Electromagnetic Components Research Articles

Measurement of the muon production depths at the Pierre Auger Observatory

The muon content of extensive air showers is an observable sensitive to the primary composition and to the hadronic interaction properties. The Pierre Auger Observatory uses water-Cherenkov detectors to measure particle densities at the ground and therefore is sensitive to the muon content of air showers. We present here a method which allows us to estimate the muon production depths by exploiting the measurement of the muon arrival times at the ground recorded with the Surface Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The analysis is performed in a large range of zenith angles, thanks to the capability of estimating and subtracting the electromagnetic component, and for energies between $10^{19.2}$ and $10^{20}$ eV.

Numerical Study of Flow Motion and Patterns Driven by a Rotating Permanent Helical Magnetic Field

Liquid metal magnetohydrodynamic flow driven by a rotating permanent helical magnetic field in a cylindrical container is numerically studied. A three-dimensional numerical simulation provides insight into the visualization of the physical fields, including the magnetic field, the Lorentz force density, and the flow structures, especially the flow patterns in the meridional plane. Because the screen parameter is sufficiently small, the model is decoupled into electromagnetic and hydrodynamic components. Two flow patterns in the meridional plane, i.e., the global flow and the secondary flow, are discovered and the impact of several system parameters on their transition is investigated. Finally, a verifying model is used for comparison with the previous experiment.

Multi-objective optimization of a hybrid electromagnetic suspension system for ride comfort, road holding and regenerated power

This paper reports work on the optimization and performance evaluation of a hybrid electromagnetic suspension system equipped with a hybrid electromagnetic damper. The hybrid damper is configured to operate with hydraulic and electromagnetic components. The hydraulic component produces a large fail-safe baseline damping force, while the electromagnetic component adds energy regeneration and adaptability to the suspension. For analyzing the system, the electromagnetic component was modeled and integrated into a 2DOF quarter-car model. Three criteria were considered for evaluating the performance of the suspension system: ride comfort, road holding and regenerated power. Using the genetic algorithm multi-objective optimization (NSGA-II), the suspension design was optimized to improve the performance of the vehicle with respect to the selected criteria. The multi-objective optimization method provided a set of solutions called Pareto front in which all solutions are equally good and the selection of each one depends on conditions and needs. Among the given solutions in the Pareto front, a small number of cases, with different design purposes, were selected. The performances of the selected designs were compared with two reference systems: a conventional and a nonoptimized hybrid suspension system. The results show that the ride comfort and road holding qualities of the optimized hybrid system are improved, and the regenerated power is considerably increased.

Superposition of nonparaxial vectorial complex-source spherically focused beams: Axial Poynting singularity and reverse propagation

In this work, counterintuitive effects such as the generation of an axial (i.e., long the direction of wave motion) zero-energy flux density (i.e., axial Poynting singularity) and reverse (i.e., negative) propagation of nonparaxial quasi-Gaussian electromagnetic (EM) beams are examined. Generalized analytical expressions for the EM field's components of a coherent superposition of two high-order quasi-Gaussian vortex beams of opposite handedness and different amplitudes are derived based on the complex-source-point method, stemming from Maxwell's vector equations and the Lorenz gauge condition. The general solutions exhibiting unusual effects satisfy the Helmholtz and Maxwell's equations. The EM beam components are characterized by nonzero integer degree and order $(n,m)$, respectively, an arbitrary waist ${w}_{0}$, a diffraction convergence length known as the Rayleigh range ${z}_{R}$, and a weighting (real) factor $\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}0\ensuremath{\le}\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\le}1$ that describes the transition of the beam from a purely vortex $(\ensuremath{\alpha}=0)$ to a nonvortex $(\ensuremath{\alpha}=1)$ type. An attractive feature for this superposition is the description of strongly focused (or strongly divergent) wave fields. Computations of the EM power density as well as the linear and angular momentum density fluxes illustrate the analysis with particular emphasis on the polarization states of the vector potentials forming the beams and the weight of the coherent beam superposition causing the transition from the vortex to the nonvortex type. Should some conditions determined by the polarization state of the vector potentials and the beam parameters be met, an axial zero-energy flux density is predicted in addition to a negative retrograde propagation effect. Moreover, rotation reversal of the angular momentum flux density with respect to the beam handedness is anticipated, suggesting the possible generation of negative (left-handed) torques. The results are particularly useful in applications involving the design of strongly focused optical laser tweezers, tractor beams, optical spanners, arbitrary scattering, radiation force, angular momentum, and torque in particle manipulation, and other related topics.

Reionization and dark matter decay

Cosmic reionization and dark matter decay can impact observations of the cosmic microwave sky in a similar way. A simultaneous study of both effects is required to constrain unstable dark matter from cosmic microwave background observations. We compare two reionization models with and without dark matter decay. We find that a reionization model that fits also data from quasars and star forming galaxies results in tighter constraints on the reionization optical depth τreio, but weaker constraints on the spectral index ns than the conventional parametrization. We use the Planck 2015 data to constrain the effective decay rate of dark matter to Γeff < 2.9 × 10−25/s at 95% C.L. This limit is robust and model independent. It holds for any type of decaying dark matter and it depends only weakly on the chosen parametrization of astrophysical reionization. For light dark matter particles that decay exclusively into electromagnetic components this implies a limit of Γ < 5.3 × 10−26/s at 95% C.L. Specifying the decay channels, we apply our result to the case of keV-mass sterile neutrinos as dark matter candidates and obtain constraints on their mixing angle and mass, which are comparable to the ones from the diffuse X-ray background.

Influence of electron–ion collisions in plasma on the electron energy gain using the TE11 mode inside an elliptical waveguide

The influence of electron–ion collisions in plasma on the electron energy gain and total energy of an externally injected electron inside an elliptical waveguide, including collisional plasma using the transverse electric mode, is investigated. It is noted that microwave radiation is used for excitations of the TE11 even mode in the configuration. The electromagnetic field components of the TE11 mode in the considered waveguide are obtained and graphically presented. It is seen that the strength of the fields reduces in the collisional plasma. Furthermore, the deflection angle, energy gain of the electron and total energy of the electron due to the mode are obtained. It is illustrated that electron–ion collisions in plasma reduce the energy gain and total energy of electrons injected into the elliptical waveguide.

Field analysis for a configuration of sheath helix in the presence of a metallic rod

The field analysis for a configuration of sheath helix in the presence of a coaxial metallic rod and strongly magnetized plasma under two conditions, i.e. , is presented. The electromagnetic field components in the configuration are obtained. The effects of a coaxial metallic rod in a plasma-loaded sheath helix traveling wave tube by means of a theoretical approach, in which infinite magnetic field has been adopted to represent the plasma response, is investigated. We presume that for the finite beam term, the mode structures remain unmodified and only the eigenfrequencies are modified. Therefore, the growth rate of slow electromagnetic waves and so their dispersion relation is calculated. Effects of frequency and plasma frequency on the growth rate are investigated. The obtained results are graphically presented.

New complex EAS installation of the Tien Shan mountain cosmic ray station

In this paper we present a description of the new complex installation for the study of extensive air showers which was created at the Tien Shan mountain cosmic ray station, as well as the results of the test measurements made there in 2014–2016. At present, the system for registration of electromagnetic shower component consists of ∼100 detector points built on the basis of plastic scintillator plates with the sensitive area of 0.25m2 and 1m2, spread equidistantly over ∼104m2 space. The dynamic range of scintillation amplitude measurements is currently about (3–7)·104, and there is a prospect of it being extended up to ∼106. The direction of shower arrival is defined by signal delays from a number of the scintillators placed cross-wise at the periphery of the detector system. For the investigation of nuclear active shower components a multi-tier 55m2 ionization-neutron calorimeter with a sum absorber thickness of ∼1000g/cm2, typical spatial resolution of the order of 10cm, and dynamic range of ionization measurement channel about ∼105 was created. Also, the use of saturation-free neutron detectors is anticipated for registration of the high- and low-energy hadron components in the region of shower core. A complex of underground detectors is designed for the study of muonic and penetrative nuclear-active components of the shower.The full stack of data acquisition, detector calibration, and shower parameters restoration procedures are now completed, and the newly obtained shower size spectrum and lateral distribution of shower particles occur in agreement with conventional data. Future studies in the field of 1014–1017eV cosmic ray physics to be held at the new shower installation are discussed.

Detection of Ultrahigh‐Energy Cosmic Rays with the Auger Engineering Radio Array

Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays interact with the Earth's atmosphere and produce great numbers of secondary particles forming an extensive air shower. These air showers emit radiation in the radio frequency range which delivers important information about the processes of radio emission in extensive air showers and properties of the primary cosmic rays, e.g. arrival direction, energy and mass with a duty cycle close to 100%. The radio extension of the world's largest cosmic-ray experiment, the Pierre Auger Observatory, is called the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA). In addition to the particle and fluorescence detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory, AERA investigates the electromagnetic component of extensive air showers using 153 autonomous radio stations on an area of 17km2.

Full 3‐D TLM simulations of the Earth‐ionosphere cavity: Effect of conductivity on the Schumann resonances

AbstractSchumann resonances can be found in planetary atmospheres, inside the cavity formed by the conducting surface of the planet and the lower ionosphere. They are a powerful tool to investigate both the electric processes that occur in the atmosphere and the characteristics of the surface and the lower ionosphere. Results from a full 3‐D model of the Earth‐ionosphere electromagnetic cavity based on the Transmission‐Line Modeling (TLM) method are presented. A Cartesian scheme with homogeneous cell size of 10 km is used to minimize numerical dispersion present in spherical schemes. Time and frequency domain results have been obtained to study the resonance phenomenon. The effect of conductivity on the Schumann resonances in the cavity is investigated by means of numerical simulations, studying the transition from resonant to nonresonant response and setting the conductivity limit for the resonances to develop inside the cavity. It is found that the transition from resonant to nonresonant behavior occurs for conductivity values above roughly 10−9 S/m. For large losses in the cavity, the resonances are damped, but, in addition, the peak frequencies change according to the local distance to the source and with the particular electromagnetic field component. These spatial variations present steep variations around each mode's nodal position, covering distances around 1/4 of the mode wavelength, the higher modes being more sensitive to this effect than the lower ones. The dependence of the measured frequency on the distance to the source and particular component of the electric field offers information on the source generating these resonances.

Detection of thermal neutrons with the PRISMA-YBJ array in extensive air showers selected by the ARGO-YBJ experiment

We report on a measurement of thermal neutrons, generated by the hadronic component of extensive air showers (EAS), by means of a small array of EN-detectors developed for the PRISMA project (PRImary Spectrum Measurement Array), novel devices based on a compound alloy of ZnS(Ag) and 6LiF. This array has been operated within the ARGO-YBJ experiment at the high altitude Cosmic Ray Observatory in Yangbajing (Tibet, 4300 m a.s.l.). Due to the tight correlation between the air shower hadrons and thermal neutrons, this technique can be envisaged as a simple way to estimate the number of high energy hadrons in EAS. Coincident events generated by primary cosmic rays of energies greater than 100 TeV have been selected and analyzed. The EN-detectors have been used to record simultaneously thermal neutrons and the air shower electromagnetic component. The density distributions of both components and the total number of thermal neutrons have been measured. The correlation of these data with the measurements carried out by ARGO-YBJ confirms the excellent performance of the EN-detector.

Measurement of the Muon Content of Air Showers with IceTop

IceTop, the surface component of the IceCube detector, has measured the energy spectrum of cosmic ray primaries in the range between 1.6 PeV and 1.3 EeV. IceTop can also be used to measure the average density of GeV muons in the shower front at large radial distances (> 300 m) from the shower axis. Wei present the measurement of the muon lateral distribution function for primary cosmic rays with energies between 1.6 PeV and about 0.1 EeV, and compare it to proton and iron simulations. We also discuss how this information can be exploited in the reconstruction of single air shower events. By combining the information on the muon component with that of the electromagnetic component of the air shower, we expect to reduce systematic uncertainties in the inferred mass composition of cosmic rays arising from theoretical uncertainties in hadronic interaction models.

A New Model of Electromechanical Relays for Predicting the Motion and Electromagnetic Dynamics

In this paper, a novel multiphysics and nonlinear model for electromechanical relays is presented. The electromagnetic dynamics is analyzed by calculating the total reluctance of the magnetic equivalent circuit (MEC), which is composed of a fixed length iron core and an angular air gap. Magnetic saturation and angular dependency of the reluctance are considered in the analysis. Then, an energy balance over the electromagnetic components of the system is used to obtain the torque which drives the movable armature. A planar mechanism of four rigid bodies, including spring-damping torques that restrict the motion and model the contact bounces that occur in the switchings, is proposed to explain the dynamics of the movable components. Experimental tests show the accuracy of the model in both the electromagnetic and the mechanical parts.

The Auger Engineering Radio Array and multi-hybrid cosmic ray detection

The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) aims at the detection of air showers induced by high-energy cosmic rays. As an extension of the Pierre Auger Observatory, it measures complementary information to the particle detectors, fluorescence telescopes and to the muon scintillators of the Auger Muons and Infill for the Ground Array (AMIGA). AERA is sensitive to all fundamental parameters of an extensive air shower such as the arrival direction, energy and depth of shower maximum. Since the radio emission is induced purely by the electromagnetic component of the shower, in combination with the AMIGA muon counters, AERA is perfect for separate measurements of the electrons and muons in the shower, if combined with a muon counting detector like AMIGA. In addition to the depth of the shower maximum, the ratio of the electron and muon number serves as a measure of the primary particle mass.

Photon and physical phenomena responsible for its momentum

We derive a magnitude of the momentum of light in matter by means of matching two irrefutable not contradictory thought experiments where no preliminary assumptions about kinds of optically induced forces responsible for a change of the momentum of light in matter are made. The total momentum increases in the matter by n times due to the Coulomb kind of force in a dielectric investigated by Maxwell. There are two different component of the total momentum. These are the mechanical component arising due to a motion of conventional material objects, mass of whose is non-zero and the electromagnetic component produced by a travelling electromagnetic wave, mass of which is equal to zero. The following types of optically induced forces provide a redistribution of the total momentum between these components. These are the kind of the Abraham-like force produced in matter by an electromagnetic wave, intensity of which is changed in time and the Helmholtz-like force arising in a field of an electromagnetic wave due to an inhomogeneity of the electrostriction pressure produced by the light wave. The mechanical component of the momentum of the light is negative and the electromagnetic component is greater than the total momentum.

On the solution of waveguide boundary value problems in the absence of the Lorentz calibration

The spectral method for the solution of boundary value electrodynamic problems without the use of the Lorentz calibration is proposed. The method involves autonomous decompositions of the electromagnetic field components, and the Galerkin procedure is applied directly to the Maxwell equations. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated for the example of a rectangular waveguide that is inhomogeneously filled.

INTEGRAL UPPER LIMITS ON GAMMA-RAY EMISSION ASSOCIATED WITH THE GRAVITATIONAL WAVE EVENT GW150914

ABSTRACT Using observations of the INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL), we place upper limits on the gamma-ray and hard X-ray prompt emission associated with the gravitational wave event GW150914, which was discovered by the LIGO/Virgo Collaboration. The omnidirectional view of the INTEGRAL/SPI-ACS has allowed us to constrain the fraction of energy emitted in the hard X-ray electromagnetic component for the full high-probability sky region of LIGO triggers. Our upper limits on the hard X-ray fluence at the time of the event range from F &gamma; = 2 &times; 10 &minus; 8 ?> erg cm−2 to F &gamma; = 10 &minus; 6 ?> erg cm−2 in the 75 keV–2 MeV energy range for typical spectral models. Our results constrain the ratio of the energy promptly released in gamma-rays in the direction of the observer to the gravitational wave energy E &gamma; / ?> E GW &lt; 10 &minus; 6 ?> . We discuss the implication of gamma-ray limits for the characteristics of the gravitational wave source, based on the available predictions for prompt electromagnetic emission.

On the possibility to use semiconductive hybrid pixel detectors for study of radiation belt of the Earth.

The scientific apparatus GAMMA-400 designed for study of electromagnetic and hadron components of cosmic rays will be launched to an elliptic orbit with the apogee of about 300 000 km and the perigee of about 500 km. Such a configuration of the orbit allows it to cross periodically the radiation belt and the outer part of magnetosphere. We discuss the possibility to use hybrid pixel detecters based on the Timepix chip and semiconductive sensors on board the GAMMA-400 apparatus. Due to high granularity of the sensor (pixel size is 55 mum) and possibility to measure independently an energy deposition in each pixel, such compact and lightweight detector could be a unique instrument for study of spatial, energy and time structure of electron and proton components of the radiation belt.

Search of strangelets and “forward” physics on the collider

A new stage of the collider experiments at the maximum energy of protons and nuclei at the LHC may lead to the discovery of new phenomena, as well as to confirm the effects previously observed only at very high energies in cosmic rays. A specific program of the experiments is so-called “forward” physics, i.e. the study of low-angle processes. Of the most interesting phenomena can be noted the detection in cosmic rays events called Centauro, which could be explained as the strangelets production. Centauro represent events with small multiplicity and with a strong suppression of electromagnetic component. Since the energy of the beams at the collider and kinematic parameters of the forward detectors CASTOR (CMS), TOTEM, LHCf and the ADA and ADC (ALICE) are close to the parameters and energies of abnormal events in cosmic rays, it is possible to reproduce and investigate in details these events in the laboratory.

Electromagnetic fluctuations generated in the boundary layer of laboratory-created ionospheric depletions

Ionospheric depletions, produced by release of attachment chemicals into the ionosphere, were widely investigated and taken as a potential technique for the artificial modification of space weather. In this work, we reported the experimental evidence of spontaneously generated electromagnetic fluctuations in the boundary layer of laboratory-created ionospheric depletions. These depletions were produced by releasing attachment chemicals into the ambient plasmas. Electron density gradients and sheared flows arose in the boundary layer between the ambient and the negative ions plasmas. These generated electromagnetic fluctuations with fundamental frequency f0 = 70 kHz lie in the lower hybrid frequency range, and the mode propagates with angles smaller than 90° (0.3π–0.4π) relative to the magnetic field. Our results revealed that these observed structures were most likely due to electromagnetic components of the electron-ion hybrid instability. This research demonstrates that electromagnetic fluctuations also can be excited during active release experiments, which should be considered as an essential ingredient in the boundary layer processes of ionospheric depletions.