123623965
Observations on muon multiplicity distribution with the GRAPES-2 experiment at Ooty for studies on the mass composition of cosmic rays at PeV energies
Precise knowledge of the mass composition of the primary cosmic ray flux below and above the knee in the primary energy spectrum at E∼3×10 15 eV is essential for understanding the acceleration and propagation of high energy cosmic rays. Simulations have shown that the correlations between the electron and muon components of showers are very sensitive to the mass of the primary nuclei. In particular, different regions of the muon multiplicity distribution observed with a large area muon detector, for well-defined selection on the electron component of showers, have a high sensitivity to different nuclear groups present in the primary flux. The GRAPES-2 experiment at Ooty seeks to exploit this sensitivity using a 200m 2 area muon detector to study the mass composition of the primary flux in the energy range 10 14 -10 16 eV. The details of the experiment are presented and early observations are discussed in relation to the expectations from simulations.
67815721
The angular resolution of the GRAPES-3 array from the shadows of the Moon and the Sun
Abstract The absence of a well established point source of very high energy ( ≳ 10 TeV ) γ-rays in the sky, makes the measurement of the angular resolution and the absolute pointing accuracy of an extensive air shower (EAS) array a challenging task. In the past, several groups have utilized the reduction in the isotropic flux of cosmic rays due to the shadows of the Moon and the Sun, to measure the angular resolution and the absolute pointing accuracy of their arrays. The data collected from the GRAPES-3 EAS array, over the period of 4 years from 2000 to 2003, has been used to observe the shadow of the Moon at a level of ∼ 5 σ and that of the Sun at a lower level of significance. The high density of the detectors in GRAPES-3 enabled an angular resolution of 0.7° to be obtained at energies as low as 30 TeV. The angular resolution studies were further extended by using two other techniques, namely, the even–odd and the left–right methods. All three techniques have yielded nearly identical results on the energy dependent angular resolution.
55926788
A large area muon tracking detector for ultra-high energy cosmic ray astrophysics — the GRAPES-3 experiment
Certain aspects of ultra-high energy (UHE) cosmic ray astrophysics require correlated studies on the electron and muon components of air showers, namely, the search for cosmic ray sources through g-ray astronomy and studies on the variation of the nuclear composition of primary cosmic rays with energy. While studies on the electron component provide basic information about the arrival direction and energy, it is the muon component that plays a crucial role in distinguishing primary g-rays from charged cosmic ray particles and in determining the composition. A large area (560m), tracking muon detector of the GRAPES-3 experiment, operating at Ooty in southern India, has been designed for detailed studies on both of these aspects of UHE cosmic ray astrophysics. We present here the details of the muon detector, associated electronics and the data acquisition system. A brief discussion of the potential of the muon detector is presented through simulation studies. r 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 98.70.Sa; 96.40.Pq; 96.40.De; 98.70.Rz; 95.55.Vj; 13.85.Tp
119032709
Emission of Radiation at Energies > 1014 eV: Binary X-Ray Sources SCO X-1, CYG X-1, HER X-1 and Others
121254838
Sporadic emission of ultra high energy gamma rays from Crab pulsar
In a further study of sporadic emission from pulsars we find evidence for short lived intense emission from the Crab pulsar.
55612742
Recent results from the GRAPES-3 experiment
The GRAPES-3 is a dense extensive air shower array operating with ~400 scintillator detectors and a 560 m 2 large tracking muon detector (E μ > 1 GeV), at Ooty in India. The muon detector has been used to observe acceleration of muons during thunderstorm conditions. The muon multiplicity distribution of the EAS is used to probe the composition of primary cosmic rays below 1 PeV, with an overlap with direct measurements. More recently we have explored the possibility of using the angular distribution of >1 GeV muons to identify the best from among several low- and high-energy hadronic interaction models. We have major expansion plans to enhance the sensitivity of the GRAPES-3 experiment in all of the areas listed above.
54647998
Lattice QCD with chemical potential: Evading the fermion-sign problem
Since the turn of the millennium there has been tremendous progress in understanding QCD at finite chemical potential, μ. Apart from qualitative results obtained using models, and exact results at very large μ obtained in weak coupling theory, there has been tremendous progress in getting exact and quantitative results from lattice simulations. I summarize the status of lattice QCD at finite chemical potential —locating the critical end-point in the QCD phase diagram, predicting event-to-event fluctuation rates of conserved quantities, and finding the rate of strangeness production.
123580970
Implication of the EMC-effect on high transverse momentum jets
We show that the extension of nuclear structure functions to the regionx>1 can give rise to an enhancement of high-pT jet cross sections in hadron nucleus collisions. Such extensions are expected in a class of models proposed to explain the EMC-effect. Since these models are completely parametrized by the deep inelastic scattering data, the jet cross section emerge as parameter free predictions.
118245922
Cygnus experiment at Los Alamos
The Cygnus experiment at Los Alamos National Laboratory has been designed to study, with high angular accuracy, point sources of gamma rays of energy above 1014 eV. The experimental detector consists of an air shower array to observe gamma-ray showers and a shielded, large-area track detector to study the muon content of the showers. In this paper we present preliminary data from the array and describe its performance.
2063566
Phenomenology of Two-Texture Zero Neutrino Mass Matrices
The generic predictions of two-texture zero neutrino mass matrices in the flavor basis have been examined especially in relation to the degeneracies between mass matrices within a class and interesting constraints on the neutrino parameters have been obtained. It is shown that the knowledge of the octant of ${\ensuremath{\theta}}_{23}$, the sign of $\mathrm{cos}﻿\ensuremath{\delta}$, and neutrino mass hierarchy can be used to lift these degeneracies.
119531408
The thermodynamic model for nuclear multifragmentation
Abstract A great many observables seen in intermediate energy heavy ion collisions can be explained on the basis of statistical equilibrium. Calculations based on statistical equilibrium can be implemented in microcanonical ensemble (energy and number of particles in the system are kept fixed), canonical ensemble (temperature and number of particles are kept fixed) or grand canonical ensemble (fixed temperature and a variable number of particles but with an assigned average). This paper deals with calculations with canonical ensembles. A recursive relation developed recently allows calculations with arbitrary precision for many nuclear problems. Calculations are done to study the nature of phase transition in intermediate energy heavy ion collision, to study the caloric curves for nuclei and to explore the possibility of negative specific heat because of the finiteness of nuclear systems. The model can also be used for detailed calculations of other observables not connected with phase transitions, such as populations of selected isotopes in a heavy ion collision. The model also serves a pedagogical purpose. For the problems at hand, both the canonical and grand canonical solutions are obtainable with arbitrary accuracy hence we can compare the values of observables obtained from the canonical calculations with those from the grand canonical. Sometimes, very interesting discrepancies are found. To illustrate the predictive power of the model, calculated observables are compared with data from the central collisions of Sn isotopes.