VAMOS: a Pathfinder for the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory
Creators: name: Abeysekara, A. U.
name: Alfaro, R.
name: Alvarez, C.
name: Álvarez, J. D.
name: Ángeles, F.
name: Arceo, R.
name: Arteaga-Velázquez, J. C.
name: Avila-Aroche, A.
name: Solares, H. A. Ayala
name: Badillo, C.
name: Barber, A. S.
name: Baughman, B. M.
name: Bautista-Elivar, N.
name: Gonzalez, J. Becerra
name: Belmont, E.
name: Benítez, E.
name: BenZvi, S. Y.
name: Berley, D.
name: Bernal, A.
name: Rosales, M. Bonilla
name: Braun, J.
name: Caballero-Lopez, R. A.
name: Caballero-Mora, K. S.
name: Cabrera, I.
name: Carramiñana, A.
name: Castañeda-Martínez, L.
name: Castillo, M.
name: Cotti, U.
name: Cotzomi, J.
name: de la Fuente, E.
name: De León, C.
name: DeYoung, T.
name: Diaz-Azuara, A.
name: Diaz-Cruz, L.
name: Hernandez, R. Diaz
name: Díaz-Vélez, J. C.
name: Dingus, B. L.
name: Dultzin, D.
name: DuVernois, M. A.
name: Ellsworth, R. W.
name: Fernandez, A.
name: Fiorino, D. W.
name: Fraija, N.
name: Galindo, A.
name: García-Torales, G.
name: Garfias, F.
name: González, A.
name: González, L. X.
name: González, M. M.
name: Goodman, J. A.
name: Grabski, V.
name: Gussert, M.
name: Guzmán-Cerón, C.
name: Hampel-Arias, Z.
name: Harding, J. P.
name: Hernández-Cervantes, L.
name: Hui, C. M.
name: Hüntemeyer, P.
name: Imran, A.
name: Iriarte, A.
name: Karn, P.
name: Kieda, D.
name: Kunde, G. J.
name: Langarica, R.
name: Lara, A.
name: Lara, G.
name: Lauer, R. J.
name: Lee, W. H.
name: Lennarz, D.
name: Vargas, H. León
name: Linares, E. C.
name: Linnemann, J. T.
name: Longo, M.
name: Luna-Garcia, R.
name: Marinelli, A.
name: Martínez, L. A.
name: Martínez, H.
name: Martínez, O.
name: Martínez-Castro, J.
name: Martos, M.
name: Matthews, J. A. J.
name: McEnery, J.
name: Torres, E. Mendoza
name: Miranda-Romagnoli, P.
name: Moreno, E.
name: Mostafá, M.
name: Nava, J.
name: Nellen, L.
name: Newbold, M.
name: Noriega-Papaqui, R.
name: Oceguera-Becerra, T.
name: Page, D. P.
name: Patricelli, B.
name: Pelayo, R.
name: Pérez-Pérez, E. G.
name: Pretz, J.
name: Ramírez, I.
name: Renter, A.
name: Rivière, C.
name: Rosa-González, D.
name: Ruiz-Sala, F.
name: Ruiz-Velasco, E. L.
name: Ryan, J.
name: Sacahui, J. R.
name: Salazar, H.
name: Salesa, F.
name: Sandoval, A.
name: Santos, E.
name: Schneider, M.
name: Silich, S.
name: Sinnis, G.
name: Smith, A. J.
name: Woodle, K. Sparks
name: Springer, R. W.
name: Suarez, F.
name: Taboada, I.
name: Tepe, A.
name: Toale, P. A.
name: Tollefson, K.
name: Torres, I.
name: Tinoco, S.
name: Ukwatta, T. N.
name: Galicia, J. F. Valdés
name: Vanegas, P.
name: Vázquez, A.
name: Villaseñor, L.
name: Wall, W.
name: Weisgarber, T.
name: Westerhoff, S.
name: Wisher, I. G.
name: Wood, J.
name: Yodh, G. B.
name: Younk, P. W.
name: Zaborov, D.
name: Zepeda, A.
name: Zhou, H.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: VAMOS was a prototype detector built in 2011 at an altitude of 4100m a.s.l. in the state of Puebla, Mexico. The aim of VAMOS was to finalize the design, construction techniques and data acquisition system of the HAWC observatory. HAWC is an air-shower array currently under construction at the same site of VAMOS with the purpose to study the TeV sky. The VAMOS setup included six water Cherenkov detectors and two different data acquisition systems. It was in operation between October 2011 and May 2012 with an average live time of 30%. Besides the scientific verification purposes, the eight months of data were used to obtain the results presented in this paper: the detector response to the Forbush decrease of March 2012, and the analysis of possible emission, at energies above 30 GeV, for long gamma-ray bursts GRB111016B and GRB120328B.
description: Accepted for pubblication in Astroparticle Physics Journal (20 pages, 10 figures). Corresponding authors: A.Marinelli and D.Zaborov