(3) quark model predictions with a mixing angle of 28 +- 4 degrees. Twenty-three proton pairs are observed.« less
112026797
RADIATION TESTING OF GLAST LAT TRACKER ASICS
39179314
Commissioning the beam diagnostics for the PEP-II B Factory
PEP-II is a 2.2-km-circumference collider with a 2.1-A, 3.1-GeV positron ring (the Low-Energy Ring) 1 m above a 1-A, 9-GeV electron ring (the High-Energy Ring); both rings are designed for a maximum current of 3 A. The authors describe the beam diagnostics and present measurements from HER commissioning. The beam profile is measured using near-UV synchrotron light extracted by grazing-incidence mirrors that must withstand up to 200 W/cm. Normally 1,658 of the 3,492 buckets will be filled, and the charge must be equal within 2%. To measure the charge in each bucket, the sum signal from a set of 4 pickup buttons is digitized and averaged over 256 samples per bucket in every 60-Hz interval. The sum is them normalized to the ring current, measured by a DC current transformer. The 300 beam-position monitors per ring are multiplexed to share 171 processor modules, which use DPSs for recording positions over 1,024 turns and for calibration. For both diagnostics and machine protection, 100 photomultipliers with fused-silica Cherenkov radiators measure beam losses and can trigger a beam abort in case of high loss. For the ring tunes, signals from a set of 4 pickup buttons are combined into horizontal, vertical, and summore » signals. Two signals are selected and downconverted into the range of a 10-MHz, 2-channel, programmable, DSP-based spectrum analyzer, connected over ethernet to the control room.« less
9892560
Using STIS to find gamma-ray burst redshifts
A recent spectrum of the optical afterglow of GRB 970508 suggests that gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are cosmological in origin, and it is of crucial importance to derive an accurate distance to each burst. If GRBs occur near their host galaxies (much less than 40 kpc) then Lyman limit absorption should be observable in roughly half the GRB afterglow spectra. Here we outline the methodology to obtain a redshift from the GRB afterglow spectrum using the recently installed Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) instrument on board HST. A low-resolution spectrum with the Multi-Anode Microchannel Array (MAMA) detector gives complete spectral coverage over the wavelength range 1570-3180 A and 1150-1740 A. Assuming that a Target of Opportunity observation is conducted soon (about 3 wk) after a bright burst, a relatively small integration time (about three orbits) would be sufficient to detect the Lyman limit over a wide redshift range (0.3-2.2). Detection (or nondetection) of the Lyman limit, in concert with ground-based observations of nearby galaxies and Mg II and C IV absorption lines, should provide meaningful constraints on the relationship of GRBs to galaxies.
6698984
The Bulge Globular Cluster NGC 6553: Observations with HST's WFPC2, STIS, and NICMOS
As part of a large HST project to study the formation and evolution of rich star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud, we present results for the Galactic bulge metal-rich globular cluster NGC6553. HST observations using WFPC2, NICMOS and STIS were obtained for this cluster. The primarily reason for studying NGC6553 is to allow the possibility to transform our NICMOS and STIS magnitudes directly into stellar masses. This is particularly important for determining the low mass end of the IMF. NGC 6553 was chosen because its metallicity, [Fe/H]$=-0.22\pm 0.05$, is representative of the metallicities
123273188
COMPARISON OF HIGH TRANSVERSE MOMENTUM PI0 PRODUCTION FROM PI-, K-, P, AND ANTI-P BEAMS.
We compare high-transverse-momentum (P/sub perpendicular/) inclusive ..pi../sup 0/ production from ..pi../sup -/, K/sup -/, p, and p beams, at 100 and 200 GeV/c, for center-of-mass (c.m.) angles ranging from 2/sup 0/ to 115/sup 0/, and P/sub perpendicular/ .. ..pi../sup 0/X)/sigma (..pi..p ..-->.. ..pi../sup 0/X) decreases with increasing P/sub perpendicular/, and changes dramatically with c.m. angle. Also, the ratios sigma (K/sup -/p ..-->.. ..pi../sup 0/X)/sigma (..pi../sup -/p ..-->.. ..pi../sup 0/X) and sigma (pp ..-->.. ..pi../sup 0/X)/sigma (pp ..-->.. /sup 0/X) are approximately constant. The measurements are consistent with a theoretical viewpoint in which constituents of the incident hadrons undergo a hard-scattering subprocess.
15686414
Mass Segregation in Young LMC Clusters
We present the detailed analysis of Hubble Space Telescope observations of the spatial distributions of different stellar species in two young compact star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), NGC 1805 and NGC 1818. Based on a comparison of the characteristic relaxation times in their cores and at their half-mass radii with the observed degree of mass segregation, it is most likely that significant primordial mass segregation was present in both clusters, particularly in NGC 1805. Both clusters were likely formed with very similar initial mass functions (IMFs). In fact, we provide strong support for the universality of the IMF in LMC clusters for stellar masses m >= 0.8 M_sun.
119074148
A search for organic molecules in intermediate redshift DLAs
There has been a renewed interest in searching for diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) due to their probable connection to organic molecules and, thus, their possible link to life in the Universe. Our group is undertaking an extensive search for DIBs in DLAs via QSO absorption-line systems. Six of our DLA targets are presented here. Our equivalent width (EW) limits for the 5780 DIB line strongly suggests that DIB abundance is below the Milky Way expected value or that metallicity plays a large role in DIB strengths.