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HAWC Collaboration(Albert, A. et al), & Salesa Greus, F. (2021). Evidence of 200 TeV Photons from HAWC J1825-134. Astrophys. J. Lett., 907(2), L30–9pp.
Abstract: The Earth is bombarded by ultrarelativistic particles, known as cosmic rays (CRs). CRs with energies up to a few PeV (=10(15) eV), the knee in the particle spectrum, are believed to have a Galactic origin. One or more factories of PeV CRs, or PeVatrons, must thus be active within our Galaxy. The direct detection of PeV protons from their sources is not possible since they are deflected in the Galactic magnetic fields. Hundred TeV gamma-rays from decaying pi(0), produced when PeV CRs collide with the ambient gas, can provide the decisive evidence of proton acceleration up to the knee. Here we report the discovery by the High Altitude Water Cerenkov (HAWC) observatory of the gamma-ray source, HAWC J1825-134, whose energy spectrum extends well beyond 200 TeV without a break or cutoff. The source is found to be coincident with a giant molecular cloud. The ambient gas density is as high as 700 protons cm(-3). While the nature of this extreme accelerator remains unclear, CRs accelerated to energies of several PeV colliding with the ambient gas likely produce the observed radiation.
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HAWC Collaboration(Albert, A. et al), & Salesa Greus, F. (2021). A Survey of Active Galaxies at TeV Photon Energies with the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory. Astrophys. J., 907(2), 67–18pp.
Abstract: The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-Ray Observatory continuously detects TeV photons and particles within its large field of view, accumulating every day a deeper exposure of two-thirds of the sky. We analyzed 1523 days of HAWC live data acquired over four and a half years, in a follow-up analysis of 138 nearby (z < 0.3) active galactic nuclei from the Third Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT sources culminating within 40 degrees of the zenith at Sierra Negra, the HAWC site. This search for persistent TeV emission used a maximum-likelihood analysis assuming intrinsic power-law spectra attenuated by pair production of gamma-ray photons with the extragalactic background light. HAWC clearly detects persistent emission from Mkn 421 and Mkn 501, the two brightest blazars in the TeV sky, at 65 sigma and 17 sigma level, respectively. Marginal evidence, just above the 3 sigma level, was found for three other known very high-energy emitters: the radio galaxy M87 and the BL Lac objects VER J0521+211 and 1ES 1215+303, the latter two at z similar to 0.1. We find a 4.2 sigma evidence for collective emission from the set of 30 previously reported very high-energy sources, with Mkn 421 and Mkn 501 excluded. Upper limits are presented for the sample under the power-law assumption and in the predefined (0.5-2.0), (2.0-8.0), and (8.0-32.0) TeV energy intervals.
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Guadilla, V., Algora, A., Estienne, M., Fallot, M., Gelletly, W., Porta, A., et al. (2024). First measurements with a new fl-electron detector for spectral shape studies. J. Instrum., 19(2), P02027–21pp.
Abstract: The shape of the electron spectrum emitted in /3 decay carries a wealth of information about nuclear structure and fundamental physics. In spite of that, few dedicated measurements have been made of /3 -spectrum shapes. In this work we present a newly developed detector for /3 electrons based on a telescope concept. A thick plastic scintillator is employed in coincidence with a thin silicon detector. The first measurements employing this detector have been carried out with mono -energetic electrons from the high-energy resolution electron -beam spectrometer at Bordeaux. Here we report on the good reproduction of the experimental spectra of mono -energetic electrons using Monte Carlo simulations. This is a crucial step for future experiments, where a detailed Monte Carlo characterization of the detector is needed to determine the shape of the /3 -electron spectra by deconvolution of the measured spectra with the response function of the detector. A chamber to contain two telescope assemblies has been designed for future /3 -decay experiments at the Ion Guide Isotope Separator On -Line facility in Jyvaskyla, aimed at improving our understanding of reactor antineutrino spectra.
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CALICE Collaboration(White, A. et al), & Irles, A. (2023). Design, construction and commissioning of a technological prototype of a highly granular SiPM-on-tile scintillator-steel hadronic calorimeter. J. Instrum., 18(11), P11018–39pp.
Abstract: The CALICE collaboration is developing highly granular electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters for detectors at future energy frontier electron-positron colliders. After successful tests of a physics prototype, a technological prototype of the Analog Hadron Calorimeter has been built, based on a design and construction techniques scalable to a collider detector. The prototype consists of a steel absorber structure and active layers of small scintillator tiles that are individually read out by directly coupled SiPMs. Each layer has an active area of 72 x 72 cm2 and a tile size of 3 x 3 cm2. With 38 active layers, the prototype has nearly 22, 000 readout channels, and its total thickness amounts to 4.4 nuclear interaction lengths. The dedicated readout electronics provide time stamping of each hit with an expected resolution of about 1 ns. The prototype was constructed in 2017 and commissioned in beam tests at DESY. It recorded muons, hadron showers and electron showers at different energies in test beams at CERN in 2018. In this paper, the design of the prototype, its construction and commissioning are described. The methods used to calibrate the detector are detailed, and the performance achieved in terms of uniformity and stability is presented.
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Jeong, K. S., & Park, W. I. (2023). Cosmology with a supersymmetric local B – L model. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 11(11), 016–34pp.
Abstract: We propose a minimal gauged U(1)(B-L) extension of the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) which resolves the cosmological moduli problem via thermal inflation, and realizes late-time Affleck-Dine leptogensis so as to generate the right amount of baryon asymmetry at the end of thermal inflation. The present relic density of dark matter can be explained by sneutrinos, MSSM neutralinos, axinos, or axions. Cosmic strings from U(1)(B-L) breaking are very thick, and so the expected stochastic gravitational wave background from cosmic string loops has a spectrum different from the one in the conventional Abelian-Higgs model, as would be distinguishable at least at LISA and DECIGO. The characteristic spectrum is due to a flat potential, and may be regarded as a hint of supersymmetry. Combined with the resolution of moduli problem, the expected signal of gravitational waves constrains the U(1)(B-L) breaking scale to be O(10(12-13)) GeV. Interestingly, our model provides a natural possibility for explaining the observed ultra-high-energy cosmic rays thanks to the fact that the core width of strings in our scenario is very large, allowing a large enhancement of particle emissions from the cusps of string loops. Condensation of LHu flat-direction inside of string cores arises inevitably and can also be the main source of the ultra-high-energy cosmic rays accompanied by ultra-high-energy lightest supersymmetric particles.
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