The RAP (Rivelazione Acustica di Particelle) Experiment: status and results

Abstract

Cosmic rays crossing gravitational wave antennas interact with it and generate signals that must be recognized and treated as a noise. Disagreement has been found between the predictions of the Thermo-Acoustic model (Strini-Grassi Strini-Tagliaferri, 1979) and the NAUTILUS measurements, when the antenna was in supercounductive state.

RAP is an experiment devoted to the study of the interaction between energetic charged particles and bulk materials at temperatures in the range 0.1 - 300 K. Two different cylindrical bars, made of Al5056 and Niobium, have been used as a detector for the inpinging 510 MeV electron beam generated in the DAFNE Beam Test Facility.

The results of these measurements, their relationship with the models and the current status of the experiment will be presented.