arXiv subjects

M. Delfino

Publications and source records attributed to M. Delfino.

78 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Limits on the flux of tau neutrinos from 1 PeV to 3 EeV with the MAGIC telescopes

A search for tau neutrino induced showers with the MAGIC telescopes is presented. The MAGIC telescopes located at an altitude of 2200 m a.s.l. in the Canary Island of La Palma, can point towards the horizon or a few degrees below across an azimuthal range of about 80 degrees. This provides a possibility to search for air showers induced by tau leptons arising from interactions of tau neutrinos in the Earth crust or the surrounding ocean. In this paper we show how such air showers can be discriminated from the background of very inclined hadronic showers by using Monte Carlo simulations. Taking into account the orography of the site, the point source acceptance and the event rates expected have been calculated for a sample of generic neutrino fluxes from photo-hadronic interactions in AGNs. The analysis of about 30 hours of data taken towards the sealeads to a 90\% C.L. point source limit for tau neutrinos in the energy range from $1.0 \times 10^{15}$ eV to $3.0 \times 10^{18}$ eV of about $E_{ν_τ}^{2}\times ϕ(E_{ν_τ}) < 2.0 \times 10^{-4}$ GeV cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ for an assumed power-law neutrino spectrum with spectral index $γ$=-2. However, with 300 hours and in case of an optimistic neutrino flare model, limits of the level down to $E_{ν_τ}^{2}\times ϕ(E_{ν_τ}) < 8.4 \times 10^{-6}$ GeV cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ can be expected.

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arXiv2018

Indirect dark matter searches in the dwarf satellite galaxy Ursa Major II with the MAGIC Telescopes

The dwarf spheroidal galaxy Ursa Major II (UMaII) is believed to be one of the most dark-matter dominated systems among the Milky Way satellites and represents a suitable target for indirect dark matter (DM) searches. The MAGIC telescopes carried out a deep observation campaign on UMaII between 2014 and 2016, collecting almost one hundred hours of good-quality data. This campaign enlarges the pool of DM targets observed at very high energy (E$\gtrsim$50GeV) in search for signatures of dark matter annihilation in the wide mass range between $\sim$100 GeV and $\sim$100 TeV. To this end, the data are analyzed with the full likelihood analysis, a method based on the exploitation of the spectral information of the recorded events for an optimal sensitivity to the explored dark matter models. We obtain constraints on the annihilation cross-section for different channels that are among the most robust and stringent achieved so far at the TeV mass scale from observations of dwarf satellite galaxies.

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arXiv2018

The detection of the blazar S4 0954+65 at very-high-energy with the MAGIC telescopes during an exceptionally high optical state

The very-high-energy (VHE, $\gtrsim 100$ GeV) $γ$-ray MAGIC observations of the blazar S4 0954+65, were triggered by an exceptionally high flux state of emission in the optical. This blazar has a disputed redshift of z=0.368 or z$\geqslant$0.45 and an uncertain classification among blazar subclasses. The exceptional source state described here makes for an excellent opportunity to understand physical processes in the jet of S4 0954+65 and thus contribute to its classification. We investigate the multiwavelength (MWL) light curve and spectral energy distribution (SED) of the S4 0954+65 blazar during an enhanced state in February 2015 and put it in context with possible emission scenarios. We collect photometric data in radio, optical, X-ray, and $γ$ ray. We study both the optical polarization and the inner parsec-scale jet behavior with 43 GHz data. Observations with the MAGIC telescopes led to the first detection of S4 0954+65 at VHE. Simultaneous data with Fermi-LAT at high energy $γ$ ray\ (HE, 100 MeV < E < 100 GeV) also show a period of increased activity. Imaging at 43 GHz reveals the emergence of a new feature in the radio jet in coincidence with the VHE flare. Simultaneous monitoring of the optical polarization angle reveals a rotation of approximately 100$^\circ$. (...) The broadband spectrum can be modeled with an emission mechanism commonly invoked for flat spectrum radio quasars, i.e. inverse Compton scattering on an external soft photon field from the dust torus, also known as external Compton. The light curve and SED phenomenology is consistent with an interpretation of a blob propagating through a helical structured magnetic field and eventually crossing a standing shock in the jet, a scenario typically applied to flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and low-frequency peaked BL Lac objects (LBL).

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arXiv2017

MAGIC Contributions to the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2017)

MAGIC (Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov) is a system of two 17 m diameter, F/1.03 Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACT). They are dedicated to the observation of gamma rays from galactic and extragalactic sources in the very high energy range (VHE, 30 GeV to 100 TeV). This submission contains links to the proceedings for the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2017), held in Bexco, Busan, Korea from the 12th to the 17th of July, 2017.

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arXiv2015

Towards a Model for Computing in European Astroparticle Physics

Current and future astroparticle physics experiments are operated or are being built to observe highly energetic particles, high energy electromagnetic radiation and gravitational waves originating from all kinds of cosmic sources. The data volumes taken by the experiments are large and expected to grow significantly during the coming years. This is a result of advanced research possibilities and improved detector technology. To cope with the substantially increasing data volumes of astroparticle physics projects it is important to understand the future needs for computing resources in this field. Providing these resources constitutes a larger fraction of the overall running costs of future infrastructures. This document presents the results of a survey made by APPEC with the help of computing experts of major projects and future initiatives in astroparticle physics, representatives of current Tier-1 and Tier-2 LHC computing centers, as well as specifically astroparticle physics computing centers, e.g. the Albert Einstein Institute for gravitational waves analysis in Hanover. In summary, the overall CPU usage and short-term disk and long-term (tape) storage space currently available for astroparticle physics projects' computing services is of the order of one third of the central computing available for LHC data at the Tier-0 center at CERN. Till the end of the decade the requirements for computing resources are estimated to increase by a factor of 10. Furthermore, this document shall describe the diversity of astroparticle physics data handling and serve as a basis to estimate a distribution of computing and storage tasks among the major computing centers. (Abridged)

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arXiv2009

Measuring Baryon Acoustic Oscillations along the line of sight with photometric redshifs: the PAU survey

Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) provide a standard ruler of known physical length, making it a promising probe of the nature of dark energy. The detection of BAO requires measuring galaxy positions and redshifts. "Transversal" (angular distance) BAO measure the angular size of this scale, while "line-of-sight" (or "radial") BAO require precise redshifts, but provide a direct measurement of the Hubble parameter at different redshifts, a more sensitive probe of dark energy. The main goal of this paper is to show that a precision of sigma_z ~0.003(1 + z) is sufficient to measure BAO in the radial direction. This precision can be achieved for bright, red galaxies, by using a filter system comprising about 40 filters, each with a width of ~100 A, from ~ 4000 A to ~ 8000 A, supplemented by two broad-band filters. We describe a practical implementation, a new galaxy survey, PAU, to be carried out with a telescope/camera combination with an etendue of about 20 m^2deg^2, and covering 8000 sq. deg. in the sky in four years. We expect to measure positions and redshifts for over 14 million red, early-type galaxies with L > L* and i_AB < 22.5 in the interval 0.1 < z < 0.9, with sigma_z < 0.003(1 + z). This population has a number density n > 10^-3 Mpc^-3 h^3 within the 9 (Gpc/h)^3 volume of the survey, ensuring that the error in the determination of the BAO scale is not limited by shot-noise. By itself, such a survey will deliver precisions of order 5% in the dark-energy equation of state parameter w, if assumed constant, and can determine its time derivative when combined with future CMB measurements. In addition, PAU will yield high-quality redshift and low-resolution spectroscopy for hundreds of millions of other galaxies.

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