Narrow Results

The VEPP-2000 electron-positron collider was commissioned in 2010. About 60 pb^-1 were collected so far by CMD-3 detector in the whole available c.m. energy range from 0.32 GeV to 2.0 GeV. The preliminary results of data analysis for various modes of e⁺e⁻ → hadrons are discussed.

We report preliminary results on the measurement of the cross section of the process e⁺e^- → K⁺K^-π⁺π^- in the c.m. energy range from 1.5 GeV to 2 GeV. It is shown that the cross section is dominated by the contributions of several intermediate states K⁺K^-ρ, K*Kπ, ϕπ⁺π^- and K*K*.

A brief overview of the technology applications with significant societal benefit that have their origins in nuclear and particle physics research is presented. It is shown through representative examples that applications of nuclear physics can be classified into two basic areas: 1) applying the results of experimental nuclear physics and 2) applying the tools of experimental nuclear physics. Examples of the application of the tools of experimental nuclear and particle physics research are provided in the fields of accelerator and detector based technologies namely synchrotron light sources, nuclear medicine, ion implantation and radiation therapy.

The NASA Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a 2.5m telescope in a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft that is flown at high altitude to do unique astronomy in the infrared. SOFIA is a singular integration of aircraft operations, telescope design, and science instrumentation that delivers observational opportunities outside the capability of any other facility. The science ground operations are the transition and integration point of the science, aircraft, and telescope. We present the ground operations themselves and the tools used to prepare for mission success. Specifically, we will discuss operations from science instrument delivery to aircraft operation and mission readiness. We will also provide a discussion of instrument life cycle including maintenance and repair, both before and after acceptance by the observatory as well as retirement. Included in that will be a description of the facilities and their development, an overview of the SOFIA telescope assembly simulator, our deployment capabilities, as well as an outlook to the future of novel science instrument support for SOFIA.

High-resolution Airborne Wide-band Camera (HAWC$+$) is the facility far-infrared imager and polarimeter for SOFIA, NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. It is designed to cover the portion of the infrared spectrum that is completely inaccessible to ground-based observatories and which is essential for studies of astronomical sources with temperatures between tens and hundreds of degrees Kelvin. Its ability to make polarimetric measurements of aligned dust grains provides a unique new capability for studying interstellar magnetic fields. HAWC$+$ began commissioning flights in April 2016 and was accepted as a facility instrument in early 2018. In this paper, we describe the instrument, its operational procedures, and its performance on the observatory.

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) Near Infrared Imaging Camera-II (TIRCAM2) is a closed-cycle Helium cryo-cooled imaging camera equipped with a Raytheon 512$\times$512 pixels InSb Aladdin III Quadrant focal plane array (FPA) having sensitivity to photons in the 1–5$\mu \text{m}$ wavelength band. In this paper, we present the performance of the camera on the newly installed 3.6m Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) based on the calibration observations carried out during 2017 May 11–14 and 2017 October 7–31. After the preliminary characterization, the camera has been released to the Indian and Belgian astronomical community for science observations since 2017 May. The camera offers a field-of-view (FoV) of $\sim 86.5^{\prime \prime }\times 86.5^{\prime \prime }$ on the DOT with a pixel scale of 0.169${}^{\prime \prime }$. The seeing at the telescope site in the near-infrared (NIR) bands is typically sub-arcsecond with the best seeing of $\sim 0.45^{\prime \prime }$ realized in the NIR $K$-band on 2017 October 16. The camera is found to be capable of deep observations in the $J$, $H$ and $K$ bands comparable to other 4m class telescopes available world-wide. Another highlight of this camera is the observational capability for sources up to Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) W1-band (3.4$\mu$m) magnitudes of 9.2 in the narrow $L$-band ($nbL$; ${\lambda }_{\mathrm{\text{cen}}}\sim$ 3.59$\mu$m). Hence, the camera could be a good complementary instrument to observe the bright $nbL$-band sources that are saturated in the Spitzer-Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) ([3.6] $\lesssim$ 7.92 mag) and the WISE W1-band ([3.4] $\lesssim$ 8.1 mag). Sources with strong polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission at 3.3$\mu$m are also detected. Details of the observations and estimated parameters are presented in this paper.

The Advanced Virgo project was funded in 2009 with the aim of improving the sensitivity of the Virgo interferometric detector for gravitational waves by a factor of ten, which corresponds to an increase in the detection rate by about three orders of magnitude. The upgrade is now close to completion: the new interferometer will enter its commissioning phase in 2016. The new detector will be hosted in the same infrastructure as Virgo, but many technological upgrades have been put in place to reach the sensitivity goal. In this paper the detector design and the observational perspectives are discussed.