ANTARES Collaboration(Adrian-Martinez, S. et al), Aguilar, J. A., Bigongiari, C., Dornic, D., Emanuele, U., Gomez-Gonzalez, J. P., et al. (2012). The positioning system of the ANTARES Neutrino Telescope. J. Instrum., 7, T08002–20pp.
Abstract: The ANTARES neutrino telescope, located 40km off the coast of Toulon in the Mediterranean Sea at a mooring depth of about 2475m, consists of twelve detection lines equipped typically with 25 storeys. Every storey carries three optical modules that detect Cherenkov light induced by charged secondary particles (typically muons) coming from neutrino interactions. As these lines are flexible structures fixed to the sea bed and held taut by a buoy, sea currents cause the lines to move and the storeys to rotate. The knowledge of the position of the optical modules with a precision better than 10cm is essential for a good reconstruction of particle tracks. In this paper the ANTARES positioning system is described. It consists of an acoustic positioning system, for distance triangulation, and a compass-tiltmeter system, for the measurement of the orientation and inclination of the storeys. Necessary corrections are discussed and the results of the detector alignment procedure are described.
Keywords: Timing detectors; Detector modelling and simulations II (electric fields, charge transport, multiplication and induction, pulse formation, electron emission, etc); Detector alignment and calibration methods (lasers, sources, particle-beams); Detector control systems (detector and experiment monitoring and slow-control systems, architecture, hardware, algorithms, databases)
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Garcia, A. R., Martinez, T., Cano-Ott, D., Castilla, J., Guerrero, C., Marin, J., et al. (2012). MONSTER: a time of flight spectrometer for beta-delayed neutron emission measurements. J. Instrum., 7, C05012–12pp.
Abstract: The knowledge of the beta-decay properties of nuclei contributes decisively to our understanding of nuclear phenomena: the beta-delayed neutron emission of neutron rich nuclei plays an important role in the nucleosynthesis r-process and constitutes a probe for nuclear structure of very neutron rich nuclei providing information about the high energy part of the full beta strength (S-beta) function. In addition, beta-delayed neutrons are essential for the control and safety of nuclear reactors. In order to determine the neutron energy spectra and emission probabilities from neutron precursors a MOdular Neutron time-of-flight SpectromeTER (MONSTER) has been proposed for the DESPEC experiment at the future FAIR facility. The design of MONSTER and status of its construction are reported in this work.
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ANTARES Collaboration(Bhandari, S. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Coleiro, A., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Illuminati, G., Tönnis, C., et al. (2018). The SUrvey for Pulsars and Extragalactic Radio Bursts – II. New FRB discoveries and their follow-up. Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 475(2), 1427–1446.
Abstract: We report the discovery of four Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) in the ongoing SUrvey for Pulsars and Extragalactic Radio Bursts at the Parkes Radio Telescope: FRBs 150610, 151206, 151230 and 160102. Our real-time discoveries have enabled us to conduct extensive, rapid multimessenger follow-up at 12 major facilities sensitive to radio, optical, X-ray, gamma-ray photons and neutrinos on time-scales ranging from an hour to a few months post-burst. No counterparts to the FRBs were found and we provide upper limits on afterglow luminosities. None of the FRBs were seen to repeat. Formal fits to all FRBs show hints of scattering while their intrinsic widths are unresolved in time. FRB 151206 is at low Galactic latitude, FRB 151230 shows a sharp spectral cut-off, and FRB 160102 has the highest dispersion measure (DM = 2596.1 +/- 0.3 pc cm(-3)) detected to date. Three of the FRBs have high dispersion measures (DM > 1500 pc cm(-3)), favouring a scenario where the DMis dominated by contributions from the intergalactic medium. The slope of the Parkes FRB source counts distribution with fluences > 2 Jy ms is alpha = – 2.2(-1.2)(+0.6) and still consistent with a Euclidean distribution (alpha = -3/2). We also find that the all-sky rate is 1.7(-0.9)(+1.5) x 10(3)FRBs/(4 pi sr)/day above similar to 2 Jy ms and there is currently no strong evidence for a latitude- dependent FRB sky rate.
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Ortega, P. G., Torres-Espallardo, I., Cerutti, F., Ferrari, A., Gillam, J. E., Lacasta, C., et al. (2015). Noise evaluation of Compton camera imaging for proton therapy. Phys. Med. Biol., 60(5), 1845–1863.
Abstract: Compton Cameras emerged as an alternative for real-time dose monitoring techniques for Particle Therapy (PT), based on the detection of prompt-gammas. As a consequence of the Compton scattering process, the gamma origin point can be restricted onto the surface of a cone (Compton cone). Through image reconstruction techniques, the distribution of the gamma emitters can be estimated, using cone-surfaces backprojections of the Compton cones through the image space, along with more sophisticated statistical methods to improve the image quality. To calculate the Compton cone required for image reconstruction, either two interactions, the last being photoelectric absorption, or three scatter interactions are needed. Because of the high energy of the photons in PT the first option might not be adequate, as the photon is not absorbed in general. However, the second option is less efficient. That is the reason to resort to spectral reconstructions, where the incoming. energy is considered as a variable in the reconstruction inverse problem. Jointly with prompt gamma, secondary neutrons and scattered photons, not strongly correlated with the dose map, can also reach the imaging detector and produce false events. These events deteriorate the image quality. Also, high intensity beams can produce particle accumulation in the camera, which lead to an increase of random coincidences, meaning events which gather measurements from different incoming particles. The noise scenario is expected to be different if double or triple events are used, and consequently, the reconstructed images can be affected differently by spurious data. The aim of the present work is to study the effect of false events in the reconstructed image, evaluating their impact in the determination of the beam particle ranges. A simulation study that includes misidentified events (neutrons and random coincidences) in the final image of a Compton Telescope for PT monitoring is presented. The complete chain of detection, from the beam particle entering a phantom to the event classification, is simulated using FLUKA. The range determination is later estimated from the reconstructed image obtained from a two and three-event algorithm based on Maximum Likelihood Expectation Maximization. The neutron background and random coincidences due to a therapeutic-like time structure are analyzed for mono-energetic proton beams. The time structure of the beam is included in the simulations, which will affect the rate of particles entering the detector.
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ANTARES and HESS Collaborations(Petroff, E. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Illuminati, G., Lotze, M., Tönnis, C., et al. (2017). A polarized fast radio burst at low Galactic latitude. Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 469(4), 4465–4482.
Abstract: We report on the discovery of a new fast radio burst (FRB), FRB 150215, with the Parkes radio telescope on 2015 February 15. The burst was detected in real time with a dispersion measure (DM) of 1105.6 +/- 0.8 pc cm(-3), a pulse duration of 2.8(-0.5)(+1.2) ms, and a measured peak flux density assuming that the burst was at beam centre of 0.7(-0.1)(+0.2) Jy. The FRB originated at a Galactic longitude and latitude of 24.66 degrees, 5.28 degrees and 25 degrees away from the Galactic Center. The burst was found to be 43 +/- 5 per cent linearly polarized with a rotation measure (RM) in the range -9 < RM < 12 rad m(-2) (95 per cent confidence level), consistent with zero. The burst was followed up with 11 telescopes to search for radio, optical, X-ray, gamma-ray and neutrino emission. Neither transient nor variable emission was found to be associated with the burst and no repeat pulses have been observed in 17.25 h of observing. The sightline to the burst is close to the Galactic plane and the observed physical properties of FRB 150215 demonstrate the existence of sight lines of anomalously low RM for a given electron column density. The Galactic RM foreground may approach a null value due to magnetic field reversals along the line of sight, a decreased total electron column density from the Milky Way, or some combination of these effects. A lower Galactic DM contribution might explain why this burst was detectable whereas previous searches at low latitude have had lower detection rates than those out of the plane.
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