Gain monitoring of telescope array photomultiplier cameras for the first 4 years of operation

B. K. Shin*, H. Tokuno, Y. Tsunesada, T. Abu-Zayyad, R. Aida, M. Allen, R. Anderson, R. Azuma, E. Barcikowski, J. W. Belz, D. R. Bergman, S. A. Blake, R. Cady, B. G. Cheon, J. Chiba, M. Chikawa, E. J. Cho, W. R. Cho, H. Fujii, T. FujiiT. Fukuda, M. Fukushima, W. Hanlon, K. Hayashi, Y. Hayashi, N. Hayashida, K. Hibino, K. Hiyama, K. Honda, T. Iguchi, D. Ikeda, K. Ikuta, N. Inoue, T. Ishii, R. Ishimori, D. Ivanov, S. Iwamoto, C. C H Jui, K. Kadota, F. Kakimoto, O. Kalashev, T. Kanbe, K. Kasahara, H. Kawai, S. Kawakami, S. Kawana, E. Kido, H. B. Kim, H. K. Kim, J. H. Kim, J. H. Kim, K. Kitamoto, S. Kitamura, Y. Kitamura, K. Kobayashi, Y. Kobayashi, Y. Kondo, K. Kuramoto, V. Kuzmin, Y. J. Kwon, S. I. Lim, S. Machida, K. Martens, J. Martineau, T. Matsuda, T. Matsuura, T. Matsuyama, J. N. Matthews, I. Myers, M. Minamino, K. Miyata, Y. Murano, K. Nagasawa, S. Nagataki, T. Nakamura, S. W. Nam, T. Nonaka, S. Ogio, M. Ohnishi, H. Ohoka, K. Oki, D. Oku, T. Okuda, A. Oshima, Shunsuke Ozawa, I. H. Park, M. S. Pshirkov, D. C. Rodriguez, S. Y. Roh, G. Rubtsov, D. Ryu, H. Sagawa, N. Sakurai, A. L. Sampson, L. M. Scott, P. D. Shah, F. Shibata, T. Shibata, H. Shimodaira, J. I. Shin, T. Shirahama, J. D. Smith, P. Sokolsky, T. J. Sonley, R. W. Springer, B. T. Stokes, S. R. Stratton, T. Stroman, S. Suzuki, Y. Takahashi, M. Takeda, A. Taketa, M. Takita, Y. Tameda, H. Tanaka, K. Tanaka, M. Tanaka, S. B. Thomas, G. B. Thomson, P. Tinyakov, I. Tkachev, T. Tomida, S. Troitsky, K. Tsutsumi, Y. Tsuyuguchi, Y. Uchihori, S. Udo, H. Ukai, G. Vasiloff, Y. Wada, T. Wong, M. Wood, Y. Yamakawa, R. Yamane, H. Yamaoka, K. Yamazaki, J. Yang, Y. Yoneda, S. Yoshida, H. Yoshii, X. Zhou, R. Zollinger, Z. Zundel

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The stability of the gain of the photomultiplier (PMT) camera for the Fluorescence Detector (FD) of the Telescope Array experiment was monitored using an 241Am loaded scintillator pulsers (YAP) and a diffused xenon flasher (TXF) for a selected set of 35 PMT-readout channels. From the monitoring of YAP pulses over four years of FD operation, we found slow monotonic drifts of PMT gains at a rate of -1.7∼+1.7%/year. An average of the PMT gains over the 35 channels stayed nearly constant with a rate of change measured at -0.01±0.31(stat)±0.21(sys)%/year. No systematic decrease of the PMT gain caused by the night sky background was observed. Monitoring by the TXF also tracked the PMT gain drift of the YAP at 0.88±0.14(stat)%/year.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)96-103
Number of pages8
JournalNuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Volume768
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014 Dec 21

Keywords

  • Air fluorescence telescope
  • Calibration of photomultiplier
  • Ultra-high energy cosmic rays

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Instrumentation
  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics

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