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土屋 晴文; 日比野 欣也*; 川田 和正*; 大西 宗博*; 瀧田 正人*; 宗像 一起*; 加藤 千尋*; 霜田 進*; Shi, Q.*; Wang, S.*; et al.
Progress of Earth and Planetary Science (Internet), 11, p.26_1 - 26_14, 2024/05
From 1998 to 2017, neutron monitors located at an altitude of 4300 m on the Tibetan plateau detected 127 long-duration bursts of high-energy radiation in association with thunderclouds. These bursts typically lasted for 10-40 min, and 89% of them occurred between 10:00 and 24:00 local time. They were also found to be more likely to occur at night, especially during 18:00-06:00 local time period. The observed diurnal and seasonal variations in burst frequency were consistent with the frequencies of lightning and precipitation on the Tibetan plateau. Based on 19 years of data, the present study suggests that an annual variation in burst frequency has a periodicity of 16 years and a lag of 3 years relative to solar activity.
和田 有希*; 鴨川 仁*; 久保 守*; 榎戸 輝揚*; 林 省吾*; 澤野 達也*; 米徳 大輔*; 土屋 晴文
Journal of Geophysical Research; Atmospheres, 128(21), p.e2023JD039354_1 - e2023JD039354_20, 2023/11
被引用回数:0 パーセンタイル:0.01(Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences)During the 2020-2021 winter season, we detected 6 gamma-ray glows at Kanazawa University, Japan. Negative surface electric fields (E-fields) were observed by a field mill during all the glow cases. In five of the six cases, the maximum E-field reached 12 , and the E-field during the glow detection was the strongest in 3 hours before and after the detection time. Therefore, negative charges should have been dominant in the thunderclouds that produced the gamma-ray glows, and electrons were probably accelerated and multiplied by the E-fields between a predominantly negative charge layer and a localized positive charge layer below. In addition, we extracted 8 non-detection cases in the 2020-2021 winter season, in which surface E-fields were stronger than 12 . In 5 of the 8 cases, radar echoes were inadequately developed, suggesting insufficient charge accumulation. On the other hand, the remaining 3 cases had well-developed radar echoes, and there was no significant difference from the detection cases.
土屋 晴文; 藤 暢輔; 大図 章; 古高 和禎; 北谷 文人; 前田 亮; 米田 政夫
Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 60(11), p.1301 - 1312, 2023/11
被引用回数:1 パーセンタイル:63.33(Nuclear Science & Technology)An integrated active neutron non-destructive analysis (NDA) system, Active-N, was developed to gain knowledge of active neutron NDA techniques that are applicable to measurements of nuclear materials in highly radioactive nuclear fuels. Active-N, equipped with a D-T neutron generator, combines three complementary active neutron NDA techniques: Differential Die-away Analysis (DDA), Prompt Gamma-ray Analysis (PGA), and Neutron Resonance Transmission Analysis (NRTA). In this paper, we provide an overview of Active-N and then demonstrate that the compact NRTA system in Active-N can quantify nuclear materials. Monte Carlo simulations were conducted to determine the design of the compact NRTA system including a moderator, flight tubes, and a detector shield. To investigate how accurately the compact NRTA system determines areal densities in a sample, measurements were performed with a Pu pellet-type sample as well as metallic plate samples of In and Ag. The experimental areal densities of Pu, In and Ag were consistent with those calculated for the individual nuclei. These results show that it is feasible to develop a compact NRTA system capable of determining the contents of nuclear materials in nuclear fuels. This research was implemented under the subsidy for nuclear security promotion of MEXT.
雨森 道紘*; 土屋 晴文; Tibet AS Collaboration*; 他116名*
Astrophysical Journal, 954(2), p.200_1 - 200_7, 2023/09
被引用回数:1 パーセンタイル:37.79(Astronomy & Astrophysics)Gamma rays from HESS J1849-000, a middle-aged TeV pulsar wind nebula (PWN), are observed by the Tibet air shower array and the muon detector array. The detection significance of gamma rays reaches and levels above 25 TeV and 100 TeV, respectively. The energy spectrum measured between 40 TeV E 320 TeV for the first time is described with a simple power-law function of dN/dE = . The gamma-ray energy spectrum from the sub-TeV to sub-PeV ranges including the results of previous studies can be modeled with the leptonic scenario, Inverse Compton Scattering by high-energy electrons accelerated by the PWN of PSR J1849-0001, but the scenario requires sophisticated theoretical modeling. On the other hand, the gamma-ray energy spectrum can be simply modeled with the hadronic scenario in which gamma rays are generated from the decay of neutral pions produced by collisions between accelerated cosmic-ray protons and the ambient molecular cloud found in the gamma-ray emitting region. The cutoff energy of cosmic-ray protons is estimated at , suggesting that protons are accelerated up to the PeV energy range. Our study proposes that HESS J1849-000 should be further investigated as a new candidate for a Galactic PeV cosmic-ray accelerator, or "PeVatron".
和田 有希*; Wu, T.*; Wang, D.*; 榎戸 輝揚*; 中澤 知洋*; 森本 健志*; 中村 佳敬*; 篠田 太郎*; 土屋 晴文
Journal of Geophysical Research; Atmospheres, 128(15), p.e2023JD038606_1 - e2023JD038606_9, 2023/08
被引用回数:1 パーセンタイル:47.41(Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences)A gamma-ray glow, a minute-lasting burst of high-energy photons from a thundercloud, was detected by ground-based apparatus at Kanazawa University, Japan, in a winter thunderstorm on 18 December 2018. The gamma-ray glow was quenched by a lightning flash within a brief time window of 40 ms. The lightning flash produced several low-frequency (LF) E-change pulses that were temporally coincident withthe termination of the gamma-ray glow, and that were located within 0.5 km from the observation site by the Fast Antenna Lightning Mapping Array. The LF pulses had the same polarity as a positive cloud-to-ground current and a normal-polarity in-cloud current. Since this polarity is against the upward electric field for producing the gamma-ray glow (accelerating electrons to the ground), we infer that the glow was terminated by a normal-polarity in-cloud discharge activity between a middle negative layer and an upper positive layer.
鶴見 美和*; 榎戸 輝掲*; 一方井 祐子*; Wu, T.*; Wang, D.*; 篠田 太郎*; 中澤 知洋*; 辻 直樹*; Diniz, G.*; 片岡 淳*; et al.
Geophysical Research Letters, 50(13), p.e2023GL103612_1 - e2023GL103612_9, 2023/07
被引用回数:0 パーセンタイル:0.00(Geosciences, Multidisciplinary)Gamma-ray glows are observational evidence of relativistic electron acceleration due to the electric field in thunderclouds. However, it is yet to be understood whether such relativistic electrons contribute to the initiation of lightning discharges. To tackle this question, we started the citizen science "Thundercloud Project," where we map radiation measurements of glows from winter thunderclouds along Japan's sea coast area. We developed and deployed 58 compact gamma-ray monitors at the end of 2021. On 30 December 2021, five monitors simultaneously detected a glow with its radiation distribution horizontally extending for 2 km. The glow terminated coinciding with a lightning flash at 04:08:34 JST, which was recorded by the two radio-band lightning mapping systems, FALMA and DALMA. The initial discharges during the preliminary breakdown started above the glow, that is, in vicinity of the electron acceleration site. This result provides one example of possible connections between electron acceleration and lightning initiation.
和田 有希*; 松本 崇弘*; 榎戸 輝揚*; 中澤 知洋*; 湯浅 孝行*; 古田 禄大*; 米徳 大輔*; 澤野 達哉*; 岡田 豪*; 南戸 秀仁*; et al.
Physical Review Research (Internet), 3(4), p.043117_1 - 043117_31, 2021/12
In 2015 the Gamma-Ray Observation of Winter Thunderstorms (GROWTH) collaboration launched a mapping observation campaign for high-energy atmospheric phenomena related to thunderstorms and lightning discharges. This campaign has developed a detection network of gamma rays with up to 10 radiation monitors installed in Kanazawa and Komatsu cities, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, where low-charge-center winter thunderstorms frequently occur. During four winter seasons from October 2016 to April 2020, in total 70 gamma-ray glows, minute-lasting bursts of gamma rays originating from thunderclouds, were detected. Their average duration is 58.9 sec. Among the detected events, 77% were observed in nighttime. The gamma-ray glows can be classified into temporally-symmetric, temporally-asymmetric, and lightning-terminated types based on their count-rate histories. An averaged energy spectrum of the gamma-ray glows is well fitted with a power-law function with an exponential cutoff, whose photon index, cutoff energy, and flux are 0.613 0.009, 4.68 0.04 MeV, and (1.013 0.003) 10 erg cms (0.2-20.0 MeV), respectively. The present paper provides the first catalog of gamma-ray glows and their statistical analysis detected during winter thunderstorms in the Kanazawa and Komatsu areas.
久富 章平*; 中澤 知洋*; 和田 有希*; 辻 結菜*; 榎戸 輝揚*; 篠田 太郎*; 森本 健志*; 中村 佳敬*; 湯浅 孝行*; 土屋 晴文
Journal of Geophysical Research; Atmospheres, 126(18), p.e2021JD034543_1 - e2021JD034543_12, 2021/09
被引用回数:15 パーセンタイル:79.93(Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences)Around 17:00 on January 12, 2020 (UTC), radiation detectors installed at two locations with a 1.35 km separation in Kanazawa City, Japan, captured a total of four gamma-ray enhancements. The first pair was simultaneously observed at the two locations at 17:03 and were abruptly terminated by a lightning discharge. The remaining two enhancements were also nearly simultaneously observed 3 min later, and one of them was also terminated by another lightning discharge. At the last termination, a downward terrestrial gamma-ray flash and a negative energetic in-cloud pulse were observed. Both pairs were associated with thundercloud cells. In the first pair, simultaneous detection in two locations 1.35 km apart suggests either a gamma-ray glow emerged in-between and time variability of its intensity were directly observed or there were two (or more) gamma-ray glows in the cell which reached the two detectors coincidentally. In the latter pair, the peak time in the downwind detector was 40 s later than that of the upwind detector. If the irradiation region moved with the cell, it would have taken 110 s. The discrepancy suggests either the glow moved 2.5 times faster than the cell or there were two (or more) glows in the cell. Also, the fact that the thunderstorm cell hosting the latter glows experienced the lightning discharge 3 min before suggests that the strong electric field in the cell can develop within a few minutes.
藤 暢輔; 大図 章; 土屋 晴文; 古高 和禎; 北谷 文人; 米田 政夫; 前田 亮; 小泉 光生
Proceedings of INMM & ESARDA Joint Virtual Annual Meeting (Internet), 8 Pages, 2021/08
Since neutrons have exceptional ability to penetrate high-density materials and can induce fission, they are used in non-destructive analysis such as, Differential Die-Away Analysis (DDA), Prompt Gamma-ray Analysis (PGA) and Neutron Resonance Transmission Analysis (NRTA). The different analytical methods give us complementary information, which are particularly useful for the quantification of Special Nuclear Materials in highly radioactive nuclear materials, including spent fuel. The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission are collaborating to develop an active neutron NDA system for nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear security. In the second phase of the project, an integrated active neutron NDA system: Active-N which enables the simultaneous measurements of DDA, PGA and NRTA has been developed. The DDA detects fission neutrons, and it can determine small amounts of the fissile mass. PGA is utilized for the quantification of neutron absorber and particularly useful for the detection of explosives. NRTA can be used to quantify almost all medium and high-Z elements and considered as one of the most accurate NDA. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of Active-N and report the recent experimental results. This research was implemented under the subsidy for nuclear security promotion of MEXT: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
雨森 道紘*; 土屋 晴文; Tibet AS Collaboration*; 他111名*
Physical Review Letters, 127(3), p.031102_1 - 031102_6, 2021/07
被引用回数:18 パーセンタイル:86.08(Physics, Multidisciplinary)We report observations of gamma-ray emissions with energies in the 100-TeV energy region from the Cygnus region in our Galaxy. Two sources are significantly detected in the directions of the Cygnus OB1 and OB2 associations. Based on their positional coincidences, we associate one with a pulsar PSR J2032 + 4127 and the other mainly with a pulsar wind nebula PWN G75.2 + 0.1, with the pulsar moving away from its original birthplace situated around the centroid of the observed gamma-ray emission. This work would stimulate further studies of particle acceleration mechanisms at these gamma-ray sources.
土屋 晴文; 榎戸 輝揚*; 和田 有希*; 古田 禄大; 中澤 知洋*; 湯浅 孝行*; 楳本 大悟*; 牧島 一夫*; GROWTH Collaboration*
Proceedings of Science (Internet), 358, p.1163_1 - 1163_6, 2021/07
Since 2006, the GROWTH experiment has been successfully operating at the coastal area of Japan Sea. The GROWTH experiment aims at elucidating how particles in lightning and thunderclouds are accelerated to relativistic energies to produce gamma rays and occasionally neutrons. According to observations done by the GROWTH experiment, it is found that there are two types of radiation bursts associated with winter thunderstorms. One is long bursts lasting for a few tens of seconds to a few minutes, being not clearly related to lightning. The other is short bursts in association with lightning. To better understand the production mechanism of these radiation bursts, we have developed a small-type of radiation detectors and increased observational points with the new detectors. In this presentation, we show an overview of observations done by the GROWTH experiment. Then we focus on recent several findings observed by the new detectors. One, which is categorized into long bursts, implies a relationship between a long burst and an intra/inter-cloud discharge. Another is a combination of short bursts and long ones, showing simultaneous detections of prompt gamma rays extending up to 10 MeV and the 511-keV annihilation ones. These gamma-ray signals demonstrate the occurrence of photonuclear reactions in lightning. Based on these results, we discuss the production mechanism of gamma rays related to thunderstorms.
雨森 道紘*; 土屋 晴文; Tibet AS Collaboration*; 他93名*
Nature Astronomy (Internet), 5(5), p.460 - 464, 2021/05
被引用回数:66 パーセンタイル:98.86(Astronomy & Astrophysics)Cosmic rays (protons and other atomic nuclei) are believed to gain energies of petaelectronvolts (PeV) and beyond at astrophysical particle accelerators called "PeVatrons" inside our Galaxy. Although a characteristic feature of a PeVatron is expected to be a hard gamma-ray energy spectrum that extends beyond 100 teraelectronvolts (TeV) without a cut-off, none of the currently known sources exhibit such a spectrum owing to the low maximum energy of accelerated cosmic rays or owing to insufficient detector sensitivity around 100 TeV. Here, we report the observation of gamma-ray emission from the supernova remnant G106.3+2.7 above 10 TeV. This work provides flux data points up to and above 100 TeV and indicates that the very-high-energy gamma-ray emission above 10 TeV is well correlated with a molecular cloud rather than with the pulsar PSR J2229+6114. Regarding the gamma-ray emission mechanism of G106.3+2.7, this morphological feature appears to favour a hadronic origin via the decay caused by accelerated relativistic protons over a leptonic origin via the inverse Compton scattering by relativistic electrons. Furthermore, we point out that an X-ray flux upper limit on the synchrotron spectrum would provide important information to firmly establish the hadronic scenario as the mechanism of particle acceleration at the source.
和田 有希*; 榎戸 輝揚*; 久保 守*; 中澤 知洋*; 篠田 太郎*; 米徳 大輔*; 澤野 達哉*; 湯浅 孝行*; 牛尾 知雄*; 佐藤 陽祐*; et al.
Geophysical Research Letters, 48(7), 11 Pages, 2021/04
被引用回数:19 パーセンタイル:88.42(Geosciences, Multidisciplinary)graupels
雨森 道紘*; 土屋 晴文; Tibet AS Collaboration*; 他93名*
Physical Review Letters, 126(14), p.141101_1 - 141101_7, 2021/04
被引用回数:119 パーセンタイル:99.57(Physics, Multidisciplinary)We report, for the first time, the long-awaited detection of diffuse gamma rays with energies between 100 TeV and 1 PeV in the Galactic disk. Particularly, all gamma rays above 398 TeV are observed apart from known TeV gamma-ray sources and compatible with expectations from the hadronic emission scenario in which gamma rays originate from the decay of 's produced through the interaction of protons with the interstellar medium in the Galaxy. This is strong evidence that cosmic rays are accelerated beyond PeV energies in our Galaxy and spread over the Galactic disk.
和田 有希*; 榎戸 輝揚*; 中澤 知洋*; 湯浅 孝行*; 古田 禄大; 小高 裕和*; 牧島 一夫*; 土屋 晴文
Journal of Geophysical Research; Atmospheres, 125(20), p.e2020JD033194_1 - e2020JD033194_15, 2020/10
被引用回数:2 パーセンタイル:9.11(Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences)During a winter thunderstorm on 6th February 2017 in Japan, photonuclear reactions such as N()N were triggered by a downward terrestrial gamma-ray flash (TGF), as reported by Enoto et al. (2017). In the present paper, we compare the observation with a simulation model of downward TGFs and subsequent photonuclear reactions constructed by the first paper of the series and Wada, Enoto, Nakazawa, et al. (2019). The observation and model consist of three components: annihilation gamma rays from positrons produced by -decay nuclei, de-excitation gamma rays originating from neutron captures, and radiation doses by TGF photons. Each component of the observation is reproduced by the simulation model, and we constrain a relation between the number of avalanche electrons and their production altitude of the downward TGF. The constrains by three components match within an order of magnitude. The downward TGF is estimated to comprise 10 avalanche electrons above 1 MeV produced at an altitude of 1.4-2.7 km. Despite differences in altitude, direction, and season, downward TGFs in winter thunderstorms are thought to have the same mechanism of electron acceleration and multiplication in lightning as TGFs observed by in-orbit satellites.
和田 有希*; 榎戸 輝揚*; 中澤 知洋*; 小高 裕和*; 古田 禄大; 土屋 晴文
Journal of Geophysical Research; Atmospheres, 125(20), p.e2020JD033193_1 - e2020JD033193_17, 2020/10
被引用回数:3 パーセンタイル:14.62(Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences)We report simulation results of photonuclear reactions in the atmosphere triggered by a downward terrestrial gamma-ray flash in lightning. Possible channels of reactions in the atmosphere and their cross sections are verified with the ENDF/B-VII.1 library. Monte-Carlo simulations with two stages are then performed with the Geant4 framework. In the first stage, electrons following the relativistic runaway electron avalanche spectrum are produced in a mass model of the atmosphere, and production of photoneutrons and -decay nuclei is calculated based on the nuclear data library. In total 1 neutrons and 4 -decay nuclei are produced by energetic electrons above 1 MeV. In the second stage, propagation of the photoneutrons and positrons from the -decay nuclei in the previous stage is calculated. As a result, we model on-ground distributions of fluxes and energy spectra for neutrons, neutron-related gamma rays, and annihilation ones. The simulation model is to be compared with photonuclear events detected in low-charge-center winter thunderstorms.
湯浅 孝行*; 和田 有希*; 榎戸 輝揚*; 古田 禄大; 土屋 晴文; 久富 章平*; 辻 結菜*; 奥田 和史*; 松元 崇弘*; 中澤 知洋*; et al.
Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (Internet), 2020(10), p.103H01_1 - 103H01_27, 2020/10
被引用回数:14 パーセンタイル:72.90(Physics, Multidisciplinary)We designed, developed, and deployed a distributed sensor network aiming at observing high-energy ionizing radiation, primarily gamma rays, from winter thunderclouds and lightning in coastal areas of Japan. Starting in 2015, we have installed, in total, more than 15 units of ground-based detector system in Ishikawa Prefecture and Niigata Prefecture, and accumulated 551 days of observation time in four winter seasons from late 2015 to early 2019. In this period, our system recorded 51 gamma-ray radiation events from thundercloud and lightning. Highlights of science results obtained from this unprecedented amount of data include the discovery of photonuclear reaction in lightning which produces neutrons and positrons along with gamma rays, and deeper insights into the life cycle of a particle-acceleration and gamma-ray-emitting region in a thunder-cloud. The present paper reviews objective, methodology, and results of our experiment, with a stress on its instrumentation.
和田 有希*; 中澤 知洋*; 榎戸 輝揚*; 古田 禄大; 湯浅 孝行*; 牧島 一夫*; 土屋 晴文
Physical Review D, 101(10), p.102007_1 - 102007_6, 2020/05
被引用回数:1 パーセンタイル:7.75(Astronomy & Astrophysics)During a winter thunderstorm on November 24, 2017, a downward terrestrial gamma-ray flash took place and triggered photonuclear reactions with atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen nuclei, coincident with a lightning discharge at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in Japan. We directly detected neutrons produced by the photonuclear reactions with gadolinium orthosilicate scintillation crystals installed at sea level. Two gadolinium isotopes included in the scintillation crystals, Gd and Gd, have large cross sections of neutron captures to thermal neutrons such as Gd(n,)Gd and Gd(n,)Gd. De-excitation gamma rays from Gd and Gd are self-absorbed in the scintillation crystals, and make spectral-line features which can be distinguished from other non-neutron signals. The neutron burst lasted for 100 ms, and neutron fluences are estimated to be 58 and 31 neutrons cm at two observation points at the power plant. Gadolinium orthosilicate scintillators work as valid detectors for thermal neutrons in lightning.
Ma, F.; Kopecky, S.*; Alaerts, G.*; 原田 秀郎; Heyse, J.*; 北谷 文人; Noguere, G.*; Paradela, C.*; alamon, L.*; Schillebeeckx, P.*; et al.
Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, 35(3), p.478 - 488, 2020/03
被引用回数:4 パーセンタイル:38.55(Chemistry, Analytical)The use of Neutron Resonance Transmission Analysis to characterize homogeneous samples not fulfilling good transmission geometry conditions is discussed. Analytical expressions for such samples have been derived and implemented in the resonance shape analysis code REFIT. They were validated by experiments at the time-of-flight facility GELINA using a set of metallic natural copper samples. The expressions were used to derive sample characteristics by a least squares adjustment to experimental transmission data. In addition, the resonance parameters of Cu for energies below 6 keV, which are reported in the literature and recommended in evaluated data libraries, were verified. This research was implemented under the subsidiary for nuclear security promotion of MEXT.
和田 有希*; 榎戸 輝揚*; 中村 佳敬*; 森本 健志*; 佐藤 光輝*; 牛尾 知雄*; 中澤 知洋*; 湯浅 孝行*; 米徳 大輔*; 澤野 達也*; et al.
Journal of Geophysical Research; Atmospheres, 125(4), p.e2019JD031730_1 - e2019JD031730_11, 2020/02
被引用回数:23 パーセンタイル:81.42(Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences)During 2017-2018 winter operation of the Gamma-Ray Observation of Winter Thunderclouds experiment in Japan, two downward terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) that triggered atmospheric photonuclear reactions were detected. They took place during winter thunderstorms on 5 December 2017 and 9 January 2018 at Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. Each event coincided with an intracloud/intercloud discharge, which had a negative-polarity peak current higher than 150 kA. Their radio waveforms in the low-frequency band are categorized as a distinct lightning type called energetic in-cloud pulse (EIP). Negative-polarity EIPs have been previously suggested to be highly associated with downward TGFs, and the present observations provide evidence of the correlation between them for the first time. Furthermore, both of the downward TGFs followed gamma-ray glows, minute-lasting high-energy emissions from thunderclouds. It is suggested that the negative EIPs took place with downward propagating negative leaders or upward positive ones developed in highly electrified regions responsible for the gamma-ray glows.