Description of atmospheric conditions at the Pierre Auger Observatory using the Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS)

Astroparticle Physics 35:9 (2012) 591-607

Authors:

P Abreu, M Aglietta, M Ahlers, EJ Ahn, IFM Albuquerque, D Allard, I Allekotte, J Allen, P Allison, A Almela, J Alvarez Castillo, J Alvarez-Muñiz, M Ambrosio, A Aminaei, L Anchordoqui, S Andringa, T Antičic, C Aramo, E Arganda, F Arqueros, H Asorey, P Assis, J Aublin, M Ave, M Avenier, G Avila, T Bäcker, AM Badescu, M Balzer, KB Barber, AF Barbosa, R Bardenet, SLC Barroso, B Baughman, J Bäuml, JJ Beatty, BR Becker, KH Becker, A Bellétoile, JA Bellido, S Benzvi, C Berat, X Bertou, PL Biermann, P Billoir, F Blanco, M Blanco, C Bleve, H Blümer, M Boháčová, D Boncioli, C Bonifazi, R Bonino, N Borodai, J Brack, I Brancus, P Brogueira, WC Brown, R Bruijn, P Buchholz, A Bueno, RE Burton, KS Caballero-Mora, B Caccianiga, L Caramete, R Caruso, A Castellina, O Catalano, G Cataldi, L Cazon, R Cester, J Chauvin, SH Cheng, A Chiavassa, JA Chinellato, J Chirinos Diaz, J Chudoba, RW Clay, MR Coluccia, R Conceião, F Contreras, H Cook, MJ Cooper, J Coppens, A Cordier, S Coutu, CE Covault, A Creusot, A Criss, J Cronin, A Curutiu, S Dagoret-Campagne, R Dallier, B Daniel, S Dasso, K Daumiller, BR Dawson, RM De Almeida, M De Domenico, C De Donato

Abstract:

Atmospheric conditions at the site of a cosmic ray observatory must be known for reconstructing observed extensive air showers. The Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) is a global atmospheric model predicated on meteorological measurements and numerical weather predictions. GDAS provides altitude-dependent profiles of the main state variables of the atmosphere like temperature, pressure, and humidity. The original data and their application to the air shower reconstruction of the Pierre Auger Observatory are described. By comparisons with radiosonde and weather station measurements obtained on-site in Malargüe and averaged monthly models, the utility of the GDAS data is shown. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Searches for periodic neutrino emission from binary systems with 22 and 40 strings of IceCube

Astrophysical Journal 748:2 (2012)

Authors:

R Abbasi, Y Abdou, T Abu-Zayyad, M Ackermann, J Adams, JA Aguilar, M Ahlers, MM Allen, D Altmann, K Andeen, J Auffenberg, X Bai, M Baker, SW Barwick, R Bay, JL Bazo Alba, K Beattie, JJ Beatty, S Bechet, JK Becker, KH Becker, ML Benabderrahmane, S Benzvi, J Berdermann, P Berghaus, D Berley, E Bernardini, D Bertrand, DZ Besson, D Bindig, M Bissok, E Blaufuss, J Blumenthal, DJ Boersma, C Bohm, D Bose, S Böser, O Botner, AM Brown, S Buitink, KS Caballero-Mora, M Carson, D Chirkin, B Christy, F Clevermann, S Cohen, C Colnard, DF Cowen, AH Cruz Silva, MV D'Agostino, M Danninger, J Daughhetee, JC Davis, C De Clercq, T Degner, L Demirörs, F Descamps, P Desiati, G De Vries-Uiterweerd, T Deyoung, JC Díaz-Vélez, M Dierckxsens, J Dreyer, JP Dumm, M Dunkman, J Eisch, RW Ellsworth, O Engdegrd, S Euler, PA Evenson, O Fadiran, AR Fazely, A Fedynitch, J Feintzeig, T Feusels, K Filimonov, C Finley, T Fischer-Wasels, BD Fox, A Franckowiak, R Franke, TK Gaisser, J Gallagher, L Gerhardt, L Gladstone, T Glüsenkamp, A Goldschmidt, JA Goodman, D Góra, D Grant, T Griesel, A Gro, S Grullon, M Gurtner, C Ha, A Haj Ismail, A Hallgren, F Halzen, K Han, K Hanson

Abstract:

In this paper, we present the results of searches for periodic neutrino emission from a catalog of binary systems. Such modulation, observed in the photon flux, would be caused by the geometry of these systems. In the analysis, the period is fixed by these photon observations, while the phase and duration of the neutrino emission are treated as free parameters to be fit with the data. If the emission occurs during 20% or less of the total period, this analysis achieves better sensitivity than a time-integrated analysis. We use the IceCube data taken from 2007 May 31 to 2008 April 5 with its 22 string configuration and from 2008 April 5 to 2009 May 20 with its 40 string configuration. No evidence for neutrino emission is found, with the strongest excess occurring for CygnusX-3 at 2.1σ significance after accounting for trials. Neutrino flux upper limits for both periodic and time-integrated emission are provided. © 2012. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

Tree amplitudes and color decomposition in broken SU(2)

Journal of High Energy Physics Springer Nature 2012:4 (2012) 95

Authors:

Liang Dai, Kirill Melnikov, Fabrizio Caola

NLL+NNLO predictions for jet-veto efficiencies in Higgs-boson and Drell-Yan production

(2012)

Authors:

Andrea Banfi, Gavin P Salam, Giulia Zanderighi

Quantum Gravity Constraints on Inflation

ArXiv 1203.5476 (2012)

Abstract:

We study quantum gravity constraints on inflationary model building. Our approach is based on requiring the entropy associated to a given inflationary model to be less than that of the de Sitter entropy. We give two prescriptions for determining the inflationary entropy, based on either `bits per unit area' or entanglement entropy. The existence of transPlanckian flat directions, necessary for large tensor modes in the CMB, correlates with an inflationary entropy greater than that allowed by de Sitter space. Independently these techniques also constrain or exclude de Sitter models with large-rank gauge groups and high UV cutoffs, such as racetrack inflation or the KKLT construction.