ISSN:0094-243X    

DOI:10.1063/1.39117

出版商:AIP    

年代:1990

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

Despite nearly thirty years of study by earth‐orbiting satellites, major questions remain concerning the dynamics of the earth’s magnetosphere. This is the unavoidable result of attempting to understand a large complex and continuously changing system with a few isolated, single‐point measurements. A solution to this problem may lie in imaging the magnetosphere with energetic neutral atoms generated by charge‐exchange reactions between the magnetospheric plasma and exospheric hydrogen atoms. A lunar base would make an excellent location from which to carry out such an experiment.

ISSN:0094-243X    

DOI:10.1063/1.39122

出版商:AIP    

年代:1990

数据来源: AIP

ISSN:0094-243X    

DOI:10.1063/1.39129

出版商:AIP    

年代:1990

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

The possibility of using an inflatable, gas‐filled balloon as a TeV &ggr;‐ray detector on the Moon is considered. By taking an atmosphere of Xenon gas there, or by extracting it on the Moon, a layman’s detector design is presented. In spite of its shortcomings, the exercise illustrates several of the novel features offered by particle physics on the Moon.

ISSN:0094-243X    

DOI:10.1063/1.39115

出版商:AIP    

年代:1990

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

Studies of cosmic ray nuclei with energies ≲7 GeV/nucleon in low Earth orbit are hampered by the geomagnetic field. Even in high inclination orbits these effects can be significant. The lunar surface (or lunar orbit) provides an attractive site for carrying out low energy cosmic ray studies which require large detectors. The rationale and requirements for this type of experiment are described.

ISSN:0094-243X    

DOI:10.1063/1.39116

出版商:AIP    

年代:1990

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

A wealth of information regarding cosmic ray synthesis and propagation is contained in the ultra‐heavy (Z≳60) cosmic ray abundances; to extract this information, however, requires a detector capable of acquiring large statistics for these rare particles, as well as a charge resolution adequate to separate neighboring charge peaks at very large Z. A large, passive surface array of nuclear‐track‐detecting glass plates would meet these requirements. These glass plates could be periodically processe and analyzed for tracks at a lunar base, then melted/annealed for reuse in a continuously recycled detector array.

ISSN:0094-243X    

DOI:10.1063/1.39118

出版商:AIP    

年代:1990

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

There is a need for direct charge and energy measurements of cosmic rays above 100 TeV. A method for performing such a study, which cannot be done directly on Earth or from satellite, is proposed for a lunar base.

ISSN:0094-243X    

DOI:10.1063/1.39119

出版商:AIP    

年代:1990

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

The prospect of neutrino physics at a lunar base is analyzed from the point of view of neutrino astronomy for medium and high energy. This is done by introducing ‘‘particle astronomy’’ as a new discipline of physics. In addition, the entire Moon is considered as a neutrino detector. Due to the drop in flux of atmospheric neutrinos from the Earth, a high‐energy (1–103TeV) ‘‘window’’ into our Galactic center is proven to exist at the lunar surface which is obscured for Earth‐based observatories. In Sect. 8 it is further demonstrated that all of the Earth’s neutrinos can be eliminated for astrophysical sources, an important new result. Another issue addressed is long‐baseline particle physics in the Earth‐Moon laboratory (Sect. 10), which cannot be accomplished for any other planetary initiative such as Earth‐Mars, nor from satellite or the Earth alone. This includes neutrino oscillation studies (Sect. 11) as well as neutrino exploration of the Earth‐Moon and antineutrino radionuclide imaging of the Moon’s interior at planetary densities (Sect. 7). The important new vista of a lunar base for neutrino (antineutrino) astronomy is proposed as a scientific justification for returning to the Moon. A robust and bold new frontier of fundamental physics is advocated, using the Moon as an astrophysics testbed.

ISSN:0094-243X    

DOI:10.1063/1.39120

出版商:AIP    

年代:1990

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

We describe the current status of the search for proton decay on Earth, emphasizing the decay mode P → K+&ngr;¯ and discuss the possibility of detecting this mode with a simple detector on a lunar base station. The same detector could be used to search for neutrino bursts from distant supernova using the neutral current signature &ngr;&mgr;, &tgr;+N → n+&ngr;xby detecting the produced neutrons. The key advantage of the lunar experiment is the low neutrino flux and possible low radioactive background.

ISSN:0094-243X    

DOI:10.1063/1.39121

出版商:AIP    

年代:1990

数据来源: AIP

摘要:

Neutrino astronomy on the earth is currently signal‐limited, rather than background‐limited. Thus the absence of atmospheric muon background on the moon does not provide any obvious advantage in the search for point sources, although some advantage may exists for diffuse sources. A lunar detector for neutrino astronomy will still have to be as large as any on earth. The earlier suggestion that a window around 1 GeV exist, where backgrounds on earth are large, is shown to not provide for likely detectable sources.

ISSN:0094-243X    

DOI:10.1063/1.39123

出版商:AIP    

年代:1990

数据来源: AIP