Related papers: Measurement Limits to 134Cs Concentration in Soil
Potassium-40 is a widespread, naturally occurring isotope whose radioactivity impacts subatomic rare-event searches, nuclear structure theory, and estimated geological ages. A predicted electron-capture decay directly to the ground state of…
We used a Cs atomic fountain frequency standard to measure the Stark shift on the ground state hyperfine transiton frequency in cesium (9.2 GHz) due to the electric field generated by the blackbody radiation. The measures relative shift at…
In this work PIXE experiments were performed for measuring heavy and light elements (ranging from aluminium to lead) concentrations inside various polluted and unpolluted soils as well as liquid samples collected from different phosphate…
The detection of low abundances of $^{135}$Cs in environmental samples is of significant interest in different fields of environmental sciences, especially in combination with its shorter-lived sister isotope $^{137}$Cs. The method of…
The gamma radiation in samples of a variety of natural tiling rocks (granites) imported in Cyprus for use in the building industry was measured, employing high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy. The rock samples were pulverized, sealed in 1…
We have demonstrated a remote magnetometer based on sodium atoms in the Earth's mesosphere, at a 106-kilometer distance from our instrument. A 1.33-watt laser illuminated the atoms, and the magnetic field was inferred from back-scattered…
After the earthquake and the tsunami occurred in Japan on 11th March 2011, four of the Fukushima reactors had released in air a large amount of radioactive isotopes that had been diffused all over the world. The presence of airborne 131I,…
Cosmic-ray neutron probes are widely used to monitor environmental water content near the surface. The method averages over tens of hectares and is unrivaled in serving representative data for agriculture and hydrological models at the…
Aiming at the observation of cosmic-ray chemical composition at the "knee" energy region, we have been developinga new type air-shower core detector (YAC, Yangbajing Air shower Core detector array) to be set up at Yangbajing (90.522$^\circ$…
Proximal soil sensors are taking hold in the understanding of soil hydrogeological processes involved in precision agriculture. In this context, permanently installed gamma ray spectroscopy stations represent one of the best space-time…
We performed ac-susceptibility measurements of magnesium diboride powder samples under pure hydrostatic pressures up to 0.4 GPa and under quasi-hydrostatic pressure conditions up to 8 GPa in a helium gas pressure cell and a diamond-anvil…
Quantum technologies based on quantum point defects in crystals require control over the defect charge state. Here we tune the charge state of shallow nitrogen-vacancy and silicon-vacancy centers by locally oxidizing a hydrogenated surface…
We trap cold, ground-state, argon atoms in a deep optical dipole trap produced by a build-up cavity. The atoms, which are a general source for the sympathetic cooling of molecules, are loaded in the trap by quenching them from a cloud of…
The sum of the masses of the three neutrino mass eigenstates is now constrained both from above and below, and lies between 55 and 6900 meV. The lower limit is set by neutrino oscillations and the fact that masses are non-negative. The…
The radiation emitted from radon is a critical background in rare event search experiments conducted at the Yemi Underground Laboratory (Yemilab) in Jeongseon, Korea. A Radon Reduction System(RRS) has been developed and installed in Yemilab…
Low energy ground-based cosmic ray air shower experiments generally have energy threshold in the range of a few tens to a few hundreds of TeV. The shower observables are measured indirectly with an array of detectors. The atmospheric…
A survey was carried out to determine activity concentration levels and associated dose rates from the naturally occurring radionuclides Th-232, U-238, and K-40, in the various geological formations appearing throughout the geographically…
Potassium-40 ($^{40}$K) is a long-lived, naturally occurring radioactive isotope. The decay products are prominent backgrounds for many rare event searches, including those involving NaI-based scintillators. $^{40}$K also plays a role in…
An increasing demand of environmental radioactivity monitoring comes both from the scientific community and from the society. This requires accurate, reliable and fast response preferably from portable radiation detectors. Thanks to recent…
We propose a novel idea to discover millicharged particles (mCPs) captured by the earth during its existence. It has been demonstrated that the mCPs accumulation inside the earth leads to the enhancement of its number density much larger…