115302281
Collider physics: LHC
118222129
Final Report of the Simulation Optimization Task Force
This is the final report of the ATLAS Simulation Optimization Task Force, establishedin June of 2007. This note justifies the selected Geant4 version, physics list, and range cuts to be used by the default ATLAS simulation for initial data taking and beyond. The current status of several projects, including detector description, simulation validation, studies of additional Geant4 parameters, and cavern background, are reported.
125551627
Study of gamma/jet separation with the ATLAS detector
16422857
Preparing for LHC data-taking with the ATLAS experiment
The status of the ATLAS experiment a few months before the start-up of LHC operation is described. Emphasis is given to the preparation for the imminent data-taking phase through commissioning studies with cosmics data. A few examples of the physics potential and goals with early LHC data are also presented.
41625716
Physics in ATLAS at a possible upgraded LHC
The impact on the physics capabilities of the ATLAS detector of possible LHC upgrades is discussed. A doubling of the LHC energy or an increase in the luminosity by a factor of ten are considered. Both upgrades significantly enhance the physics capabilities of ATLAS. In general, the energy upgrade is more powerful since the pile-up of minimum bias events at higher luminosity impacts the physics performance of ATLAS in some areas.
125535688
Cosmic Ray, Beam-Halo and Beam-Gas Rate Studies for ATLAS Commissioning
121426765
The mini-calorimeter detector for the AGILE mission
AGILE is an ASI space mission for high energy astrophysics in the gamma ray energy range 30MeV-50GeV, and in the X-ray band (10keV-40keV). AGILE is composed of three detecting systems: a Tungsten-Silicon Tracker, a Csl Mini-Calorimeter and a Silicon based X-ray detector (Super-Agile), plus an anticoincidence system for background rejection. The satellite will have good imaging performances (with angular resolution of a few arc-minutes in the gamma ray band), good timing resolution and a large field of view (about 1/5 of the sky). AGILE high energy detector is composed of a Silicon Tracker, a Mini-Calorimeter, the Anticoincidence and the Data Handling system The Mini-Calorimeter can also work as a stand-alone gamma ray detector in the energy range 250keV-250MeV, with no imaging capabilities, for the detection of transients and gamma ray burst events and for the evaluation of gamma ray background fluctuations. The Mini-Calorimeter is made of 30 independent elements of 37.5 × 2.3 × 1.5  cm stacked in two layers. Each detector scintillator signal is read out via two photodiodes glued on the small surfaces of the bar. The characteristics of the engineering model detectors has been deeply investigated and will be reported.
13932374
Design and Construction of the Mini-Calorimeter of the AGILE Satellite
Abstract AGILE is a small space mission of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) devoted to gamma-ray and hard-X astrophysics, successfully launched on April 23, 2007. The AGILE Payload is composed of three instruments: a gamma-ray imager based on a tungsten-silicon tracker (ST), for observations in the gamma ray energy range 30 MeV–50 GeV, a Silicon based X-ray detector, SuperAGILE (SA), for imaging in the range 18–60 keV and a CsI(Tl) Mini-Calorimeter (MCAL) that detects gamma rays or charged particles energy loss in the range 300 keV–100 MeV. MCAL is composed of 30 CsI(Tl) scintillator bars with photodiode readout at both ends, arranged in two orthogonal layers. MCAL can work both as a slave of the ST and as an independent gamma-ray detector for transients and gamma-ray bursts detection. In this paper a detailed description of MCAL is presented together with its performance.
120972663
The Mini-Calorimeter on-board AGILE: The first year in space
AGILE, the Italian space mission dedicated to gamma-ray and hard-X astrophysics, was successfully launched on 23rd April 2007 and is currently fully operative. The Mini-Calorimeter (MCAL) on-board the AGILE satellite is a scintillation detector made of 20 kg of segmented CsI(Tl) scintillator with photodiode readout with a total geometrical area of 1400 cm2. MCAL can work both as a slave of the AGILE Silicon tracker and as an independent detector for gamma-ray bursts (GRB) detection in the 300 keV - 100 MeV energy range. Despite its limited thickness, due to weight constraints, MCAL has proven to successfully self-trigger GRBs at MeV energies providing photon-by-photon data with less than 2 μs time resolution and almost all-sky detection capabilities. The instrument design and characteristics, as well as the in-flight performance after one year of operation in space and the scientific results obtained so far are reviewed and discussed.
119196535
Evaluating the maximum likelihood method for detecting short-term variability of AGILE γ-ray sources
Context. The AGILE space mission (whose instrument is sensitive to the energy ranges 18–60 keV, and 30 MeV–50 GeV) has been operating since 2007. Assessing the statistical significance of the time variability of γ-ray sources above 100 MeV is a primary task of the AGILE data analysis. In particular, it is important to verify the instrument sensitivity in terms of Poisson modeling of the data background, and to determine the post-trial confidence of detections. Aims. The goals of this work are: (i) to evaluate the distributions of the likelihood ratio test for both “empty” fields and regions of the Galactic plane, and (ii) to calculate the probability of false detections over multiple time intervals. Methods. We describe in detail the techniques used to search for short-term variability in the AGILE γ-ray source database. We describe the binned maximum likelihood method used for the analysis of AGILE data, and the numerical simulations that support the characterization of the statistical analysis. We apply our method to both Galactic and extragalactic transients, and provide a few examples. Results. After checking the reliability of the statistical description tested with the real AGILE data, we obtain the distribution of p-values for blind and specific source searches. We apply our results to the determination of the post-trial statistical significance of detections of transient γ-ray sources in terms of pre-trial values. Conclusions. The results of our analysis allow a precise determination of the post-trial significance of γ-ray sources detected by AGILE.