Effect of cosmic rays on the resonant gravitational wave detector NAUTILUS at temperature T=1.5 K

TL;DR

This study investigates how cosmic rays interact with the NAUTILUS gravitational wave detector's aluminum bar at 1.5 K, finding no unexpected signals and suggesting increased energy conversion efficiency in the superconductive state.

Contribution

It provides experimental data on cosmic ray interactions with a gravitational wave detector at different temperatures, highlighting the impact of superconductivity on energy conversion.

Findings

No large unexpected signals at 1.5 K

Results align with the thermo-acoustic model

Enhanced energy conversion efficiency in superconductive state

Abstract

The interaction between cosmic rays and the gravitational wave bar detector NAUTILUS is experimentally studied with the aluminum bar at temperature of T=1.5 K. The results are compared with those obtained in the previous runs when the bar was at T=0.14 K. The results of the run at T = 1.5 K are in agreement with the thermo-acoustic model; no large signals at unexpected rate are noticed, unlike the data taken in the run at T = 0.14 K. The observations suggest a larger efficiency in the mechanism of conversion of the particle energy into vibrational mode energy when the aluminum bar is in the superconductive status.