Abstract: The Pierre Auger Observatory in Malargue, Argentina, is designed to study the properties of ultra-high energy cosmic rays with energies above 10(18) eV. It is a hybrid facility that employs a Fluorescence Detector to perform nearly calorimetric measurements of Extensive Air Shower energies. To obtain reliable calorimetric information from the FD, the atmospheric conditions at the observatory need to be continuously monitored during data acquisition. In particular, light attenuation due to aerosols is an important atmospheric correction. The aerosol concentration is highly variable, so that the aerosol attenuation needs to be evaluated hourly. We use light from the Central Laser Facility, located near the center of the observatory site, having an optical signature comparable to that of the highest energy showers detected by the FD. This paper presents two procedures developed to retrieve the aerosol attenuation of fluorescence light from CLF laser shots. Cross checks between the two methods demonstrate that results from both analyses are compatible, and that the uncertainties are well understood. The measurements of the aerosol attenuation provided by the two procedures are currently used at the Pierre Auger Observatory to reconstruct air shower data.

Abstract: The use of C-Band structures for electron acceleration and production of high quality beams has been proposed and adopted in several linac projects all over the world. The two main projects that adopted such type of structures are the Japanese Free Electron Laser (FEL) project in Spring-8 and the SwissFEL project at Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). Also the energy upgrade of the SPARC photo-injector at LNF-INFN (Italy) from 150 to more than 240 MeV will be done by replacing a low gradient S-Band accelerating structure with two C-band structures. The structures are Traveling Wave (TW) and Constant Impedance (CI), have symmetric axial input couplers and have been optimized to work with a SLED RF input pulse. The paper presents the design criteria of the structures, the realization procedure and the low and high power RF test results on a prototype. The high power tests have been carried out by the Frascati INFN Laboratories in close collaboration with the Japanese Laboratory KEK. Experimental results confirmed the feasibility of the operation of the prototype at 50 MV/m with about 10(6) breakdowns per pulse per meter. Such high gradients have not been reached before in C-Band systems and demonstrated the possibility to use C-band accelerators, if needed, at such high field level. The results of the internal inspection of the structure after the high power test are also presented.

Abstract: NEXT-100 experiment aims at searching the neutrinoless double-beta decay of the Xe-136 isotope using a TPC filled with a 100 kg of high-pressure gaseous xenon, with 90% isotopic enrichment. The experiment will take place at the Laboratorio Subterraneo de Canfranc (LSC), Spain. NEXT-100 uses electroluminescence (EL) technology for energy measurement with a resolution better than 1% FWHM. The gaseous xenon in the TPC additionally allows the tracks of the two beta particles to be recorded, which are expected to have a length of up to 30 cm at 10 bar pressure. The ability to record the topological signature of the beta beta 0 nu events provides a powerful background rejection factor for the beta beta experiment. In this paper, we present a novel 3D imaging concept using SiPMs coated with tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB) for the EL read out and its first implementation in NEXT-DEMO, a large-scale prototype of the NEXT-100 experiment. The design and the first characterization measurements of the NEXT-DEMO SiPM tracking system are presented. The SiPM response uniformity over the tracking plane drawn from its gain map is shown to be better than 4%. An automated active control system for the stabilization of the SiPMs gain was developed, based on the voltage supply compensation of the gain drifts. The gain is shown to be stabilized within 0.2% relative variation around its nominal value, provided by Hamamatsu, in a temperature range of 10 degrees C. The noise level from the electronics and the SiPM dark noise is shown to lay typically below the level of 10 photoelectrons (pe) in the ADC. Hence, a detection threshold at 10 pe is set for the acquisition of the tracking signals. The ADC full dynamic range (4096 channels) is shown to be adequate for signal levels of up to 200 pe/mu s, which enables recording most of the tracking signals.