Bulletin of the American Physical Society
78th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Section of the APS
Volume 56, Number 9
Wednesday–Saturday, October 19–22, 2011; Roanoke, Virginia
Session JA: Astrophysics |
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Chair: Michael Kavic, Long Island University Room: Crystal Ballroom A |
Friday, October 21, 2011 1:30PM - 1:42PM |
JA.00001: LENS -- A Novel Technology to Measure the Low Energy Solar Neutrino Spectrum (pp, 7Be, and CNO) S. Derek Rountree LENS is a low energy solar neutrino spectrometer that will measure the solar neutrino spectrum above 115 keV, $>$95{\%} of the solar neutrino flux, in real time. The fundamental neutrino reaction in LENS is charged-current based capture on 115In detected in a liquid scintillator medium. The reaction yields the prompt emission of an electron and the delayed emission of 2 gamma rays that serve as a time {\&} space coincidence tag. Sufficient spatial resolution is used to exploit this signature and suppress background, particularly due to 115In beta decay. A novel design of optical segmentation (The Scintillation Lattice or SL) channels the signal light along the three primary axes. The channeling is achieved via total internal reflection by suitable low index gaps in the segmentation. The spatial resolution of a nuclear event is obtained digitally, much more precisely than possible by common time of flight methods. Advanced Geant4 analysis methods have been developed to suppress adequately the severe background due to 115In beta decay, achieving at the same time high detection efficiency. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 21, 2011 1:42PM - 1:54PM |
JA.00002: LENS Prototyping -- Construction and Deployment of MicroLENS Tristan Wright, Zachary Yokley The LENS collaboration's goal is the construction of a low energy neutrino spectrometer (LENS) that will measure the entire solar neutrino spectrum above 115keV. In an effort to reach this goal we have developed a two phase prototype program. The first of these is microLENS, a small prototype to study the light transmission in the as built LENS scintillation lattice---a novel detector method of high segmentation in a large liquid scintillator detector. The microLENS prototype is currently being finished and deployed at the Kimballton Underground Research Facility (KURF) near Virginia Tech. This prototype will be the main topic of this presentation. We will present the detector construction and the methods and schemes of the program during the first phases of running with minimal channels instrumented ($\sim $41 compared to full coverage 216). After construction of the microLENS detector we will finalize designs for the miniLENS prototype and have the miniLENS prototype running shortly thereafter. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 21, 2011 1:54PM - 2:06PM |
JA.00003: Borexino Calibration, Precision Measurement and Seasonal Variations of the $^{7}$Be solar neutrino flux Szymon Manecki Borexino, a real-time calorimetric detector for low energy neutrino spectroscopy, is located in the underground laboratories of Gran Sasso, Italy (LNGS). The experiment's main focus is the direct measurement of the $^{7}$Be solar neutrino flux of all flavors via neutrino-electron scattering in an ultra-pure scintillation liquid. After years of construction, the first data was collected in May 2007, and since then, over 740 live days have been acquired for the analysis. Years of operation and extensive calibration campaign led by Virginia Tech have opened new fields that extend beyond Borexino's initial mission. Currently, the precision measurement on the $^{7}$Be line approaches an extraordinarily low level of 4\%. That allows us to extract the Seasonal Variation of the neutrino-flux which I am mainly involved in at Virginia Tech; Studies of such fluctuations will deliver definite evidence for the Solar origin of the signal. Borexino also serves as a powerful observatory for anti-neutrinos from Supernovae as well as for Geo-neutrinos. Design and the detector calibration will also be covered in this discussion. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 21, 2011 2:06PM - 2:18PM |
JA.00004: Solar system tests versus cosmological constraints for $f(G)$ models Jacob Moldenhauer, Mustapha Ishak Recently, some $f(G)$ higher order gravity models have been shown to exhibit some interesting phenomenology including a late time cosmic acceleration following a matter-dominated deceleration period with no separatrix singularities in between the two phases. In this work, we compare the models to the solar system limits from the gravitational frequency redshift, the deflection of light, the Cassini experiment, the time delay and the perihelion shift of planets deriving various bounds on the model parameters. We contrast the bounds obtained with the cosmological constraints on these models finding that the models pass simultaneously both types of constraints. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 21, 2011 2:18PM - 2:30PM |
JA.00005: The Spectral Properties of Galaxies with H2O Maser Emission Nathan DiDomenico, Anca Constantin, James Corcoran, Thomas Redpath Megamaser disk systems allow for accurate measurements of the masses of galactic supermassive black holes and precise distance determinations of extragalactic systems, but the detection rate of maser systems remains low. We investigate the optical spectral properties of a large, statistically significant sample of galaxies that host water masers in order to identify the host properties that correlate with maser emission, and thus provide efficient ways to search for new mega-maser disks. We combined spectroscopic observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey with the sample of galaxies surveyed for water maser emission from the Megamaser Cosmology Project. We identified 46 maser detections and 1207 non-detections in the SDSS spectroscopic sample of galaxies, for which we compared their black hole masses, optical spectral classifications via line ratio diagrams, extinction and reddening, electron density of the emitting gas, ages of the host stellar population and host stellar masses, emission line luminosities and the black hole accretion rates. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 21, 2011 2:30PM - 2:42PM |
JA.00006: A Proposed Theory of Everything (TOE) Antonio Colella The TOE unites all known physical phenomena from the Planck cube to the Super Universe. Each matter and force particle exists within a Planck cube and any universe object is representable by a volume of contiguous Planck cubes. The TOE unifies 16 SM, 16 Supersymmetric, 32 anti, 64 Higgs, and the super force for 129 particles. At t = 0, our universe's energy/mass consisted of super force. By t = 100 seconds, this transformed into eight permanent matter particles. Matter creation coincided with the inflationary period. Spontaneous symmetry breaking occurred for 17 matter particles including W/Z bosons and 17 associated Higgs force particles. The sum of eight permanent Higgs force energies was dark energy. Our universe and parallel universes were nested in the Super Universe. A black hole was redefined as a quark star (matter) and black hole (energy). Super supermassive (10$^{24}$ solar masses) quark stars (matter)/black holes (energy) were to universes as supermassive (10$^{6}$ to 10$^{9}$ solar masses) quark stars (matter) were to galaxies. Information was lost in quark star/black hole formation and none was emitted as Hawking radiation. Entropy switched from maximum to minimum in the transformation ``resurrecting'' life. The cosmological constant problem existed because the Super Universe was a googol larger than our universe. [Preview Abstract] |
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