119625288
Observations of microwave continuum emission from air shower plasmas
We investigate a possible new technique for microwave detection of cosmic-ray extensive air showers which relies on detection of expected continuum radiation in the microwave range, caused by free-electron collisions with neutrals in the tenuous plasma left after the passage of the shower. We performed an initial experiment at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator laboratory in 2003 and measured broadband microwave emission from air ionized via high-energy electrons and photons. A follow-up experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in the summer of 2004 confirmed the major features of the previous Argonne Wakefield Accelerator observations with better precision. Prompted by these results we built a prototype detector using satellite television technology and have made measurements suggestive of the detection of cosmic-ray extensive air showers. The method, if confirmed by experiments now in progress, could provide a high-duty cycle complement to current nitrogen fluorescence observations.
126012638
Studies of hadron-electron separators for the ZEUS barrel calorimeter
Abstract Two possible upgrades, a shower maximum detector and a presampler, designed to improve the low energy electron/hadron separation capabilities of the ZEUS barrel calorimeter are described and test-beam results are reported. The presampler can also be used to correct for energy loss of particles traversing the dead material in front of the calorimeter.
119123041
Observational constraints on the ultrahigh energy cosmic neutrino flux from the second flight of the ANITA experiment
The Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) completed its second Long Duration Balloon flight in January 2009, with 31 days aloft (28.5 live days) over Antarctica. ANITA searches for impulsive coherent radio Cherenkov emission from 200 to 1200 MHz, arising from the Askaryan charge excess in ultrahigh energy neutrino-induced cascades within Antarctic ice. This flight included significant improvements over the first flight in payload sensitivity, efficiency, and flight trajectory. Analysis of in-flight calibration pulses from surface and subsurface locations verifies the expected sensitivity. In a blind analysis, we find 2 surviving events on a background, mostly anthropogenic, of 0.97{+-}0.42 events. We set the strongest limit to date for 10{sup 18}-10{sup 21} eV cosmic neutrinos, excluding several current cosmogenic neutrino models.
34851507
Constraints on Cosmic Neutrino Fluxes from the ANITA Experiment
P. F. Dowkontt, 4 M. A. DuVernois,5 P. A. Evenson, 6 D. Goldstein, 1 P. W. Gorham, 9 C. L. Hebert, 9 M. H. Israel,4 J. G. Learned, 9 K. M. Liewer,10 J. T. Link,9 S. Matsuno, 9 P. Miočinović,9 J. Nam, 1 C. J. Naudet, 10 R. Nichol,2 K. Palladino, 2 M. Rosen, 9 D. Saltzberg, 7 D. Seckel, 6 A. Silvestri,1 B. T. Stokes, 9 G. S. Varner, 9 and F. Wu1 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, California 2Department of Physics, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 4Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 5School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 6Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 7Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 8Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 9Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 10Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
119205836
Status of SalSA
We report on the status of the Salt Sensor Array (SalSA), a proposed experiment for detecting ultra-high energy neutrinos through the radio \v{C}erenkov technique with an array of radio-microwave antennas embedded in a large, naturally occurring salt formation. We review the measurements to date aimed at assessing SalSA's feasibility, including a return visit of the Hockley Salt Mine in Hockley, Texas, and discuss the current status of the project.
19032720
Search for MSSM Higgses at the Tevatron
We present an overview of searches for MSSM Higgs at the Tevatron, concentrating on searches probing the high tan {beta} region. We discuss the search for A/H {yields} {tau}{tau} which is soon to be completed in the Run I data and review the new tau triggers implemented by CDF and D0 in Run II, which will greatly impact this analysis. We also present the results of a Run I search for A/Hbb {yields} bbbb performed by CDF and highlight expected improvements in this channel by both experiments in Run II.
14481284
Simultaneous Multicolor Detection of Faint Galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field
We present a novel way to detect objects when multiband images are available. Typically, object detection is performed in one of the available bands or on a somewhat arbitrarily co-added image. Our technique provides an almost optimal way to use all the color information available. We build up a composite image of the N passbands where each pixel value corresponds to the probability that the given pixel is just sky. By knowing the probability distribution of sky pixels (a χ2 distribution with N degrees of freedom), the data can be used to derive the distribution of pixels dominated by object flux. From the two distributions an optimal segmentation threshold can be determined. Clipping the probability image at this threshold yields a mask, where pixels unlikely to be sky are tagged. After using a standard connected-pixel criterion, the regions of this mask define the detected objects. Applying this technique to the Hubble Deep Field data, we find that we can extend the detection limit of the data below that possible using linearly co-added images. We also discuss possible ways of enhancing object detection probabilities for certain well-defined classes of objects by using various optimized linear combinations of the pixel fluxes (optimal subspace filtering).
33624256
LARGE SYNOPTIC SURVEY TELESCOPE: FROM SCIENCE DRIVERS TO REFERENCE DESIGN
In the history of astronomy, major advances in our understanding of the Universe have come from dramatic improvements in our ability to accurately measure astronomical quantities. Aided by rapid progress in information technology, current sky surveys are changing the way we view and study the Universe. Next-generation surveys will maintain this revolutionary progress. We focus here on the most ambitious survey currently planned in the visible band, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: constraining dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. It will be a large, wide-field ground-based system designed to obtain multiple images covering the sky that is visible from Cerro Pachon in Northern Chile. The current baseline design, with an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg{sup 2} field of view, and a 3,200 Megapixel camera, will allow about 10,000 square degrees of sky to be covered using pairs of 15-second exposures in two photometric bands every three nights on average. The system is designed to yield high image quality, as well as superb astrometric and photometric accuracy. The survey area will include 30,000 deg{sup 2} with {delta} < +34.5{sup o}, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, ugrizy, covering the wavelength range 320-1050 nm. About 90% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will observe a 20,000 deg{sup 2} region about 1000 times in the six bands during the anticipated 10 years of operation. These data will result in databases including 10 billion galaxies and a similar number of stars, and will serve the majority of science programs. The remaining 10% of the observing time will be allocated to special programs such as Very Deep and Very Fast time domain surveys. We describe how the LSST science drivers led to these choices of system parameters.
15904978
A2125 and its environs: Evidence for an X-ray-emitting hierarchical superstructure
Based on a deep ROSAT/PSPC observation, we reveal an elongated complex of extended X-ray-emitting objects in and around the galaxy cluster A2125. Multicolor optical imaging of galaxies in the field suggests that this complex represents a hierarchical superstructure spanning ~11 h−150 Mpc at the redshift ~0.247. The multiple peak X-ray morphology and large blue galaxy fraction of A2125 indicate that the cluster is undergoing a coalescence of subunits. The superstructure contains two additional clusters, projected at distances of only 3 and 4.3 h−150 Mpc from A2125. The most interesting feature is, however, the low surface brightness X-ray emission from a moderate galaxy concentration away from individual clusters. The emission likely arises in a hot (~107 K) intergalactic medium, as predicted in N-body/hydro simulations of structure formation.
118610276
Regularization techniques for PSF-matching kernels – I. Choice of kernel basis
We review current methods for building point spread function (PSF)-matching kernels for the purposes of image subtraction or co-addition. Such methods use a linear decomposition of the kernel on a series of basis functions. The correct choice of these basis functions is fundamental to the efficiency and effectiveness of the matching – the chosen bases should represent the underlying signal using a reasonably small number of shapes, and/or have a minimum number of user-adjustable tuning parameters. We examine methods whose bases comprise multiple Gauss–Hermite polynomials, as well as a form-free basis composed of delta-functions. Kernels derived from delta-functions are unsurprisingly shown to be more expressive; they are able to take more general shapes and perform better in situations where sum-of-Gaussian methods are known to fail. However, due to its many degrees of freedom (the maximum number allowed by the kernel size) this basis tends to overfit the problem and yields noisy kernels having large variance. We introduce a new technique to regularize these delta-function kernel solutions, which bridges the gap between the generality of delta-function kernels and the compactness of sum-of-Gaussian kernels. Through this regularization we are able to create general kernel solutions that represent the intrinsic shape of the PSF-matching kernel with only one degree of freedom, the strength of the regularization λ. The role of λ is effectively to exchange variance in the resulting difference image with variance in the kernel itself. We examine considerations in choosing the value of λ, including statistical risk estimators and the ability of the solution to predict solutions for adjacent areas. Both of these suggest moderate strengths of λ between 0.1 and 1.0, although this optimization is likely data set dependent. This model allows for flexible representations of the convolution kernel that have significant predictive ability and will prove useful in implementing robust image subtraction pipelines that must address hundreds to thousands of images per night.
2066697
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: the cosmic spectrum and star formation history
We present a determination of the cosmic optical spectrum of the universe, i.e., the ensemble emission from galaxies, as determined from the red-selected Sloan Digital Sky Survey main galaxy sample, and compare it with previous results of the blue-selected 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey. Broadly, we find good agreement in both the spectrum and the derived star formation histories. If we use a power-law star formation history model in which the star formation rate is (1 + z)β out to z = 1, then we find that a β of 2-3 is still the most likely model and that there is no evidence for current surveys to be missing large amounts of star formation at high redshift. In particular, fossil cosmology of the local universe gives measures of star formation history that are consistent with direct observations at high redshift. Using the photometry of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we are able to derive the cosmic spectrum in absolute units (i.e., units of W A-1 Mpc-3) at 2-5 A resolution and find good agreement with published broadband luminosity densities. For a Salpeter initial mass function, the best-fit stellar mass-to-light ratio is 3.7-7.5 M☉/L☉ in the r band (corresponding to Ωstarsh = 0.0025-0.0055), and from both the stellar emission history and the Hα luminosity density independently we find a cosmological star formation rate of 0.03-0.04 h M☉ yr-1 Mpc-3 today.