A future project at tibet： the large high altitude air shower observatory （LHAASO）

Gamma ray source detection above 30 TeV is an encouraging approach for finding galactic cosmic ray sources. All sky survey for gamma ray sources using wide field of view detector is essential for population accumulation for various types of sources above 100 GeV. In order to target those goals, a large air shower particle detector array of 1 km^2 （the LHAASO project） at 4300 m a.s.l, is proposed, By adding two MagicⅡ- type telescopes in the array as proposed, LHAASO will be enhanced in source morphologic investigation power. The proposed array will be utilized also for energy spectrum measurement for individual cosmic ray species above 30 TeV. By re-configuring the wide field of view telescopes into fluorescence light detector array, the aperture of the detector array can be enlarged to cover an energy region above 100 PeV where the second knee is located. Cosmic ray spectrum and composition will be measured in order to transfer an energy scale to ultra high energy cosmic ray experiments.     

Geometry and optics calibration of WFCTA prototype telescopes using star light

The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) project is proposed to study high energy gamma ray astronomy (40 GeV-1 PeV) and cosmic ray physics (20 TeV-1 EeV). The wide field of view Cherenkov telescope array, as a component of the LHAASO project, will be used to study the energy spectrum and composition of cosmic rays by measuring the total Cherenkov light generated by air showers and the shower maximum depth. Two prototype telescopes have been in operation since 2008. The pointing accuracy of each telescope is crucial for the direction reconstruction of the primary particles. On the other hand, the primary energy reconstruction relies on the shape of the Cherenkov image on the camera and the unrecorded photons due to the imperfect connections between the photomultiplier tubes. UV bright stars are used as point-like objects to calibrate the pointing and to study the optical properties of the camera, the spot size and the fractions of unrecorded photons in the insensitive areas of the camera.     

Expected energy spectrum of cosmic ray protons and helium below4 PeV measured by LHAASO

The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory(LHAASO) is a composite cosmic ray observatory consisting of three detector arrays: kilometer square array(KM2 A), which includes the electromagnetic detector array and muon detector array, water Cherenkov detector array(WCDA) and wide field-of-view Cherenkov telescope array(WFCTA). One of the main scientific objectives of LHAASO is to precisely measure the cosmic rays energy spectrum of individual components from 10~(14) eV to 10~(18) eV. The hybrid observation will be employed by the LHAASO experiment, in which the lateral and longitudinal distributions of extensive air shower can be observed simultaneously. Thus, many kinds of parameters can be used for primary nuclei identification. In this paper, high purity cosmic ray simulation samples of the light nuclei component are obtained using multi-variable analysis. The apertures of 1/4 LHAASO array for pure proton and mixed proton and helium(HHe) samples are 900 m~2 Sr and1800 m~2 Sr, respectively. Prospect of obtaining proton and HHe spectra from 100 TeV to 4 PeV is discussed.     

Highlights of the ARGO-YBJ Experiment at 4,300 m a.s.l.

The ARGO-YBJ experiment in Tibet, China has been operated to survey the northern sky for gamma ray sources, transient or steady, for nearly 6 years. Many astrophysics observational results will be highlighted in this paper, such as the sky survey results, extended source observation, diffuse gamma rays from the galactic plane, and emission mechanism of AGNs and their flares. As the unique detector for EAS with a continuously sensitive area of 5,600 m ², the ARGO-YBJ array catches almost all particles in the central part of showers. The high-quality data set for showers above few TeV has been used for cosmic ray measurements such as the energy spectrum and composition. All those results are summarized here. As one of the next generation ground-based high-altitude air shower detector, LHAASO is briefly introduced as the successor of ARGO-YBJ in the end of the paper.     

Ultra-high energy cosmic rays and prompt TeV gamma rays from gamma ray bursts

Gamma ray bursts (GRBs) have been proposed as one possible class of sources of the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray (UHECR) events observed up to energies ≳ 10²⁰ eV. The synchrotron radiation of the highest energy protons accelerated within the GRB source should produce gamma rays up to TeV energies. Here we briefly discuss the implications on the energetics of the GRB from the point of view of the detectability of the prompt TeV γ-rays of proton-synchrotron origin in GRBs in the up-coming ICECUBE muon detector in the south pole.     

寻找超高能宇宙线源——西藏广延空气簇射实验

总结了１９９０年６月到１９９３年１０月期间西藏空气簇射阵列的观测结果。寻找了来自于蟹状星云、Ｘ射线双星、脉冲星、活动星系核和其它活动天体的能量为１０ＴｅＶγ射线连续发射，没有发现连续稳定发射的迹象，但给出了每个源的流强上限。在阵列所观测的天区寻找了１０ＴｅＶ的γ暴，结果没有发现能量１０ＴｅＶ的γ暴，最后也给出了发现此种γ暴的上限。应用该阵列，明显地观测到了能量为１０ＴｅＶ的宇宙线流强的太阳和月亮阴影。观测了朝向和远离太阳的行星际空间磁场对宇宙线阴影的影响，这是行星际磁场对阴影位移影响的第一次直接观测。研究并发现在实验期间，太阳阴影的位置每年都在变化。同时观测在此期间，朝向和远离方向的宇宙线阴影的不同变化。另外，应用该实验的数据，给出了所谓的“膝”区的原初宇宙线能谱。     

Study on the optimization of the water Cherenkov detector array of the LHAASO project for surveying VHE gamma ray sources

It is prpopsed that a water Cherenkov detector array, LHAASO-WCDA, is to be built at Shangri-la, Yunnan Province, China. As one of the major components of the LHAASO project, the main purpose of it is to survey the northern sky for gamma ray sources in the energy range of 100 GeV—30 TeV. In order to design the water Cherenkov array efficiently to economize the budget, a Monte Carlo simulation is carried out. With the help of the simulation, the cost performance of different configurations of the array are obtained and compared with each other, serving as a guide for the more detailed design of the experiment in the next step.     

Energy spectrum of cosmic protons and helium nuclei by ahybrid measurement at 4300 m a.s.l.

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 (100-700 TeV). The observed energy spectrum is compatible with a single power law with index γ=-2.63±0.06.     

Online charge calibration of LHAASO-WCDA——a study with the engineering array

LHAASO-WCDA is a large ground-based water Cherenkov detector array planned to be built at ShangriLa, Yunnan Province, China. As a major component of the LHAASO project, the main purpose of LHAASO-WCDA is to survey the northern sky for very-high-energy（above 100 GeV） gamma ray sources and measure the spectrum. To gain full knowledge of the water Cherenkov technique and to investigate the engineering issues, a 9-cell detector array has been built at the Yang-Ba-Jing site, neighboring the ARGO-YBJ experiment. With the array, charge calibration methods for both low and high ranges of the PMT readout are studied, whose result shows that a precision at several percentages can be reached, which can satisfy the requirement of the detector array. During the long term operation, the charge calibration stability and environmental afection are studied; in this paper, the results are discussed. These calibration methods are proposed to be applied in the future LHAASO-WCDA project.     

太阳大耀斑期间甚高能粒子流强增加的一种机制

近年来,在太阳大耀班期间,由地面中子记录装置及地下不同深度μ子记录器记录到宇宙线粒子的短期增长(GLE)现象,其能量范围已达几百GeV,甚至可达TeV能区.本文讨论了TeV能区的增长现象可能是银河宇宙线部分粒子获得再加速,由于宇宙线粒子能谱很陡,几百GeV的再加速能量能使TeV以上能区宇宙线流强有明显增长.     

Study on the separation of 100 TeV γ-rays from cosmic rays for the Tibet ASγ experiment

A γ/hadron separation analysis is described for the observed air shower events with primary energy above 100 TeV based on the Tibet AST detector configuration. The shower age and size parameters are fitted from the measured lateral density distribution and used as discrimination variables. According to the MC simulation while taking into account the systematic uncertainty estimated from data and MC comparison,it is found that 70% of the cosmic ray (CR) background can be rejected while more than 78% of the γ-rays can be retained. Sensitivity for 100 TeV γ-rays observation can thus be improved by at least 40%.     

Test of the LHAASO electron detector prototype using cosmic rays

The LHAASO project is to be built in south-west China, using an array of 5137 electron detectors for the measurement of incident electrons arriving at the detector plane. For quality control of the large number of electron detectors, a cosmic ray hodoscope with two-dimensional spatial sensitivity and good time resolution has been developed. The first prototype of the electron detector has been tested with the hodoscope and the performance of the detector is found to be consistent with the design.     

On the contribution of a hard galactic plane component to the excesses of secondary particles

The standard model of cosmic ray propagation has been very successful in explaining all kinds of galactic cosmic ray spectra. However, high precision measurement have recently revealed an appreciable discrepancy between data and model expectations, from spectrum observations of gamma-rays, e+/e- and probably the B=C ratio starting from ~10 GeV energy . In this work, we propose that a hard galactic plane component, supplied by the fresh cosmic ray sources and detained by local magnetic elds, can contribute additional secondary particles interacting with local materials. By properly choosing the intensity and spectral index of the harder component up to multi-T eV energy , a two-component gamma-ray spectrum is obtained and agrees very well with the observation. Simultaneously , the expected neutrino numbers from the galactic plane could contribute ~60% of IceCube observed neutrino number below a few hundreds of TeV under our model. In addition to these studies, we nd that the same pp-collision process responsible for the excess gamma ray emission could account for a signi cant amount of the positron excess, but a more detailed mechanism is needed for a full agreement. It is expected that the excesses in the p=p and B=C ratio will show up when energy is above ~10 GeV. We look forward this model being tested in the near future by new observations from AMS02, IceCube, AS-gamma, HA WC and future  experiments such as LHASSO, HiSCORE and CTA.     

The TeV-scale cosmic ray proton and helium spectra: Contributions from the local sources

Recent measurements of cosmic ray proton and helium spectra show a hardening above a few hundreds of GeV. This excess is hard to understand in the framework of the conventional models of galactic cosmic ray production and propagation. Here, we propose to explain this anomaly by the presence of local sources. Cosmic ray propagation is described as a diffusion process taking place inside a two-zone magnetic halo. We calculate the proton and helium fluxes at the Earth between 50 GeV and 100 TeV. Improving over a similar analysis, we consistently derive these fluxes by taking into account both local and remote sources for which a unique injection rate is assumed. We find cosmic ray propagation parameters for which the proton and helium spectra remarkably agree with the PAMELA and CREAM measurements over four decades in energy.     

基于小波变换的1—10TeV宇宙线周期变化研究

利用小波变换, 结合折叠周期分析方法, 对羊八井宇宙线观测站Tibet AS γ阵列1998年4—6月的实验记录数据进行了周期分析, 发现 TeV和10 TeV宇宙线流强观测数据中包含0.5 和1 d周期变化, 其信噪比分别达到10和6. TeV宇宙线0.5 和1 d周期变化的最大变化幅度分别约为0.3%和0.5%, 10 TeV宇宙线约为0.4%和0.7%. We use the technique of wavelet analysis and epoch folding methods to search for the superimposed periodic signals of 1—10 TeV cosmic ray in the data obtained with Tibet Ⅱ/HD AS Array for April to June of 1998. Solar time semi diurnal and diurnal variations have been detected with about signal noise ratio 10 and 6 for the 1 TeV and 10 TeV cosmic ray flux respectively. The semi diurnal variations are of an amplitude 0.3%, a phase 0.9 for 1 TeV cosmic ray and 0.4%, 0.9 for 10 TeV. The diurnal variations are of amplitude 0.5%, 0.7%, and phase 0.8 for 1 TeV and 10 TeV cosmic ray respectively.     

EAS Phenomenology and Cosmic Ray Spectrum Ground Based Measurements

Primary cosmic ray energy spectrum around and above 1 PeV is of great interest due to its non-power-law behavior (“knee”) in PeV region found many years ago using the indirect EAS (Extensive Air Shower) method. The method is based on secondary particles measuring on Earth’s surface under a thick atmosphere. Traditionally, people use detectors sensitive to ionization produced mostly by secondary electromagnetic component and therefore any found changes in EAS size spectrum correspond to secondary components, which have to be recalculated to primary spectrum. Recently some new “knees” were claimed by high altitude experiments: at ∼45 TeV for all-particle spectrum (HAWC), for primary protons and helium: at ∼400 TeV (Tibet ASγ) and at ∼700 TeV (ARGO-YBJ) thus widening the “knee” region from ∼0.045 to 5 PeV. The natural explanation of such a strange spectrum behavior in a wide energy range could be found in the EAS phenomenological approach to the knee problem.

     

用地面阵列寻找TeV能区γ点源的方法探讨

文中探讨搜寻TeV能区γ点源的方法.讨论利用student变量t判断来自源区及背景区宇宙线事例的统计差别,并由Bayes定理与MonteCarlo模拟相结合计算源区各能段的信号数,推算蟹状星云在TeV能区的γ射线微分能谱     

The cosmic ray actinide charge spectrum derived from a 10 m array of solid state nuclear track detectors in Earth orbit

The DIAS-ESTEC Ultra Heavy Cosmic Ray Experiment (UHCRE) on the Long Duration Exposure Facility, collected approximately 3000 cosmic ray nuclei with Z>65 in the energy region E>1.5 GeVnucleon⁻¹ during a six year exposure in Earth orbit. The entire accessible collecting area of the solid state nuclear track detector (SSNTD) array has been scanned for actinides, yielding a sample of 30 from an exposure of ≈150 m² sryr. The UHCRE experimental setup is described and the observed charge spectrum presented. The current best value for the cosmic ray actinide relative abundance, (Z>88)/(74Z87), is reported.     

高能宇宙射线数值模拟中能谱指数的标定

在利用TeV能区宇宙射线数值模拟数据研究朝前区强子相互作用时, 需要足够多的低空簇射事例样本。提出了可以通过降低FIXCHI（宇宙射线第一次相互作用高度）来提高高能宇宙射线数值模拟效率,但对相应的能谱指数进行标定是必要的。以1 TeV处直达概率为标准, 得到各能区的能谱强度, 并采用将能谱强度与能量进行线性拟合, 以标定能谱指数的方法, 使宇宙射线数值模拟的效率及准确率都大大提高。 In the study of hadronic interaction in the forward region by the simulation of cosmic ray, it is necessary to simulate large numbers of cosmic ray events with low first interaction height. We confirmed that by reducing the FIXCHI the efficiency of cosmic ray simulation can be improved. But the calibration for energy slope is needed. We got the energy slope based on the probability of direct arrived events with energy of 1 TeV, and fitted the intensity of spectrum with energy to make certain the energy slope of high energy cosmic ray. By this way, the efficiency and precision of cosmic ray simulation is greatly improved.     

Galactic cosmic ray propagation: sub-PeV diffuse gamma-ray and neutrino emission

The Tibet ASγ experiment just reported their measurement of sub-PeV diffuse gamma-ray emission from the Galactic disk, with the highest energy up to 957 TeV. These diffuse gamma rays are most likely the hadronic origin by cosmic ray (CR) interaction with interstellar gas in the galaxy. This measurement provides direct evidence to the hypothesis that the Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) can be accelerated beyond PeV energies. In this work, we try to explain the sub-PeV diffuse gamma-ray spectrum with different CR propagation models. We find that there is a tension between the sub-PeV diffuse gamma-ray and the local CR spectrum. To describe the sub-PeV diffuse gamma-ray flux, it generally requires larger local CR flux than measurement in the knee region. We further calculate the PeV neutrino flux from the CR propagation model. Even all of these sub-PeV diffuse gamma rays originate from the propagation, the Galactic Neutrinos (GNs) only account for less than ~15% of observed flux, most of which are still from extragalactic sources.