Observation of Cosmic Ray at the top of the Sierra Negra volcano in Mexico with the SciCRT prototype
E. Ortiz, J.F. Valdés-Galiciaa, Y. Matsubarab, Y. Nagaib, Y. Murakib, A. Hurtadoc, O. Musalemc, R. Garciac, M.A. Anzorenac, L.X. Gonzálezd, Y. Itowe, T. Sakoe, D. Lopeze, Y. Sasaie, K. Munakataf, C. Katof, S. Shibatag, H. Takamarug, H. Kojimah, K. Watanabei, H. Tsuchiyaj, and T. Koik
a Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, 04510, México.
b Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan.
c Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, 04510, México.
]]> d SCiESMEX, Instituto de Geofísica, Unidad Michoacan, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 58190, Morelia, Michoacan. Mexico.e Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan.
f Department of Physics, Shinshu University, Asahi, Matsumoto 390-8621, Japan.
g College of Engineering, Chubu University, Kasugai 487-8501, Japan.
h Faculty of Engineering, Aichi Institute of Technology, Toyota 470-0392, Japan.
i Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Experiment Agency, Yoshinodai, Chuo-ku, Sagamihara 252-5210, Japan.
j Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 2-4 Shirakata Shirane, Tokai-mura, Naka-gun, Ibaraki 319-1195, Japan.
k SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025-7015, USA.
Received 10 April 2015; ]]> accepted 25 September 2015
Abstract
We are currently in the process of calibration of a new cosmic ray detector called SciBar Cosmic Ray Telescope (SciCRT) located at the top of the Sierra Negra volcano at 4,600 m.a.s.l., in Eastern Mexico. The SciCRT will work mainly as a Solar Neutron and Muon Telescope, with a high angular resolution (~ 1°), but it will also serve as a gamma ray and hadron shower detector. The mini-SciCR is a prototype of the SciCRT, it uses the same scintillator bars and recording hardware, the size of the mini-SciCR is 1/1568 compared with the SciCRT. In this paper we will report the main results obtained with the mini-SciCR that was operating at the top of the Sierra Negra volcano from October 2010 to July 2012. Our main aims were to show the appropriate performance of all the detector systems and to develop a tecnique to separate the flux of soft and hard secondary cosmic rays with the help of a Monte Carlo simulation, our energy range of interest is from 100 MeV to a few GeV. Aditionally we will report results with a modification of the detector setup that helped to confirm the correct identification of the particle species.
Keywords: Cosmic rays; secondary cosmic rays; SciCRT.
PACS: 95.55.Ev; 95.55.Vj; 95.30.Cq; 93.30.Hf
DESCARGAR ARTÍCULO EN FORMATO PDF
Acknowledgments
]]> The authors sincerely thank the engineer Miguel Angel Garcia Palacio for his technical support. This work was partially supported by PAPIIT-UNAM IN114612 and CONACyT-180727.
References
1. A.V. Belov, International Astronomical Union 257 (2009) 439450. [ Links ]
2. P.K.F. Grieder, ELSEVIER SCIENCE B.V. (2001) 1-300. [ Links ]
3. M. Hasegawa, Measurement of Neutrino Oscillation Parameters with Neutrino-Nucleus Interaction Studies in the K2K Experiment, PhD thesis, Kyoto University, (2006) 24-38. [ Links ]
4. M.S. Longair, High Energy Astrophysics, Cambridge University Press, (1992) 1-151. [ Links ]
5. Y. Matsubara, et al., Observation of solar neutrons by using a very sensitive cosmic ray detector, 32nd International Cosmic Ray Conference, 10 (2011) 14-17. [ Links ]
6. Mexico City Neutron Monitor, http://cosmicrays.unam.mx/
7. D.J.X. Montgomery, Cosmic Ray Physics, Princeton University Press, (1949) 186-283. [ Links ]
8. Moscow Neutron Monitor, http://cosrays.izmiran.ru/
9. Y. Muraki, et al., Astroparticle Physics 29 (2008) 229-242. [ Links ]
10. Y. Nagai, Performance of the SciCR as a solar neutron detector, 32nd International Cosmic Ray Conference, 10 (2011) 2-5. [ Links ]
11. Y. Nagai, et al., Astroparticle Physics 59 (2014) 39-46. [ Links ]
12. K. Nitta, et al., The K2K SciBar detector, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A 535 (2004) 147151. [ Links ]
13. Oulu Neutron Monitor, http://cosmicrays.oulu.fi/
14. J.F. Valdés-Galicia, et al., Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A 535 (2004) 656-664. [ Links ]
15. J.F. Valdés-Galicia, Advances in Space Research 43 (2009) 565-572. [ Links ]
]]>16. M. Yoshida et al., IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 51 (2004) 3043-3046. [ Links ]
]]>