Particle showers detected on ISS in Timepix pixel detectors
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Martin Kroupa↗
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Double-real corrections to color singlet decay in a parton-shower inspired scheme
We introduce a local infrared subtraction method for next-to-next-to-leading order QCD calculations in color singlet decays, with counterterms based on scalar radiators and pure splitting functions. Overlapping singularities in the multipole radiation pattern are disentangled by partial fractioning, and the kinematics mapping corresponds to iterated next-to-leading order kinematics. We verify that the double-real remainder to $e^+e^-\to\;q\bar{q}$ is rendered finite in the single and double unresolved limits and investigate the numerical convergence of the Monte-Carlo integral. We compute the phase-space integrals of the scalar counterterms in the back-to-back configuration, both analytically and with the help of numerical techniques based on sector decomposition.
Campbell, John M. [Fermilab]↗
An Orbital Meteoroid Stream Survey Using the Southern Argentina Agile Meteor Radar (SAAMER) Based on a Wavelet Approach
Over a million individually measured meteoroid orbits were collected with the Southern Argentina Agile MEteor Radar (SAAMER) between 2012-2015. This provides a robust statistical database to perform an initial orbital survey of meteor showers in the Southern Hemisphere via the application of a 3D wavelet transform. The method results in a composite year from all 4 years of data, enabling us to obtain an undisturbed year of meteor activity with more than one thousand meteors per day. Our automated meteor shower search methodology identified 58 showers. Of these showers, 24 were associated with previously reported showers from the IAU catalogue while 34 showers are new and not listed in the catalogue. Our searching method combined with our large data sample provides unprecedented accuracy in measuring meteor shower activity and description of shower characteristics in the Southern Hemisphere. Using simple modeling and clustering methods we also propose potential parent bodies for the newly discovered showers.
Meteor showers↗
The structure of EAS at E 0.1 EeV
The ratio of extensive air showers (EAS) total shower energy in the electromagnetic channel (E em) to the size of the shower at maximum development (N max) from a direct measurement of shower longitudinal development using the air fluorescence technique was calculated. The values are not inconsistent with values based upon track length integrals of the Gaisser-Hillas formula for shower development or the known relation between shower energy and size at maximum for pure electromagnetic cascades. Using Linsley's estimates for undetected shower energy based on an analysis of a wide variety of cosmic ray data, the following relation for total shower energy E vs N max is obtained. The Gaisser Hillas implied undetected shower energy fractions.
Baltrusaitis, R. M.↗
EAS development curve at energy of 10(16) - 10(18) eV measured by optical Cerenkov light
The data of optical Cerenkov light from extensive air shower observed at the core distance more than 1 Km at Akeno are reexamined. Applying the new simulated results, the shower development curves for the individual events were constructed. For the showers of 10 to 17th power eV the average depth at the shower maximum is determined to be 660 + or - 40 gcm/2. The shower curve of average development is found to be well described by a Gaisser-Hillas shower development function with above shower maximum depth.
Hara, T.↗
Meteoroid Stream of Comet C/1961 T1 (Seki) and Its Relation to the December ρ-Virginids and γ-Sagittariids
We answer the question of whether long-period comet C/1961 T1 (Seki) is the parent body of a meteor shower observed in Earth’s atmosphere. We model discrete parts of a meteoroid stream associated with this comet and follow the orbital evolution of its particles via a numerical integration of their orbits. The gravitational perturbations of major planets and the Poynting–Robertson effect, which influences the motion of the particles, are taken into account. We predict two showers which are related to C/1961 T1. One of these showers was identified with the December ρ-Virginids, #502. This identification confirms an earlier suggested relationship between the shower and the comet. The second predicted shower was identified with the γ-Sagittariids, #657. The radiant areas of both showers are symmetrical in respect to the apex of Earth’s heliocentric motion.
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
Calorimetry with deep learning: particle simulation and reconstruction for collider physics
Using detailed simulations of calorimeter showers as training data, we investigate the use of deep learning algorithms for the simulation and reconstruction of single isolated particles produced in high-energy physics collisions. We train neural networks on single-particle shower data at the calorimeter-cell level, and show significant improvements for simulation and reconstruction when using these networks compared to methods which rely on currently-used state-of-the-art algorithms. We define two models: an end-to-end reconstruction network which performs simultaneous particle identification and energy regression of particles when given calorimeter shower data, and a generative network which can provide reasonable modeling of calorimeter showers for different particle types at specified angles and energies. We investigate the optimization of our models with hyperparameter scans. Furthermore, we demonstrate the applicability of the reconstruction model to shower inputs from other detector geometries, specifically ATLAS-like and CMS-like geometries. These networks can serve as fast and computationally light methods for particle shower simulation and reconstruction for current and future experiments at particle colliders.
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
Spacecraft Risk Posed by the 2016 Perseid Outburst
The Perseids are one of the more prolific annual showers, known for high rates and for producing bright meteors. Outbursts of this shower have been noted in the 1860s, the early 1990s, 2004, and 2009, with the 1993 outburst being especially active (peak ZHR above 300). The 1993 Perseids also affected the space-faring nations, as the launch of the STS-51 mission was delayed by NASA until after the shower maximum due to an inability to predict the shower intensity, and the ESA telecommunications satellite Olympus suffered a mission-ending anomaly attributed to a static discharge caused by a Perseid impact [1]. Rates were again high (peak ZHR around 200) in 2009, when the NASA/USGS imaging satellite Landsat-5 experienced a gyro anomaly just before the shower peak; however in this case, the satellite was recovered and normal operations resumed one week later [2]. It is interesting to note that both spacecraft anomalies were not what is typically expected from meteoroid strikes, i.e., physical damage or an attitude displacement due to transfer of momentum. It would appear that the very fast Perseids (59 km s(sup -1) have a marked ability to produce plasma upon impact, which can then serve as a conductive path for discharge currents. The shower is expected to outburst again in 2016, and we present the results from the MSFC Meteoroid Stream Model [4], which predicts enhanced activity on a level similar to that of 2009 as the Earth passes through several debris trails on the night of August 11-12 (UT). We then compare our results to those of other modelers.
Cooke, W. J.↗
Explainable machine learning of the underlying physics of high-energy particle collisions
We present an implementation of an explainable and physics-aware machine learning model capable of inferring the underlying physics of high-energy particle collisions using the information encoded in the energy-momentum four-vectors of the final state particles. We demonstrate the proof-of-concept of our White Box AI approach using a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) which learns from a DGLAP-based parton shower Monte Carlo event generator. The constrained generator network architecture mimics the structure of a parton shower exhibiting similarities with Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs). We show, for the first time, that our approach leads to a network that is able to learn not only the final distribution of particles, but also the underlying parton branching mechanism, i.e. the Altarelli-Parisi splitting function, the ordering variable of the shower, and the scaling behavior. While the current work is focused on perturbative physics of the parton shower, we foresee a broad range of applications of our framework to areas that are currently difficult to address from first principles in QCD. Examples include nonperturbative and collective effects, factorization breaking and the modification of the parton shower in heavy-ion, and electron-nucleus collisions.
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
Modified coherence and the transverse extent of jets
We present a study of the transverse size of parton showers and their diminishing interaction with the medium in the high virtuality stage of jet evolution. We consider the process of a hard quark produced in deep inelastic scattering off a large nucleus. Single gluon radiation from this quark, in the absence of scattering, is rederived using wave packets. This allows for a derivation of the quantum uncertainty size of the hard quark, at the point of splitting. This uncertainty size is then incorporated within a Monte Carlo shower routine yielding transverse shower sizes noticeably larger than the classical antenna size of the shower. No clear relation is found between the full uncertainty size of the shower and the virtuality of the originating parton. The single gluon emission from the hard quark is then reanalyzed for the case of single rescattering off the remainder of the nucleus. A relation is derived between the jet transport coefficient $\hat{𝑞}$ and the gluon Transverse momentum-dependent parton distribution function (gTMDPDF). Solving this relation, for a simple case, clearly demonstrates the weakening of $\hat{𝑞}$ with the virtuality of the hard splitting parton.
jet quenching↗
Anomaly detection with flow-based fast calorimeter simulators
Recently, several normalizing flow-based deep generative models have been proposed to accelerate the simulation of calorimeter showers. Using caloflow as an example, we show that these models can simultaneously perform unsupervised anomaly detection with no additional training cost. As a demonstration, we consider electromagnetic showers initiated by one (background) or multiple (signal) photons. The caloflow model is designed to generate single-photon showers, but it also provides access to the shower likelihood. We use this likelihood as an anomaly score and study the showers tagged as being unlikely. As expected, the tagger struggles when the signal photons are nearly collinear but is otherwise effective. This approach is complementary to a supervised classifier trained on only specific signal models using the same low-level calorimeter inputs. While the supervised classifier is also highly effective at unseen signal models, the unsupervised method is more sensitive in certain regions, and, thus, we expect that the ultimate performance will require a combination of these approaches.
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
Search for the Anomalous Events Detected by ANITA Using the Pierre Auger Observatory
A dedicated search for upward-going air showers at zenith angles exceeding 110° and energies E > 0.1 EeV has been performed using the Fluorescence Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The search is motivated by two “anomalous” radio pulses observed by the ANITA flights I and III that appear inconsistent with the standard model of particle physics. Using simulations of both regular cosmic-ray showers and upward-going events, a selection procedure has been defined to separate potential upward-going candidate events and the corresponding exposure has been calculated in the energy range [0.1–33] EeV. One event has been found in the search period between January 1, 2004, and December 31, 2018, consistent with an expected background of 0.27 ± 0.12 events from misreconstructed cosmic-ray showers. This translates to an upper bound on the integral flux of ( 7.2 ± 0.2 ) × 10 − 21 cm − 2 sr − 1 y − 1 and ( 3.6 ± 0.2 ) × 10 − 20 cm − 2 sr − 1 y − 1 for an E − 1 and E − 2 spectrum, respectively. An upward-going flux of showers normalized to the ANITA observations is shown to predict over 34 events for an E − 3 spectrum and over 8.1 events for a conservative E − 5 spectrum, in strong disagreement with the interpretation of the anomalous events as upward-going showers. Published by the American Physical Society 2025
Abdul Halim, A.↗
Optimal Transport for e/$\pi^0$ Particle Classification in LArTPC Neutrino Experiments
Separation of electron signals from $\pi^0$ backgrounds is crucial for neutrino oscillation measurements and searches for Beyond Standard Model (BSM) physics in current and future Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) experiments. e/$\pi^0$ separation has been a reconstruction challenge since both e and $\pi^0$ present as electromagnetic showers, and often only one out of the two showers produced by $\pi^0$ is reconstructed correctly. This research aims to improve the performance of e/$\pi^0$ separation using optimal transport (OT), by leveraging on the topological differences in the showers produced by the two particles. OT is a method which compares two distributions by finding the most efficient way to transform, or “move” from one to the other. This work uses the MicroBooNE open samples public dataset to test the e/$\pi^0$ separation performance of the method on events which incorporate realistic modeling of LArTPC detector response. Reconstructed 3D energy deposits are projected onto a plane perpendicular to the primary shower, allowing OT to better detect the topological differences between the two types of particles without the need to separately reconstruct all the showers in the events. Different distance metrics for OT are tested and preliminary results on e/$\pi^0$ separation are presented.
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
Study of the energy spectrum of primary cosmic rays: EAS size fluctuations at a fixed primary energy
During the initial period of the Samarkand EAS array operations the showers were selected on the basis of charged-particle flux density, and during the subsequent periods the showers were selected on the basis of Cerenkov light flux density. This procedure made it possible to measure the shower energy, to estimate the EAS size fluctuations at a fixed primary energy, and to experimentally obtain the scaling factor K(Ne, Eo) from the EAS size spectrum to the primary energy spectrum. Six scintillators of area S = 2 sq m each were added to the array. The fluctuations of EAS sizes in the showers of fixed primary energies and the scaling factors K(Ne, Eo) were inferred from the data obtained. The showers with zenith angles 30 deg were selected. The EAS axis positions were inferred from the amplitude data of the scintillators. The primary energy Eo was determined by the method of least squares for the known EAS axis position using the data of the Cerenkov detector located at 80 to 150 m EAS axis. It is shown that the Cerenkov light flux fluctuations at 100 m from EAS axis, q sub 100, do not exceed 10% at a fixed EAS energy, so the parameter q sub 100 may be used to estimate the EAS-generating primary particle-energy.
Allev, N.↗
Photographic fireball networks
Long term radar observations of any meteor shower yield good data for a study of the features of its cross section structure in detail. The hourly rates of meteor echoes represent usually the basic data from which shower characteristics are derived. Unfortunately, the hourly rate does not depend only on the activity of the shower in question but also on the position of the shower radiant, on the mutual radiant antenna position, and on the parameters of the radar system. It is known that the knowledge of the response function of the radar is necessary for good interpretation of the hourly echo counts. A method of long term radar shower data analysis is discussed along with preliminary results.
Ceplecha, Z.↗
Minimum length Pb/SCIN detector for efficient cosmic ray identification
A study was made of the performance of a minimal length cosmic ray shower detector that would be light enough for space flight and would provide efficient identification of positions and protons. Cosmic ray positions are mainly produced in the decay chain of: Pion yields Muon yields Positron and they provide a measure of the matter density traversed by primary protons. Present positron flux measurements are consistent with the Leaky Box and Halo models for sources of cosmic rays. Abundant protons in the space environment are a significant source of background that would wash out the positron signal. Protons and positrons produced very distictive showers of particles when they enter matter; many studies have been published on their behavior on large calorimeter detectors. The challenge is to determine the minimal material necessary (minimal calorimeter depth) for positive particles identification. The primary instrument for the investigation is the Monte Carlo code GEANT, a library of programs from CERN that can be used to model experimental geometry, detector responses and particle interaction processes. The use of the Monte Carlo approach is crucial since statistical fluctuations in shower shape are significant. Studies conducted during the 1988 summer program showed that straightforward approaches to the problem achieved 85 to 90 percent correct identification, but left a residue of 10 to 15 percent misidentified particles. This percentage improved to a few percent when multiple shower-cut criteria were applied to the data. This summer, the same study was extended to employ several physical and statistical methods of identifying response of the calorimeter and the efficiency of the optimal shower cuts to off-normal incidence particle was determined.
Snyder, H. David↗
[Results of the EGRET Detector Program]
This NASA grant has funded studies of cosmic objects observed by both the EGRET detector aboard the Compton Gamma-ray Observatory and Whipple Gamma-ray imaging telescope. The former has sensitivity up to a few GeV and latter has sensitivity starting at about 200 GeV extending up to beyond 10 TeV. Thus these instruments probe some of the most energetic phenomena in the universe. This program has been in place for several years and led to important results referred to below. The Whipple Observatory Imaging Cherenkov Telescope consists of a 10-meter reflector with a nanosecond photomultiplier-tube camera at the focal plane. During the time period covered by this grant, it had either 109 pixels or 151 pixels on a 1/4 degree hexagonal pattern. As a TeV gamma ray enters the atmosphere, it produces an electron/positron pair initiating an extensive air shower. Cherenkov light from the electrons and positrons in the shower form an image of the shower at the phototube camera. The shape and intensity of this image is used to distinguish gamma-ray initiated showers from cosmic-ray (largely proton and alpha-particle) background showers and to derive an energy estimate for the primary gamma-ray. The Whipple Observatory gamma-ray collaboration pioneered this imaging technique which normally rejects over 99 percent of the cosmic-ray background while keeping over 70 percent of the gamma-ray signal. One of its key features is 2 large collection area which can exceed 50,000 meters. This grant covered primarily correlated observations of Markarian 421 and observations of the Cygnus region. The former resulted in a multiwavelength campaign showing correlations in several wavebands. The TeV data showed dramatic variability with the emission characterized by day-scale flickering and with now well defined steady component.
Carter-Lewis, D. A.↗
Calibration of the underground muon detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory
To obtain direct measurements of the muon content of extensive air showers with energy above 10 16.5 eV, the Pierre Auger Observatory is currently being equipped with an underground muon detector (UMD), consisting of 219 10 m 2 -modules, each segmented into 64 scintillators coupled to silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). Direct access to the shower muon content allows for the study of both of the composition of primary cosmic rays and of high-energy hadronic interactions in the forward direction. As the muon density can vary between tens of muons per m 2 close to the intersection of the shower axis with the ground to much less than one per m 2 when far away, the necessary broad dynamic range is achieved by the simultaneous implementation of two acquisition modes in the read-out electronics: the binary mode, tuned to count single muons, and the ADC mode, suited to measure a high number of them. In this work, we present the end-to-end calibration of the muon detector modules: first, the SiPMs are calibrated by means of the binary channel, and then, the ADC channel is calibrated using atmospheric muons, detected in parallel to the shower data acquisition. The laboratory and field measurements performed to develop the implementation of the full calibration chain of both binary and ADC channels are presented and discussed. The calibration procedure is reliable to work with the high amount of channels in the UMD, which will be operated continuously, in changing environmental conditions, for several years.
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗