109075983
Development of a new first level trigger for the surface array in the Pierre Auger Observatory based on the CycloneTM Altera® FPGA
Abstract The development of a new first level trigger for the surface array in the Pierre Auger Observatory is described. It utilizes the new Altera ® family Cyclone TM which is available since March 2003. Different from previous and the currently used design based on the APEX TM and ACEX ® families, respectively, it offers much higher capacity of logic registers and memories, a simplified board design, lower power consumption, and lower cost. The paper describes the board design, internal structures of the programming routines, various trigger implementations and test results obtained in the laboratory.
40898720
A fast embedded system for radio detection of cosmic rays
For the detection of radio signals from ultra high energy (> 1017 eV) cosmic rays in the frequency range up to 80 MHz an embedded system was designed, built, and tested. A steep band-pass filter in the range of 30 to 80 MHz suppresses the main source of radio frequency interferences. To fulfill the data acquisition (DAQ) task, four 180 MHz twelve bit ADCs have to be read-out by a FPGA into a two gigabyte buffer memory. Furthermore the FPGA contains the trigger and a Altera NIOS II soft-core processor for data management. A GPS receiver controls the timing of the system. For the read-out an Ethernet-link and a CAN interface to a WLAN communication board is foreseen. The architecture of the system and the measured performance of the DAQ-board are described.
123338629
IceCube: A Multipurpose Neutrino Telescope
IceCube is a new high-energy neutrino telescope which will be coming online in the near future. IceCube will be capable of measuring fluxes of all three flavors of neutrino, and its peak neutrino energy sensitivity will be in the TeV–PeV range. Here, after a brief description of the detector, we describe its anticipated performance with a selection of physics topics: supernovae, extraterrestrial diffuse and point sources of neutrinos, gamma-ray bursts, neutrinos from WIMP annihilation, and cosmic ray composition.
210155517
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory VI: Neutrino Oscillations, Supernova Searches, Ice Properties
IceCube DeepCore can study atmospheric neutrino oscillations through a combination of its low energy reach, as low as about 10 GeV, and its unprecedented statistical sample, of about 150,000 triggered atmospheric muon neutrinos per year. With the diameter of the earth as a baseline, the muon neutrino disappearance minimum and tau neutrino appearance maximum are expected at about 25 GeV, which is considerably lower energy than typical IceCube neutrino events, but higher than the energies at which accelerator-based experiments have detected oscillations. νμ disappearance and ντ appearance from neutrino oscillation can be measured in IceCube DeepCore. We present here the status of the newly developed low energy reconstruction algorithms, the expected experimental signatures, and the proposed approach for such neutrino oscillation measurements. Corresponding authors: Sebastian Euler (seuler@icecube.wisc.edu), Laura Gladstone(gladstone@icecube.wisc.edu), Jason Koskinen(koskinen@psu.edu), Donglian Xu(dxu@crimson.ua.edu) III. Physikalisches Institut, RWTH Aachen University, D-52056 Aachen, Germany Dept. of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA Dept. of Physics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA
2219103
AMANDA - first running experiment to use GRID in production
The Grid technologies are in ongoing development. Using current Grid toolkits like the Globus toolkit gives one the possibility to build up virtual organizations. Although these tookits are in still under development and do not feature all functionality, they can already now be used to set up an efficient computing environment for physics collaborations with only moderate work. We discuss in this paper the use of such a computing structure in two running experiments - the AMANDA (AMANDA = Antarctic muon and neutrino detector array) neutrino telescope and the D0 experiment at Tevatron, Fermilab. One of the main features of our approach is to avoid reprogramming of the existing software which is based on several programming languages (FORTRAN, C/C++, JAVA). This was realized with software layers around the collaboration software taking care about in- and output, user notification, tracking of running jobs, etc. A further important aspect is the resolution of library dependencies, which occur when a user runs self-compiled jobs on machines, where these libraries are not installed. These dependencies are also resolved with this layers.
120215184
A search for gamma radiation above 24 TeV energy from cosmic point sources
Abstract The HEGRA collaboration has searched for γ-ray emission from 36 potential cosmic point sources with the wide angle air Cerenkov detector AIROBICC which is part of the HEGRA cosmic ray detector complex on La Palma. AIROBICC has a γ-ray energy threshold of around 24 TeV and a mean angular resolution of 0.29 °. None of the sources could be found. Upper limits to their fluxes are given. For the VHE γ-ray emitters, the Crab nebula and Mrk 421, these flux limits are below those extrapolated from lower energy observations. Our lower limit for Mrk 421 might be interpreted either as being due to an energy cut-off in the acceleration mechanism or to the onset of γ-interaction with photons of the universal infrared background.
15709187
M theory on eight manifolds
Abstract We show that in certain compactifications of M -theory on eight-manifolds to three-dimensional Minkowski space-time the four-form field strength can have a non-vanishing expectation value, while an N = 2 supersymmetry is preserved. For these compactifications a warp factor for the metric has to be taken into account. This warp factor is non-trivial in three space-time dimensions due to Chern-Simons corrections to the fivebrane Bianchi identity. While the original metric on the internal space is not Kahler, it can be conformally transformed to a metric that is Kahler and Ricci flat, so that the internal manifold has SU (4) holonomy.
15117408
Moduli Stabilization in Non-Geometric Backgrounds
Abstract Type II orientifolds based on Landau–Ginzburg models are used to describe moduli stabilization for flux compactifications of type II theories from the world-sheet CFT point of view. We show that for certain types of type IIB orientifolds which have no Kahler moduli and are therefore intrinsically non-geometric, all moduli can be explicitly stabilized in terms of fluxes. The resulting four-dimensional theories can describe Minkowski as well as anti-de Sitter vacua. This construction provides the first string vacuum with all moduli frozen and leading to a 4D Minkowski background.
15761880
Heterotic flux compactifications and their moduli
We study supersymmetric compactification to four dimensions with non-zero H-flux in heterotic string theory. The background metric is generically conformally balanced and can be conformally Kahler if the primitive part of the H-flux vanishes. Analyzing the linearized variational equations, we write down necessary conditions for the existence of moduli associated with the metric. In a heterotic model that is dual to a IIB compactification on an orientifold, we find the metric moduli in a fixed H-flux background via duality and check that they satisfy the required conditions. We also discuss expressing the conditions for moduli in a fixed flux background using twisted differential operators.
5530207
Torsional Heterotic Geometries
Abstract We construct new examples of torsional heterotic backgrounds using duality with orientifold flux compactifications. We explain how duality provides a perturbative solution to the type I/heterotic string Bianchi identity. The choice of connection used in the Bianchi identity plays an important role in the construction. We propose the existence of a much larger landscape of compact torsional geometries using string duality. Finally, we present some quantum exact metrics that correspond to NS5-branes placed on an elliptic space. These metrics describe how torus isometries are broken by NS flux.
118125996
Moduli Stabilization and String Geometry
I describe recent progress in using conformal field theory techniques to describe the stabilization of moduli fields arising in compactifications of type IIB string theory to four dimensions.