The cosmic ray proton plus helium energy spectrum measured by the ARGO-YBJ experiment in the energy range 3-300 TeV
YBJ Collaboration, B. Bartoli, P. Bernardini, X. J. Bi, Z. Cao, S. Catalanotti, S. Z. Chen, T. L. Chen, S. W. Cui, B. Z. Dai, A. D'Amone, Danzengluobu, I. De Mi… 展开作者
YBJ Collaboration, B. Bartoli, P. Bernardini, X. J. Bi, Z. Cao, S. Catalanotti, S. Z. Chen, T. L. Chen, S. W. Cui, B. Z. Dai, A. D'Amone, Danzengluobu, I. De Mitri, B. D'Ettorre Piazzoli, T. Di Girolamo, G. Di Sciascio, C. F. Feng, Zhaoyang Feng, Zhenyong Feng, Q. B. Gou, Y. Q. Guo, H. H. He, Haibing Hu, Hongbo Hu, M. Iacovacci, R. Iuppa, H. Y. Jia, Labaciren, H. J. Li, C. Liu, J. Liu, M. Y. Liu, H. Lu, L. L. Ma, X. H. Ma, G. Mancarella, S. M. Mari, G. Marsella, S. Mastroianni, P. Montini, C. C. Ning, L. Perrone, P. Pistilli, P. Salvini, R. Santonico, G. Settanta, P. R. Shen, X. D. Sheng, F. Shi, A. Surdo, Y. H. Tan, P. Vallania, S. Vernetto, C. Vigorito, H. Wang, C. Y. Wu, H. R. Wu, L. Xue, Q. Y. Yang, X. C. Yang, Z. G. Yao, A. F. Yuan, M. Zha, H. M. Zhang, L. Zhang, X. Y. Zhang, Y. Zhang, J. Zhao, Zhaxiciren, Zhaxisangzhu, X. X. Zhou, F. R. Zhu, Q. Q. Zhu
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18 pages, 8 figures, preprint submitted to Phys. Rev. D
The ARGO-YBJ experiment is a full-coverage air shower detector located at the Yangbajing Cosmic Ray Observatory (Tibet, People's Republic of China, 4300 m a.s.l.). The high altitude, combined with the full-coverage technique, allows the detection of extensive air showers in a wide energy range and offer the possibility of measuring the cosmic ray proton plus helium spectrum down to the TeV region, where direct balloon/space-borne measurements are available. The detector has been in stable data taking in its full configuration from November 2007 to February 2013. In this paper the measurement of the cosmic ray proton plus helium energy spectrum is presented in the region 3-300 TeV by analyzing the full collected data sample. The resulting spectral index is $γ= -2.64 \pm 0.01$. These results demonstrate the possibility of performing an accurate measurement of the spectrum of light elements with a ground based air shower detector.
The ARGO-YBJ experiment is a multipurpose detector exploiting the full-coverage approach at very high altitude. The apparatus is in stable data taking since November 2007 at the YangBaJing Cosmic Ray Laboratory (Tibet, P.R. China, 4300 m a.s.l., 606 g/cm$^2$). In this paper we report the main results in Gamma-Ray Astronomy and Cosmic Ray Physics after about 3 years of operations.
In this paper we report on the observation of the anisotropy of cosmic ray arrival direction at different angular scales with ARGO-YBJ. Evidence of new few-degree excesses throughout the sky region 195$^{\circ}\leq$ R.A. $\leq$ 315$^{\circ}$ is presented for the first time. We report also on the measurement of the light-component (p+He) spectrum of primary cosmic rays in the range 5 - 200 TeV.
The ARGO-YBJ experiment is in stable data taking since November 2007 at the YangBaJing Cosmic Ray Laboratory (Tibet, P.R. China, 4300 m a.s.l., 606 g/cm$^2$). ARGO-YBJ is facing open problems in Cosmic Ray (CR) physics in different ways. The search for CR sources is carried out by the observation of TeV gamma-ray sources both galactic and extra-galactic. The CR spectrum, composition and anisotropy are measured in a wide energy range (TeV - PeV) thus overlapping for the first time direct measurements. In this paper we summarize the current status of the experiment and describe some of the scien…
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. The ARGO-YBJ experiment is observing the Moon shadow with high statistical significance at an energy threshold of a few hundred GeV. Using all the data collected until November 2009, we set two upper limits on the antip/p flux ratio: 5% at an energy of 1.4 TeV and 6% at 5 TeV with a confidence level of 90%. In the few-TeV range the ARGO-YBJ results are the lowest available, useful to constrain models for antiproton product…
The ARGO-YBJ experiment has been in stable data taking for 5 years at the YangBaJing Cosmic Ray Observatory (Tibet, P.R. China, 4300 m a.s.l., 606 g/cm^2). With a duty-cycle greater than 86% the detector collected about 5 X 10^{11} events in a wide energy range, from few hundreds GeV up to the PeV. A number of open problems in cosmic ray physics has been faced exploiting different analyses. In this paper we summarize the latest results in gamma-ray astronomy and in cosmic ray physics
The ARGO-YBJ experiment is a multipurpose detector exploiting the full coverage approach at very high altitude. The apparatus, in stable data taking since November 2007 with an energy threshold of a few hundreds of GeV and a duty-cycle of about 90 %, is located at the YangBaJing Cosmic Ray Laboratory (Tibet, P.R. China, 4300 m a.s.l., 606 g/cm2). A number of interesting results are available in Cosmic Ray Physics and in Gamma Ray Astronomy after the first 3 years of stable data taking. In this paper Gamma-Ray Astronomy results are summarized.
The ARGO-YBJ experiment has been in stable data taking for 5 years at the YangBaJing Cosmic Ray Observatory (Tibet, P.R. China, 4300 m a.s.l., 606 g/cm$^2$). With a duty-cycle greater than 86\% the detector collected about 5$\times $10$^{11}$ events in a wide energy range, from few hundreds GeV up to about 10 PeV. A number of open problems in cosmic ray physics has been faced exploiting different analyses. In this paper we summarize the latest results in cosmic ray physics and in gamma-ray astronomy.
The measurement of proton plus helium and all-particle energy spectra in the range $20\,$ TeV to $5 \,$PeV and $80 \,$TeV to $5 \,$PeV respectively are presented. Data taken by the ARGO-YBJ detector in the 2010 year have been analyzed. The ARGO-YBJ experiment (Tibet, P. R. China) has been taking data for more than five years by means of a full-coverage array of RPC detectors. The discrimination between showers produced by light and heavy primaries has been performed by looking at the lateral particle density close to the core region. A Bayesian unfolding technique was therefore applied to the …
Gamma ray source detection above 30TeV is an encouraging approach for finding galactic cosmic ray origins. All sky survey for gamma ray sources using wide field of view detector is essential for population accumulation for various types of sources above 100GeV. To target the goals, the ARGO-YBJ experiment has been established. Significant progresses have been made in the experiment. A large air shower detector array in an area of 1km2 is proposed to boost the sensitivity. Hybrid detection with multi-techniques will allow a good discrimination between different types of primary particles, inclu…
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. The ARGO-YBJ experiment, located at the Yangbajing Cosmic Ray Laboratory (Tibet, P.R. China, 4300 m a.s.l., 606 g/cm$^2$), is the only experiment exploiting the full coverage approach at very high altitude presently at work. The ARGO-YBJ experiment is particularly effective in measuring the cosmic ray antimatter content via the observation of the cosmic rays Moon shadowing effect. Based on all the data recorded during the …
ARGO-YBJ is a full coverage air shower array located at the YangBaJing Cosmic Ray Laboratory (Tibet, P.R. China, 4300 m a.s.l., 606 g/cm^2) recording data with a duty cycle $\geq$85% and an energy threshold of a few hundred GeV. In this paper the latest results in Gamma-Ray Astronomy are summarized.
The measurement of the anisotropies of cosmic ray arrival direction provides important informations on the propagation mechanisms and on the identification of their sources. In this paper we report the observation of anisotropy regions at different angular scales. In particular, the observation of a possible anisotropy on scales between $\sim$ 10 $^{\circ}$ and $\sim$ 30 $^{\circ}$ suggests the presence of unknown features of the magnetic fields the charged cosmic rays propagate through, as well as potential contributions of nearby sources to the total flux of cosmic rays. Evidence of new weak…
An RPC carpet covering ~10**4 m**2 (ARGO-YBJ experiment) will be installed in the YangBaJing Laboratory (Tibet, P.R. China) at an altitude of 4300 m a.s.l.. A test-module of ~50 m**2 has been put in operation in this laboratory and about 10**6 air shower events have been collected. The carpet capability of reconstructing the shower features is presented.
The ARGO-YBJ experiment has been designed to detect air shower events over a large size scale and with an energy threshold of a few hundreds GeV. The building blocks of the ARGO-YBJ detector are single-gap Resistive Plate Counters (RPCs). The trigger logic selects the events on the basis of their hit multiplicity. Inclusive triggers as well as dedicated triggers for specific physics channels or calibration purposes have been developed. This paper describes the architecture and the main features of the trigger system.
The ARGO-YBJ detector, located at high altitude in the Cosmic Ray Observatory of Yangbajing in Tibet (4300 m asl, about 600 g/cm2 of atmospheric depth) provides the opportunity to study, with unprecedented resolution, the cosmic ray physics in the primary energy region between 10^{12} and 10^{16} eV. The preliminary results of the measurement of all-particle and light-component (i.e. protons and helium) energy spectra between approximately 5 TeV and 5 PeV are reported and discussed. The study of such energy region is particularly interesting because not only it allows a better understanding of…
A 50 m**2 RPC carpet was operated at the YangBaJing Cosmic Ray Laboratory (Tibet) located 4300 m a.s.l. The performance of RPCs in detecting Extensive Air Showers was studied. Efficiency and time resolution measurements at the pressure and temperature conditions typical of high mountain laboratories, are reported.
Cosmic rays are hampered by the Moon and a deficit in its direction is expected (the so-called \emph{Moon shadow}). The Moon shadow is an important tool to determine the performance of an air shower array. In fact, the displacement of the shadow center, due to the bending effect of the Geomagnetic field on the propagation of cosmic rays, allows to set the energy scale of the primary particles inducing the showers observed by the detector. The shape of the shadow permits to determine the detector point spread function. The position of the deficit at high energy allows evaluating its pointing ac…
The combined measurement of the cosmic ray (CR) energy spectrum and anisotropy in their arrival direction distribution needs the knowledge of the elemental composition of the radiation to discriminate between different origin and propagation models. Important information on the CR mass composition can be obtained studying the EAS muon content through the measurement of the CR rate at different zenith angles. In this paper we report on the observation of the anisotropy of galactic CRs at different angular scales with the ARGO-YBJ experiment. We report also on the study of the primary CR rate fo…
Measuring the anisotropy of the arrival direction distribution of cosmic rays provides important information on the propagation mechanisms and the identification of their sources. In fact, the flux of cosmic rays is thought to be dependent on the arrival direction only due to the presence of nearby cosmic ray sources or particular magnetic-field structures. Recently, the observation of unexpected excesses at TeV energy down to angular scale as narrow as $\sim10°$ raised the possibility that the problem of the origin of galactic cosmic rays may be addressed by studying the anisotropy. The ARGO-…
The proton-air cross section in the energy range 1-100 TeV has been measured by the ARGO-YBJ cosmic ray experiment. The analysis is based on the flux attenuation for different atmospheric depths (i.e. zenith angles) and exploits the detector capabilities of selecting the shower development stage by means of hit multiplicity, density and lateral profile measurements at ground. The effects of shower fluctuations, the contribution of heavier primaries and the uncertainties of the hadronic interaction models, have been taken into account. The results have been used to estimate the total proton-pro…
The ARGO--YBJ experiment has been in stable data taking for more than five years at the Yangbajing cosmic ray observatory (Tibet, P.R. China, 4300 m a.s.l.). The detector collected about $5\times10^{11}$ events in a wide energy range from few TeVs up to the PeV region. In this work we summarize the latest results in cosmic ray physics particularly focusing on the cosmic ray energy spectrum. The results of the measurement of the all-particle and proton plus helium energy spectra in the energy region between $10^{12} - 10^{16}$ eV are discussed. A precise measurement of the cosmic ray energy spe…
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.
The ARGO-YBJ experiment, currently under construction at the Yangbaijing Laboratory (4300 m a.s.l.), consists of a single layer of about 2000 Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) for a total instrumented area of about 6700 m^2. The digital read-out, performed by means of pick-up electrodes 6.7 X 62 cm^2 ('strips'), allows one to measure the particle number of small size showers. To extend the size range up to the knee region it is necessary to implement the charge read-out of the detector chambers. In order to achieve this goal each RPC has been instrumented with two large size pads of dimensions 1…
Cosmic ray antiprotons provide an important probe to study the cosmic ray propagation in the interstellar space and to investigate the existence of dark matter. Acting the Earth-Moon system as a magnetic spectrometer, paths of primary antiprotons are deflected in the opposite sense with respect to those of the protons in their way to the Earth. This effect allows, in principle, the search for antiparticles in the direction opposite to the observed deficit of cosmic rays due to the Moon (the so-called `Moon shadow'). The ARGO-YBJ experiment, located at the Yangbajing Cosmic Ray Laboratory (Tibe…
Cosmic rays are hampered by the Moon and a deficit in its direction is expected (the so-called \emph{Moon shadow}). The Moon shadow is an important tool to determine the performance of an air shower array. Indeed, the westward displacement of the shadow center, due to the bending effect of the geomagnetic field on the propagation of cosmic rays, allows the setting of the absolute rigidity scale of the primary particles inducing the showers recorded by the detector. In addition, the shape of the shadow permits to determine the detector point spread function, while the position of the deficit at…
The measurement of cosmic ray energy spectra, in particular for individual species, is an essential approach in finding their origin. Locating the "knees" of the spectra is an important part of the approach and has yet to be achieved. Here we report a measurement of the mixed Hydrogen and Helium spectrum using the combination of the ARGO-YBJ experiment and of a prototype Cherenkov telescope for the LHAASO experiment. A knee feature at 640+/-87 TeV, with a clear steepening of the spectrum, is observed. This gives fundamental inputs to galactic cosmic ray acceleration models.
The sun blocks cosmic ray particles from outside the solar system, forming a detectable shadow in the sky map of cosmic rays detected by the ARGO-YBJ experiment in Tibet. Because the cosmic ray particles are positive charged, the magnetic field between the sun and the earth deflects them from straight trajectories and results in a shift of the shadow from the true location of the sun. Here we show that the shift measures the intensity of the field which is transported by the solar wind from the sun to the earth.
The ARGO-YBJ experiment, a full coverage extensive air shower (EAS) detector located at high altitude (4300 m a.s.l.) in Tibet, China, has smoothly taken data, with very high stability, since November 2007 to the beginning of 2013. The array consisted of a carpet of about 7000 m$^2$ Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) operated in streamer mode and equipped with both digital and analog readout, providing the measurement of particle densities up to few particles per cm$^2$. The unique detector features (full coverage, readout granularity, wide dynamic range, etc) and location (very high altitude) al…
The ARGO-YBJ experiment will be installed at YangBaJing Cosmic Ray Laboratory (Tibet, P.R. China), 4300 m a.s.l. . It consists of a full coverage of about 10^4 m^2 realized with RPC chambers. A small carpet of about 50 m^2 has been operated at YangBaJing in order to check the RPC performance in these high altitude conditions. Results concerning efficiency and time resolution are reported.
The MATHUSLA detector to be installed on the surface above and somewhat displaced from the CMS interaction point (IP) will cover an area of $100\times 100$ m$^2$ containing many layers of scintillators planes to establish the space and time coordinates of charged particle tracks. This is an unprecedented detector in terms of size and continuous sensitivity over an area of $10^4$ m$^2$. This document describes the present MATHUSLA detector concept that is sensitive to both long-lived particles produced in the LHC collisions in CMS and cosmic ray extended air showers (EAS). The ability to improv…
A shower array exploiting the full coverage approach with a high segmentation of the readout allow to image the front of atmospheric showers with unprecedented resolution and detail. The grid distance determines the energy threshold (small energy showers are lost in the gap between detectors) and the quality of the shower sampling. Therefore, this experimental solution is needed to detect showers with a threshold in the 100 GeV range. The full coverage approach has been exploited in the ARGO-YBJ experiment. In this contribution we will summarise the advantages of this technique and discuss pos…
The energy spectrum of cosmic Hydrogen and Helium nuclei has been measured, below the so-called "knee", by using a hybrid experiment with a wide field-of-view Cherenkov telescope and the Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) array of the ARGO-YBJ experiment at 4300 m above sea level. The Hydrogen and Helium nuclei have been well separated from other cosmic ray components by using a multi-parameter technique. A highly uniform energy resolution of about 25% is achieved throughout the whole energy range (100 TeV - 700 TeV). The observed energy spectrum is compatible with a single power law with index gam…
Extensice Air Shower (EAS) arrays are survey instruments able to monitor continuously all the overhead sky. Their wide field of view (about 2 sr) is ideal to complement directional detectors by performing unbiased sky surveys, by monitoring variable or flaring sources, such as AGNs, and to discover transients or explosive events (GRBs). With an energy threshold in the 100 GeV range EAS arrays are transient factories. All EAS arrays presently in operation or under installation are located in the Northern hemisphere. A new survey instrument located in the Southern Hemisphere should be a high pri…
Recent findings by the LHAASO experiment are opening a new window, that of the PeV sky, to the observation of the electromagnetic spectrum. Several astronomical objects emitting gamma-rays at energies well above 100 TeV have been observed with the LHAASO-KM2 array of scintillators and muon detectors, clearly demonstrating the feasibility of gamma-ray astronomy up to PeV energies. An all-sky gamma-ray detector in the Southern Hemisphere, operating in the GeV-PeV range, could complement LHAASO observations, monitor the Inner Galaxy and the Galactic Center looking for PeVatrons. As shown by LHAAS…
The LHCb experiment has the unique possibility, among the LHC experiments, to be operated in fixed target mode, using its internal gas target SMOG. The energy scale achievable at the LHC and the excellent detector capabilities for vertexing, tracking and particle identification allow a wealth of measurements of great interest for cosmic ray and heavy ions physics. We report the first measurements made in this configuration: the measurement of antiproton production in proton-helium collisions and the measurements of open and hidden charm production in proton-argon collisions at $\sqrt{s_\textrm…
Dark Matter (DM) is one of the most critical questions to be understood and answered in fundamental physics today. Observations with varied astronomical and cosmological technologies already pinned down that DM exists in the Universe, the Milky Way, and the Solar System. However, the understanding of DM under the language of elementary physics is still in progress. DM direct detection aims to test the interactive cross-section between galactic DM particles and an underground detector's nucleons. Although Weakly Interactive Massive Particles (WIMPs) is the most discussed DM candidate, the null-…
