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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2001

Preliminary Results From the First Flight of ATIC: The Silicon Matrix

The Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter (ATIC) uses a silicon matrix detector in conjunction with a scintillator hodoscope to determine the incident cosmic ray's charge. Cosmic rays that interact in a carbon target have their energy determined from the shower that develops within a fully active calorimeter composed of a stack of scintillating BGO crystals. The silicon matrix consists of 4480 individual silicon pads, each capable of measuring the signal from cosmic rays with atomic numbers from I to 26. Preliminary results will be presented describing the performance of the silicon matrix during the 16-day maiden flight of ATIC around Antarctica.

Adams, James H., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Air fluorescence detection of large air showers below the horizon

In the interest of exploring the cosmic ray spectrum at energies greater than 10 to the 18th power eV, where flux rates at the Earth's surface drop below 100 yr(-1) km(-2) sr(-1), cosmic ray physicists have been forced to construct ever larger detectors in order to collect useful amounts of data in reasonable lengths of time. At present, the ultimate example of this trend is the Fly's Eye system in Utah, which uses the atmosphere around an array of skyward-looking photomultiplier tubes. The air acts as a scintillator to give detecting areas as large as 5000 square kilometers sr (for highest energy events). This experiment has revealed structure (and a possible cutoff) in the ultra-high energy region above 10 o the 19th power eV. The success of the Fly's Eye experiment provides impetus for continuing the development of larger detectors to make accessible even higher energies. However, due to the rapidly falling flux, a tenfold increase in observable energy would call for a hundredfold increase in the detecting area. But, the cost of expanding the Fly's Eye detecting area will approximately scale linearly with area. It is for these reasons that the authors have proposed a new approach to using the atmosphere as a scintillator; one which will require fewer photomultipliers, less hardware (thus being less extensive), yet will provide position and shower size information.

Halverson, P.↗
NASA NTRS2003

A Scintillation Counter System Design To Detect Antiproton Annihilation using the High Performance Antiproton Trap(HiPAT)

The High Performance Antiproton Trap (HiPAT), a system designed to hold up to l0(exp 12) charge particles with a storage half-life of approximately 18 days, is a tool to support basic antimatter research. NASA's interest stems from the energy density represented by the annihilation of matter with antimatter, 10(exp 2)MJ/g. The HiPAT is configured with a Penning-Malmberg style electromagnetic confinement region with field strengths up to 4 Tesla, and 20kV. To date a series of normal matter experiments, using positive and negative ions, have been performed evaluating the designs performance prior to operations with antiprotons. The primary methods of detecting and monitoring stored normal matter ions and antiprotons within the trap includes a destructive extraction technique that makes use of a micro channel plate (MCP) device and a non-destractive radio frequency scheme tuned to key particle frequencies. However, an independent means of detecting stored antiprotons is possible by making use of the actual annihilation products as a unique indicator. The immediate yield of the annihilation event includes photons and pie mesons, emanating spherically from the point of annihilation. To "count" these events, a hardware system of scintillators, discriminators, coincident meters and multi channel scalars (MCS) have been configured to surround much of the HiPAT. Signal coincidence with voting logic is an essential part of this system, necessary to weed out the single cosmic ray events from the multi-particle annihilation shower. This system can be operated in a variety of modes accommodating various conditions. The first is a low-speed sampling interval that monitors the background loss or "evaporation" rate of antiprotons held in the trap during long storage periods; provides an independent method of validating particle lifetimes. The second is a high-speed sample rate accumulating information on a microseconds time-scale; useful when trapped antiparticles are extracted against a target, providing an indication of quantity. This paper details the layout of this system, setup of the hardware components around HiPAT, and applicable checkouts using normal matter radioactive sources.

Martin, James J.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Arrival time distributions of electrons in air showers with primary energies above 10 (18)eV observed at 900m above sea level

Detection of air showers with primary energies above 10 to the 19th power eV with sufficient statistics is extremely important in an astrophysical aspect related to the Greisen cut off and the origin of such high energy cosmic rays. Recently, a method is proposed to observe such giant air showers by measuring the arrival time distributions of air-shower particles at large core distances with a mini array. Experiments to measure the arrival time distributions of muons were started in 1981 and those of electrons in early 1983 in the Akeno air-shower array (930 gcm cm squared atmospheric depth, 900m above sea level). During the time of observation, the detection area of the Akeno array was expanded from 1 sq km to sq km in 1982 and to 20 sq km in 1984. Now the arrival time distribution of electrons and muons can be measured for showers with primary energies above 1019eV at large core distances.

Kakimoto, F.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Cosmic Background Rejection of the ICARUS experiment at Fermilab

The Short Baseline Neutrino program at Fermilab aims to explore significant regions of parameter space, applicable to sterile neutrinos at the eV mass scale, as suggested by existing experimental anomalies. To this purpose it exploits Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber detectors located along the Booster Neutrino Beamline to measure both νe appearance and νµ disappearance: the Short Baseline Neutrino Detector and the ICARUS-T600 detector at 110 and 600 m from the neutrino source, respectively. The ICARUS T-600 Far Detector, located at shallow depth, is surrounded by a Cosmic Ray Tagger system to mitigate the cosmic ray background. On average ~ 11 muon tracks are expected to cross the detector during the ~ 1 ms drift time. The cosmic ray tagger is composed of plastic scintillator bars, ensuring near 4π coverage of the detector aiming at tagging cosmic muons and thus reject 𝛾s produced by muon interactions in the surrounding materials that can generate an electromagnetic showers mimicking a νe signal. The system allows one to disentangle cosmic rays from particles originated in a neutrino interaction inside the detector by measuring their position and crossing time. A synchronization of the cosmic ray tagger with the ICARUS photon detection system with a nanosecond accuracy allows one to reject cosmic particles recorded during the beam spill and thus select an enriched sample of neutrino triggered events ahead of the event reconstruction. An overview of the cosmic ray tagger system as well as its role in the neutrino events identification and cosmic background rejection will be presented.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
NASA NTRS1990

What is learned from high energy bursts and flares

The Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) with its large Nal Total Absorption Shower Counter (TASC) has the scientific capability of performing spectroscopy of high energy cosmic gamma ray bursts and solar flares. EGRET, with a spectroscopy energy range from 0.6 to 140 MeV, provides an opportunity to increase the understanding of the high energy mechanisms of gamma ray bursts and solar flares. A likely interpretation of gamma ray burst sources is that they are rotating, magnetized neutron stars. High magnetic fields can influence the emission of high energy gamma rays, so observational spectroscopic data at high energies can provide information on the upper limits of the magnetic fields in the GRB regions of magnetized neutron stars. Likewise, spectroscopy of high energy gamma rays can provide information useful for deriving the flare proton spectrum which in turn can lead to an understanding of high energy solar flare particle acceleration mechanisms.

Schneid, Edward J.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Anisotropy and the knee of the energy spectrum

The measured cosmic ray energy spectrum exhibits clear structure (the knee) at approx 3 x 10 to the 15th power eV (sea level shower size approx 3 x 10 to the 5th power particles). Additionally, at energies in this general region, there occur apparent changes in shower development such that the observed characteristics of showers at this energy appear different to those characteristics observed at somewhat higher energies. At energies just below this region, the cosmic ray anisotropy amplitude apparently begins a progressive increase with energy. The latter effect does not clearly fit with the first two since there appears to be no significant change exactly at the knee. However, the phase of the first harmonic of the anisotropy appears to show a substantial change just where the energy spectrum shows structure and in the middle of the shower development changes. The first harmonic phase appears to change from approx. 18 hours R.A. to approx. 5 hours R.A. as the energy of observation moves through the knee. In this paper the latter change is examined in some detail by taking into account information contained in the second harmonic of the anisotropy.

Clay, R. W.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Comments on the measurements of multiple muon phenomena

The extensive air showers in the energy around 10 to the 15th power eV include those initiated by astrophysical primary gamma-rays. The observations need a precise measurement on the directions of primary particles. It is one of the methods to measure the directions of high-energy muons in air showers. The accuracy in measuring the direction, by calculating the cosmic-ray phenomena in the atmosphere at very high energy was investgated. The results calculated by Monte Carlo method suggest that one may determine the direction of primary cosmic-rays within errors of 10/3 rad in observing muons of above 100 GeV at sea level.

Sato, T.↗
NASA NTRS1985

A search for sources of ultra high energy gamma rays at air shower energies with Ooty EAS array

A 24 detector extensive air shower array is being operated at Ootacamund (2200 m altitude, 11.4 deg N latitude) in southern India to search for sources of Cosmic gamma rays of energies greater then 5 x 10 to the 13th power eV. The angular resolution of the array has been experimentally estimated to be better than about 2 deg. Since June '84, nearly 2.5 million showers have been collected and their arrival directions determined. These showers are being studied to search for very high energy gamma ray emission from interesting astrophysical objects such as Cygnus X-3, Crab pulsar and Geminga.

Tonwar, S. C.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Estimation of composition of cosmic rays with E sub zero approximately equals 10(17) - 10(18) eV

Fluctuations of the shower maximum depth obtained from analysis of electron and muon fluctuations and the extensive air showers (EAS) Cerenkov light on the Yakutsk array data and data of other arrays are considered. On the basis of these the estimation of composition of primaries with E sub 0 = 5.10 to the 17th power eV is received. Estimation of gamma-quanta flux with E sub 0 10 to the 17th power eV is given on the poor-muon showers.

Glushkov, A. V.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Emulsion Chamber Technology Experiment (ECT)

The experimental objective of Emulsion Chamber Technology (ECT) was to develop space-borne emulsion chamber technology so that cosmic rays and nuclear interactions may subsequently be studied at extremely high energies with long exposures in space. A small emulsion chamber was built and flown on flight STS-62 of the Columbia in March 1994. Analysis of the several hundred layers of radiation-sensitive material has shown excellent post-flight condition and suitability for cosmic ray physics analysis at much longer exposures. Temperature control of the stack was 20 +/-1 C throughout the active control period and no significant deviations of temperature or pressure in the chamber were observed over the entire mission operations period. The unfortunate flight attitude of the orbiter (almost 90% Earth viewing) prevented any significant number of heavy particles (Z greater than or equal to 10) reaching the stack and the inverted flow of shower particles in the calorimeter has not allowed evaluation of absolute primary cosmic ray-detection efficiency nor of the practical time limits of useful exposure of these calorimeters in space to the level of detail originally planned. Nevertheless, analysis of the observed backgrounds and quality of the processed photographic and plastic materials after the flight show that productive exposures of emulsion chambers are feasible in low orbit for periods of up to one year or longer. The engineering approaches taken in the ECT program were proven effective and no major environmental obstacles to prolonged flight are evident.

Gregory, John C.↗
NASA NTRS2019

POEMMA's Target of Opportunity Sensitivity to Cosmic Neutrino Transient Sources

We calculate the sensitivity of space-based cosmic neutrino detection from transient sources in the context of the Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) mission using Target- of-Opportunity (ToO) observations. POEMMA uses two spacecraft each with a large Schmidt telescope to simultaneously view the optical signals generated by extensive air showers (EASs). POEMMA is designed for both ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray and very-high-energy neutrino measurements. POEMMA has significant neutrino sensitivity starting in the 10 PeV decade via measurements of Cherenkov signals from upward-moving EASs initiated by tau neutrinos interacting in the Earth. For ToO observations, POEMMA uses the ability to quickly repoint (90° in 500 seconds) each of the two spacecraft to the direction of the transient source. POEMMA EAS measurements are performed during astronomical night, leading to different observational constraints for short- and long-duration bursts. For short-bursts of order 10(exp 3) s, POEMMA will increase the sensitivity of existing experiments (e.g., IceCube and the Pierre Auger Observatory) by up to two orders of magnitude. For long-duration bursts on the scale of 10(exp 5−6) s, the full celestial sky is available and the average neutrino sensitivity will be increased by up to a factor of 50, reaching the desired level to probe model predictions of transient neutrino sources (e.g., of blazer flares as well as both black hole-black hole and neutron star-neutron star mergers). POEMMA’s neutrino sensitivity to various models of transient neutrino sources are detailed. Altogether, our results demonstrate better sensitivity to ToO neutrino sources from the space-based POEMMA experiment compared to current ground-based experiments, and more importantly, demonstrate unique full-sky coverage for ToO neutrino sources.

Venters, Tonia M.↗
NASA NTRS1977

High-energy cosmic-ray electrons - A new measurement using transition-radiation detectors

A new detector for cosmic-ray electrons, consisting of a combination of a transition-radiation detector and a shower detector, has been constructed, calibrated at accelerator beams, and exposed in a balloon flight under 5 g/sq cm of atmosphere. The design of this instrument and the methods of data analysis are described. Preliminary results in the energy range 9-300 GeV are presented. The energy spectrum of electrons is found to be significantly steeper than that of protons, consistent with a long escape lifetime of cosmic rays in the galaxy.

Hartmann, G.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Electron showers of high primary energy in lead.

The development of electron cascade showers in a lead-scintillator sandwich of 8 plastic scintillators in about 20 radiation lengths of lead has been investigated. This detector, which was used for cosmic-ray studies, has been calibrated with electrons with energies from 2 to 15 GeV at SLAC. Measured shower profiles are presented, and expressions are given which allow an extrapolation of the measured data up to energies around 1000 GeV. The results are compared with analytical shower theories and Monte Carlo calculations.

Mueller, D.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Correlation of high energy muons with primary composition in extensive air shower

An experimental investigation of high energy muons above 200 GeV in extensive air showers has been made for studying high energy interaction and primary composition of cosmic rays of energies in the range 10 to the 14th power approx. 10 to the 15th power eV. The muon energies are estimated from the burst sizes initiated by the muons in the rock, which are measured by four layers of proportional counters, each of area 5 x 2.6 sq m, placed at 30 m.w.e. deep, Funasaka tunnel vertically below the air shower array. These results are compared with Monte Carlo simulations based on the scaling model and the fireball model for two primary compositions, all proton and mixed.

Chou, C.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Practical Applications of Cosmic Ray Science: Spacecraft, Aircraft, Ground-Based Computation and Control Systems, Exploration, and Human Health and Safety

In this presentation a review of galactic cosmic ray (GCR) effects on microelectronic systems and human health and safety is given. The methods used to evaluate and mitigate unwanted cosmic ray effects in ground-based, atmospheric flight, and space flight environments are also reviewed. However not all GCR effects are undesirable. We will also briefly review how observation and analysis of GCR interactions with planetary atmospheres and surfaces and reveal important compositional and geophysical data on earth and elsewhere. About 1000 GCR particles enter every square meter of Earth’s upper atmosphere every second, roughly the same number striking every square meter of the International Space Station (ISS) and every other low- Earth orbit spacecraft. GCR particles are high energy ionized atomic nuclei (90% protons, 9% alpha particles, 1% heavier nuclei) traveling very close to the speed of light. The GCR particle flux is even higher in interplanetary space because the geomagnetic field provides some limited magnetic shielding. Collisions of GCR particles with atomic nuclei in planetary atmospheres and/or regolith as well as spacecraft materials produce nuclear reactions and energetic/highly penetrating secondary particle showers. Three twentieth century technology developments have driven an ongoing evolution of basic cosmic ray science into a set of practical engineering tools needed to design, test, and verify the safety and reliability of modern complex technological systems and assess effects on human health and safety effects. The key technology developments are: 1) high altitude commercial and military aircraft; 2) manned and unmanned spacecraft; and 3) increasingly complex and sensitive solid state micro-electronics systems. Space and geophysical exploration needs drove the development of the instruments and analytical tools needed to recover compositional and structural data from GCR induced nuclear reactions and secondary particle showers. Finally, the possible role of GCR secondary particle showers in addressing an important homeland security problem, finding nuclear contraband and weapons, will be briefly reviewed.

Koontz, Steve↗
DOE OSTI2025

Inference of the Mass Composition of Cosmic Rays with Energies from 10 18.5 to 10 20 eV Using the Pierre Auger Observatory and Deep Learning

We present measurements of the atmospheric depth of the shower maximum X max , inferred for the first time on an event-by-event level using the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Using deep learning, we were able to extend measurements of the X max distributions up to energies of 100 EeV ( 10 20 eV ), not yet revealed by current measurements, providing new insights into the mass composition of cosmic rays at extreme energies. Gaining a 10-fold increase in statistics compared to the fluorescence detector data, we find evidence that the rate of change of the average X max with the logarithm of energy features three breaks at 6.5 ± 0.6 ( stat ) ± 1 ( syst ) EeV , 11 ± 2 ( stat ) ± 1 ( syst ) EeV , and 31 ± 5 ( stat ) ± 3 ( syst ) EeV , in the vicinity to the three prominent features (ankle, instep, suppression) of the cosmic-ray flux. The energy evolution of the mean and standard deviation of the measured X max distributions indicates that the mass composition becomes increasingly heavier and purer, thus being incompatible with a large fraction of light nuclei between 50 and 100 EeV. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Measurement of the depth of maximum of air-shower profiles with energies between 10 18.5 and 10 20 eV using the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory and deep learning

We report an investigation of the mass composition of cosmic rays with energies from 3 to 100 EeV ( 1 EeV = 10 18 eV ) using the distributions of the depth of shower maximum X max . The analysis relies on ∼ 50 , 000 events recorded by the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory and a deep-learning-based reconstruction algorithm. Above energies of 5 EeV, the dataset offers a 10-fold increase in statistics with respect to fluorescence measurements at the Observatory. After cross-calibration using the fluorescence detector, this enables the first measurement of the evolution of the mean and the standard deviation of the X max distributions up to 100 EeV. Our findings are threefold: (i) The evolution of the mean logarithmic mass toward a heavier composition with increasing energy can be confirmed and is extended to 100 EeV. (ii) The evolution of the fluctuations of X max toward a heavier and purer composition with increasing energy can be confirmed with high statistics. We report a rather heavy composition and small fluctuations in X max at the highest energies. (iii) We find indications for a characteristic structure beyond a constant change in the mean logarithmic mass, featuring three breaks that are observed in proximity to the ankle, instep, and suppression features in the energy spectrum. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗