TOWARDS SPECIAL DAEMON-SENSITIVE ELECTRON MULTIPLIER: POSITIVE OUTCOME OF MARCH 2009 EXPERIMENT

Abstract

Results of the experiments on daemon detection performed in St-Petersburg in March 2009 are presented. Adding the data obtained with the daemon-sensitive FEU-167-1 PM tubes to the data amassed in our previous measurements (starting from 2000) raises the confidence level of existence of the spring maximum in NEACHO (near-Earth almost circular heliocentric orbit) daemon flux to ~ 5σ. The first test experiments conducted with the "dark" electron multiplier tubes, TEU-167 with a thick (~ 0.5 μm) Al coating over all of the inner surface of the near-cathode multiplier section, including also its front screen, look encouraging. They provide supportive evidence for the existence of diurnal modulation of the daemon flux and offer ~ 3.4 × 10-7 cm-2s-1 for its lower limit in March, in good agreement with our earlier estimates and measurements.