arXiv subjects

G. Di Sciascio

Publications and source records attributed to G. Di Sciascio.

69 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2009

Gamma-Ray Flares from Mrk421 in 2008 observed with the ARGO-YBJ experiment

In 2008, the blazar Mrk421 entered in a very active phase and was one of the brightest sources in the sky at TeV energies, showing strong and frequent flaring. We searched for gamma-ray emission at energies E > 0.8 TeV during the whole 2008 with the ARGO-YBJ experiment, a full coverage air shower detector located at Yangbajing (4300 m a.s.l., Tibet, P.R. China). The observed signal is not constant and in correlation with X-ray measurements. The average emission, during the active period of the source, was about twice the Crab Nebula level, with an integral flux of (4.9$\pm 2.0$)x 10$^{-11}$ photons cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ for E$_γ$ >1 TeV. This paper concentrates on 2008 June when the Mrk421 flaring activity has been studied from optical to 100 MeV gamma rays, and only partially up to TeV energies, since the moonlight hampered the Cherenkov telescope observations after 8 June. Our data complete these observations, with the detection of a second flare of intensity of about 7 Crab units on June 11-13, with a statistical significance of 4.2 standard deviations. The observed flux is consistent with a prediction made in the framework of the Synchrotron Self-Compton model, in which the flare is caused by a rapid acceleration of leptons in the jet.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2009

Measurement of the antiproton/proton ratio at few-TeV energies with the ARGO-YBJ experiment

Cosmic ray antiprotons provide an important probe for the study of cosmic-ray propagation in the interstellar space and to investigate the existence of Galactic dark matter. Cosmic rays are hampered by the Moon, therefore a deficit of cosmic rays in its direction is expected (the so-called "Moon shadow"). The Earth-Moon system acts as a magnetic spectrometer. In fact, due to the geomagnetic field the center of the Moon shifts westward by an amount depending on the primary cosmic ray energy. Paths of primary antiprotons are therefore deflected in an opposite sense in their way to the Earth. This effect allows, in principle, the search of antiparticles in the opposite direction of the observed Moon shadow. The ARGO-YBJ experiment, in stable data taking since November 2007 with an energy threshold of a few hundreds of GeV, is observing the Moon shadow with high statistical significance. Using about 1 year data, an upper limit of the antip/p flux ratio in the few-TeV energy region is set to a few percent with a confidence level of 90%.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2009

Simulation of the Cosmic Ray Moon Shadow in the Geomagnetic field

An accurate MonteCarlo simulation of the deficit of primary cosmic rays in the direction of the Moon has been developed to interpret the observations reported in the TeV energy region until now. Primary particles are propagated trough the geomagnetic field in the Earth-Moon system. The algorithm is described and the contributions of the detector resolution and of the geomagnetic field are disentangled.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2009

Evolution of the cosmic ray anisotropy above 10^{14} eV

The amplitude and phase of the cosmic ray anisotropy are well established experimentally between 10^{11} eV and 10^{14} eV. The study of their evolution into the energy region 10^{14}-10^{16} eV can provide a significant tool for the understanding of the steepening ("knee") of the primary spectrum. In this letter we extend the EAS-TOP measurement performed at E_0 around 10^{14} eV, to higher energies by using the full data set (8 years of data taking). Results derived at about 10^{14} and 4x10^{14} eV are compared and discussed. Hints of increasing amplitude and change of phase above 10^{14} eV are reported. The significance of the observation for the understanding of cosmic ray propagation is discussed.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2008

Physics Results from the Argo-YBJ Experiment

The ARGO-YBJ experiment has been in stable data taking since November 2007 at the YangBaJing Cosmic Ray Laboratory (Tibet, P.R. China, 4300 m a.s.l.). In this paper we report a few selected results in Gamma-Ray Astronomy (Crab Nebula and Mrk421 observations, search for high energy tails of GRBs) and Cosmic Ray Physics (Moon and Sun shadow observations, proton-air cross section and antiproton/proton preliminary measurements).

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Gamma-Ray Astronomy around 100 TeV with a large Muon Detector operated at Very High Altitude

Measurements at 100 TeV and above are an important goal for the next generation of high energy gamma-ray astronomy experiments to solve the still open problem of the origin of galactic cosmic rays. The most natural experimental solution to detect very low radiation fluxes is provided by the Extensive Air Shower (EAS) arrays. They benefit from a close to 90% duty cycle and a very large field of view (about 2 sr), but the sensitivity is limited by their angular resolution and their poor cosmic ray background discrimination. Above 10 TeV the standard technique for rejecting the hadronic background consists in looking for "muon-poor" showers. In this paper we discuss the capability of a large muon detector (A=2500 m2) operated with an EAS array at very high altitude (>4000 m a.s.l.) to detect gamma-ray fluxes around 100 TeV. Simulation-based estimates of energy ranges and sensitivities are presented.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Measurement of the angular resolution of the ARGO-YBJ detector

The ARGO-YBJ experiment is a full coverage EAS-array installed at the YangBaJing Cosmic Ray Laboratory (4300 m a.s.l., Tibet, P.R. China). We present the results on the angular resolution measured with different methods with the full central carpet. The comparison of experimental results with MC simulations is discussed.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Selection of Surviving Primary Protons at 4300 m a.s.l. with the ARGO-YBJ experiment

The primary proton spectrum up to 100 TeV has been investigated by balloon- and satellite-borne instruments. Above this energy range only ground-based air shower arrays can measure the cosmic ray spectrum with a technique moderately sensitive to nuclear composition. An array which exploits the full coverage approach at very high altitude can achieve an energy threshold well below the TeV region, thus allowing, in principle, the inter-calibration of the measured proton content in the primary cosmic ray flux with the existing direct measurements from balloons/satellites. The capability of the ARGO-YBJ experiment, located at the YangBaJing Cosmic Ray Laboratory (4300 m a.s.l., Tibet, P.R. China), in selecting the surviving primary cosmic ray protons is discussed. A procedure looking for quasi-unaccompanied events with a very steep lateral distribution is also presented.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

GRBs search results with the ARGO-YBJ experiment operated in Scaler Mode

The ARGO-YBJ experiment is almost completely installed at the YangBaJing Cosmic Ray Laboratory (4300 m a.s.l., Tibet, P.R. China). The lower energy limit of the detector (E $\sim$ 1 GeV) is reached with the scaler mode, i.e., recording the single particle rate at fixed time intervals. In this technique, due to its high altitude location and large area ($\sim$ 6700 m$^2$), this experiment is the most sensitive among all present and past ground-based detectors. In the energy range under investigation, signals due to local (e.g. solar GLEs) and cosmological (e.g. GRBs) phenomena are expected as significant enhancements of the counting rate over the background. Results on the search for GRBs in coincidence with satellite detections are presented.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2005

Can gamma-ray bursts constrain quintessence?

Using the narrow clustering of the geometrically corrected gamma-ray energies released by gamma-ray bursts, we investigate the possibility of using these sources as standard candles to probe cosmological parameters such as the matter density Omega_m and the cosmological constant energy density Omega_Lambda. By simulating different samples of gamma-ray bursts, we find that Omega_m can be determined with accuracy ~7% with data from 300 sources. We also show that, if Omega = 1 is due to a quintessence field, some of the models proposed in the literature may be discriminated from a Universe with cosmological constant, by a similar-sized sample of gamma-ray bursts.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

The ARGO-YBJ sensitivity to GRBs

ARGO-YBJ is a "full coverage" air shower detector under construction at the YangBaJing Laboratory (4300 m a.s.l., Tibet, P.R. of China). Its main goals are gamma-ray astronomy and cosmic ray studies. In this paper we present the capabilities of ARGO-YBJ in detecting the emission from Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) at energies E>10 GeV.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

Probing cosmological parameters with GRBs

In light of the recent finding of the narrow clustering of the geometrically-corrected gamma-ray energies emitted by Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs), we investigate the possibility to use these sources as standard candles to probe cosmological parameters such as the matter density Omega_m and the cosmological constant energy density Omega_Lambda. By simulating different samples of gamma-ray bursts, based on recent observational results, we find that Omega_m (with the prior Omega_m + Omega_Lambda = 1) can be determined with accuracy ~7% with data from 300 GRBs, provided a local calibration of the standard candles be achieved.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2003

Identification of Showers with Cores Outside the ARGO-YBJ Detector

In any EAS array, the rejection of events with shower cores outside the detector boundaries is of great importance. A large difference between the true and the reconstructed shower core positions may lead to a systematic miscalculation of some shower characteristics. Moreover, an accurate determination of the shower core position for selected internal events is important to reconstruct the primary direction using conical fits to the shower front, improving the detector angular resolution, or to performe an efficient gamma/hadron discrimination. In this paper we present a procedure able to identify and reject showers with cores outside the ARGO-YBJ carpet boundaries. A comparison of the results for gamma and proton induced showers is reported.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2003

Sensitivity of the ARGO-YBJ strip size spectrum to different models of the primary cosmic ray composition in the energy range 10 - 500 TeV

The ARGO-YBJ experiment is currently under construction at the Yangbajing Cosmic Ray Laboratory (4300 m a.s.l.). The detector will cover 74 X 78 m^2 with a single layer of Resistive Plate Counters (RPCs), surrounded by a partially instrumented guard ring. Signals from each RPC are picked-up with 80 read out strips 6 cm wide and 62 cm long. These strips allow one to count the particle number of small size air showers. In this paper we discuss the digital response of the detector for showers with core located in a small fiducial area inside the carpet. The results enable us to assess the sensitivity of the strip size spectrum measurement to discriminate between different models of the Primary Cosmic Ray composition in the energy range 10 - 500 TeV.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2000

Study of RPC gas mixtures for the ARGO-YBJ experiment

The ARGO-YBJ experiment consists of a RPC carpet to be operated at the Yangbajing laboratory (Tibet, P.R. China), 4300 m a.s.l., and devoted to the detection of showers initiated by photon primaries in the energy range 100 GeV - 20 TeV. The measurement technique, namely the timing on the shower front with a few tens of particles, requires RPC operation with 1 ns time resolution, low strip multiplicity, high efficiency and low single counting rate. We have tested RPCs with many gas mixtures, at sea level, in order to optimize these parameters. The results of this study are reported.

hep-ex↗