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We present an analysis on the sensitivity to the active-sterile neutrino mixing with Germanium (Ge) and Silicon (Si) detectors in the context of the proposed coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus experiment in India. The study has been carried out with 3 (active) $+$ 1 (sterile) neutrino oscillation model. It is observed that the measurements that can be carried out with the Ge detector exhibit better sensitivity to the active-sterile neutrino mixing as compared to the Si detector. Both detectors are able to exclude most of the anomaly regions observed by the GALLIUM experiment. The Ge detector with mass 10 kg, can observe the active-sterile neutrino oscillation at 95$\%$ confidence level, provided that $\sin^{2}2\theta_{14}\geq 0.09$ at $\Delta m^{2}_{41}$ = 1.0 eV$^{2}$ for an exposure of 1-yr. At higher values of $\Delta m^{2}_{41}$, a better sensitivity is obtained at a short baseline. It is also found that the threshold as well as resolution of the detectors play a crucial role on the measurements of active-sterile neutrino mixing parameters., Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, Published version

The theory of ion-acoustic solitons in nonrelativistic fully degenerate plasmas and nonrelativistic and ultra-relativistic degenerate plasmas at low temperatures is known. We consider a multi-component relativistic degenerate electron-positron-ion plasma at finite temperatures. Specifically, we focus on the intermediate region where the particle's thermal energy $(k_BT)$ and the rest-mass energy $(mc^2)$ do not differ significantly, i.e., $k_BT\sim mc^2$. However, the Fermi energy $(k_BT_F)$ is larger than the thermal energy and the normalized chemical energy ($\xi=\mu/k_BT$) is positive and finite. Two different parameter regimes with $\beta\equiv k_BT/mc^2<1$ and $\beta>1$, relevant for astrophysical plasmas, are defined, and the existence of small amplitude ion-acoustic solitons in these regimes are studied, including the critical cases where the known KdV (Korteweg-de Vries) theory fails. We show that while the solitons with both the positive (compressive) and negative (rarefactive) potentials coexist in the case of $\beta<1$, only compressive solitons can exist in the other regime $(\beta>1)$. Furthermore, while the rarefactive solitons within the parameter domains of $\beta$ and $\xi$ can evolve with increasing amplitude and hence increasing energy, the energy of compressive solitons reaches a steady state., Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures; To appear in Scientific Reports (Nature)

We report the measurement of the non-reactor environmental backgrounds and the detector response with the Indian Scintillator Matrix for Reactor Anti-Neutrinos (ISMRAN), which is $\sim$1 ton detector setup by volume, consisting of 10$\times$9 (10 rows and 9 columns) Plastic Scintillator Bars (PSBs) array at BARC, Mumbai, India. ISMRAN is an above-ground anti-neutrino ($\mathrm{\overline\nu_{e}}$) experiment at very short baseline located at Dhruva research reactor facility. It is enclosed by a shielding made of 10 cm thick lead and 10 cm thick borated polyethylene to minimize the backgrounds and is mounted on a movable base structure, situated at $\sim$ 13 m away from the reactor core. These measurements are useful in the context of the ISMRAN detector setup that will be used to detect the reactor $\mathrm{\overline\nu_{e}}$ and measure its energy spectrum through the inverse beta decay (IBD) process. In this paper, we present the energy resolution model and energy non-linearity model of PSB and the cosmogenic muon-induced background, based on the sum of their energy depositions and number of hit bars. Reconstructed sum energy spectrum and number of hit bars distribution for $\mathrm{{}^{22}Na}$ radioactive source has been compared with Geant4 based Monte Carlo simulations. These experimentally measured results will be useful for discriminating the correlated and uncorrelated background events from the true IBD events in reactor ON and OFF conditions inside the reactor hall., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2208.03499

We present a detailed study on detector response to different radioactive sources and the measurements of non-reactor environmental backgrounds with the Indian Scintillator Matrix for Reactor Anti-Neutrinos (ISMRAN) detector setup consisting of 9$\times$10 Plastic Scintillator Bars (PSBs) array at BARC, Mumbai. These measurements are useful in the context of the ISMRAN detector setup, which will be used to detect the reactor anti-neutrinos (${\bar{\ensuremath{\nu}}}_{e}$) and measure its energy spectra, through the inverse beta decay (IBD) process. A GEANT4 based Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is used to understand the optical transmission, energy resolution and energy non-linearity of the ISMRAN detector. A detailed analysis procedure has been developed to understand the natural radioactive, cosmogenic and cosmic muon-induced backgrounds with the ISMRAN detector setup in a non-reactor environment, based on their energy deposition, number of bars hit as well as topological event selection criteria in position and time for triggered events. Data and MC simulated distributions of reconstructed sum energy and number of bars hit has been compared for the radioactive $\gamma$ + positron source such as $\mathrm{{}^{22}Na}$ placed at the center of the ISMRAN array. Fast neutron energy response and capture time distribution in ISMRAN array has been studied using a novel technique involving Time of Flight (TOF) of the measured fast neutrons. The observed characteristic neutron capture time ( $\tau$ ) of 68.29 $\pm$ 9.48 $\mu$s is in good agreement with $\sim$65 $\mu$s obtained from MC simulation. These experimentally measured results will be useful for discriminating the correlated and uncorrelated background events from the true IBD events in reactor ON and OFF conditions inside the reactor hall., Comment: 25 pages, 21 figures

We report measurement of reactor based electron anti-neutrinos from a prototype array of plastic scintillator bars ( mini-ISMRAN ) located inside Dhruva research reactor hall, BARC. The detector setup took data for 128 days for reactor on (RON) and 51 days for reactor off (ROFF) condition. A detailed analysis procedure is developed to select the anti-neutrino candidate events based on the energy deposition, number of bars hit as well as topological event selection criteria in position and time. Each of these selection criteria are compared with Monte Carlo based simulations and further an embedding technique is used to estimate the efficiencies from a data driven background study. The obtained anti-neutrino like events in RON condition are 218 $\pm$ 50 (stat) $\pm$ 37 (sys) after background subtraction. The obtained results are compared with theoretical estimation which yields 214 $\pm$ 32 (sys) anti-neutrino events for the RON condition., Comment: 25 pages, 20 figures

The cosmic rays data collected using a large area plastic scintillator array ISMRAN (Indian Scintillator Matrix for Reactor AntiNeutrino) are presented. The data collected serve as a useful benchmark of cosmogenic background in a non-reactor environment for the future measurements of electron-antineutrinos to be performed using the ISMRAN setup. The zenith angle distribution of the atmospheric muons has been measured and compared with Monte Carlo expectations. The detector setup was further used to measure the lifetime distribution of stopped muons and extract their rates inside the detector matrix. The measured spectra of decaying muons and associated electrons show a good agreement with the MC simulations performed through GEANT4 simulation., Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures (Same as published version)

We report results of fast neutron response in plastic scintillator (PS) bars from deuterium-deuterium (D-D) and deuterium-tritium (D-T) reactions using Purnima Neutron Generator Facility, BARC, Mumbai. These measurements are useful in context of Indian Scintillator Matrix for Reactor Anti-Neutrino (ISMRAN) detection, an array of 10x10 PS bars, used to measure reactor anti-neutrinos through inverse beta decay (IBD) signal. ISMRAN detector, an above-ground experiment close to the reactor core (~13m), deals with an active fast neutron background inside the reactor hall. A good understanding of fast neutron response in PS bars is an essential pre-requisite for suppression and discrimination of fast neutron background from IBD events. A monoenergetic neutron beam from the fusion reaction of D-D at 2.45 MeV and D-T at 14.1 MeV are used to characterize the energy response in these bars. The neutron energy response function has been simulated using the GEANT4 package and are compared with the measured data. A reasonable agreement of deposited energies by fast neutrons in PS bars between data and simulation are obtained for these reactions. The ratio of energy deposition in adjacent bars is used to discriminate between prompt IBD, fast neutron and neutron capture cascade gamma events., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures

Charge transport through a rectangular vector potential barrier modulated by a continuum laser in monolayer phosphorene is studied theoretically in the ballistic regime along the line of Floquet formalism. Laser free transmission profile displays strong directional behavior exhibiting collimation depending on the incident energy and width of the barrier. However, the application of laser, polarized along the zig-zag direction, creates a sharp anti-resonance in the transmission spectrum and reveals a strong light matter interaction due to broken symmetry in presence of the magnetic vector potential. Transmission properties through a vector barrier are found to be sensitive particularly for lower frequency and higher intensity of the laser. For a thin barrier, the laser assisted conductance is suppressed remarkably in contrast to its oscillatory nature for a thicker one., Comment: 18 pages including 5 figures

We present the results of our study of the long term X-ray variability characteristics of the Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxy RE J1034+396. We use data obtained from the AstroSat satellite along with the light curves obtained from XMM-Newton and Swift-XRT. We use the 0.3 - 7.0 keV and 3 - 20 keV data, respectively, from the SXT and the LAXPC of AstroSat. The X-ray spectra in the 0.3 - 20 keV region are well fit with a model consisting of a power-law and a soft excess described by a thermal-Compton emission with a large optical depth, consistent with the earlier reported results. We have examined the X-ray light curves in the soft and hard X-ray bands of SXT and LAXPC, respectively, and find that the variability is slightly larger in the hard band. To investigate the variability characteristics of this source at different time scales, we have used X-ray light curves obtained from XMM-Newton data (200 s to 100 ks range) and Swift-XRT data (1 day to 100 day range) and find that there are evidences to suggest that the variability sharply increases at longer time scales. We argue that the mass of the black hole in RE J1034+396 is likely to be $\sim$3 $\times$ 10$^6$ M$_\odot$, based on the similarity of the observed QPO to the high frequency QPO seen in the Galactic black hole binary, GRS 1915+105., Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, Published in MNRAS

This analysis aims to determine the mass composition and energy of cosmic rays at energies above 100 TeV based on the lateral distribution of extensive air showers. Here, we propose quite a few air shower observables for reconstructing the mass and energy of the primary particles. The present reconstruction uses a detailed Monte Carlo simulation for cosmic ray induced air showers in KASCADE and NBU types surface arrays of particle detectors. Some of the observables obtained from this analysis of simulated data are used to infer the nature of the primary particles from a comparison with KASCADE and/or NBU data. It is expected that the determination of primary energy of a cosmic-ray shower may deliver a better accuracy compared to standalone analysis using shower size or S600 or S500 or $N_{\rm {pe}}$ etc, owing to strong fluctuations in the EAS development. Moreover, the present study might be useful to discriminate between hadronic cosmic rays and primary gamma rays, and to measure the cosmic ray all-particle energy spectrum., Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, accepted manuscript

We theoretically investigate the interaction and propagation characteristics of two co/counter propagating Mach cones triggered by two projectile particles moving with supersonic velocities in the same/opposite directions through a dusty plasma medium. The Mach cone solutions are obtained by solving a model set of fluid equations for a heavily charged dust fluid that includes the contributions of the projectile particles in the Poisson equation. The density profiles and velocity vector maps of the Mach wings show interesting structural changes when they interact with each other and form patterns similar to interference fringes. Compared to the co-propagating Mach cones, the wings of counter propagating Mach cones produce a larger number of maxima and minima in the pattern resulting from their mutual interaction. In addition the time duration of the formation of two maxima or minima at a particular point decreases due to the interactions of Mach cones. Another notable feature is that the spacing between adjacent maxima increases while the fringe angle decreases with the increase of relative velocity of the counter propagating projectile particles., Comment: This article contains 8 pages with 7 figures

We report the modifications of compressional Mach cone propagation characteristics due to \textcolor{black}{the} polarization force acting on micron size dust particles embedded in a non-uniform plasma. We solve the hydrodynamic fluid equations for highly charged dust particles to investigate the Mach cone by incorporating the polarization force in the momentum equation and observe the structural change on lateral wakes at different polarization force for a given Mach number and Epstein drag force. We also notice that the maximum amplitude of normalized dust density perturbation decreases with the increase of polarization interaction when the other parameters remain constant., Comment: 7 pages with 4 figures

Using a Generalised-Hydrodynamic (GH) fluid model we study the influence of strong coupling induced modification of the fluid compressibility on the dynamics of compressional Mach cones in a dusty plasma medium. A significant structural change of lateral wakes for a given Mach number and Epstein drag force is found in the strongly coupled regime. With the increase of fluid compressibility, the peak amplitude of the normalised perturbed dust density first increases and then decreases monotonically after reaching its maximum value. It is also noticed that the opening angle of the cone structure decreases with the increase of the compressibility of the medium and the arm of the Mach cone breaks up into small structures in the velocity vector profile when the coupling between the dust particles increases., Comment: 8 pages with 5 figures

Distinguishing $\gamma$-ray and hadron initiated extensive air showers (EAS) based on lateral distribution of electrons has been studied by detailed Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. The possibility of using the local age parameter (LAP) of EAS for the gamma-hadron separation has been explored. It is found that separating $\gamma$-ray and hadron induced EAS on the basis of LAP can be useful for surface detector experiments those have no reliable muon measurement facilities., Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, ICRC 2013, Rio de Janeiro

Analyzing simulated EAS events generated with the CORSIKA code, the characteristics of lateral distribution of electrons in EAS around the knee energy region of the primary energy spectrum have been studied and compared with experimental observations. The differences between the EGS4 and the NKG output of CORSIKA in respect to electron radial density distribution have been investigated. The relation between lateral and longitudinal age parameters has been studied after introducing the notion of the local age parameter that reflects the profile of the lateral distribution of electrons in EAS. The present analysis motivates the inclusion of the lateral shower age in a multiparameter study of EAS to extract information on hadronic interactions and primary composition., Comment: Talk presented at XVI International Symposium on Very High Energy Cosmic Ray Interactions (ISVHECRI 2010), Batavia, IL, USA (28 June - 2 July 2010). 4 pages, 5 figures

Recent studies suggest that pulsars could be strong sources of TeV muon neutrinos provided positive ions are accelerated by pulsar polar caps to PeV energies. In such a situation muon neutrinos are produced through the delta resonance in interactions of pulsar accelerated ions with its thermal radiation field. High energy gamma rays also should be produced simultaneously in pulsar environment as both charged and neutral pions are generated in the interactions of energetic hadrons with the ambient photon fields. Here we estimate TeV gamma ray flux at Earth from few nearby young pulsars. When compared with the observations we find that proper consideration of the effect of polar cap geometry in flux calculation is important. Incorporating such an effect we obtain the (revised) event rates at Earth due to few potential nearby pulsars. The results suggest that pulsars are unlikely to be detected by the upcoming neutrino telescopes. We also estimate TeV gamma ray and neutrino fluxes from pulsar nebulae for the adopted model of particle acceleration., Comment: Six pages, accepted in MNRAS