The AMS-02 experiment is a cosmic rays observatory installed on the International Space Station for a long duration mission. The results from the first 7 years of data collection are presented and ...commented.
The High-energy Particle Detector (HEPD) on board the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01)-launched on 2018 February 2-is a light and compact payload suitable for measuring electrons ...(3-100 MeV), protons (30-250 MeV), and light nuclei (up to a few hundreds of MeV). The Sun-synchronous orbit and large acceptance allow HEPD to measure cosmic-ray particles near the 65° latitude limit for a fair amount of time per day. In this work, three semiannual galactic hydrogen energy spectra between ∼40 and 250 MeV are presented, including a comparison with theoretical spectra from HelMod, a 2D Monte Carlo model developed to simulate the solar modulation of cosmic rays throughout the heliosphere. To our knowledge, these are the first hydrogen energy spectra below 250 MeV measured at 1 au between 2018 and 2020.
The China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) aims to monitor electromagnetic, particle, and plasma perturbations in the iono-magnetosphere and inner Van Allen radiation belts originated by ...electromagnetic sources external and internal to the geomagnetic cavity, cosmic rays, and solar events. In particular, the objective of the space mission is to investigate lithosphere-atmosphere-ionosphere coupling mechanisms (including the effects of lightning, earthquakes, volcanoes, and artificial electromagnetic emissions) that induce perturbations of the top side of the ionosphere and lower boundary of the radiation belts. To this purpose, the mission has been conceived to take advantage of a multi-instrument payload comprising nine detectors for the measurement of electromagnetic field components, plasma parameters, and energetic particles, as well as X-ray flux. The Italian team participating in the CSES mission has built one of these devices, the High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD), for high-precision observations of electrons, protons, and light nuclei. During its trip along the orbit, and thanks to the large set of detectors operated on board, CSES completely monitors the Earth, acting as an excellent instrument for space weather. The satellite was launched on 2018 February 2, with an expected life span of 5 yr. This article describes the CSES mission with a particular focus on the HEPD apparatus and its in-flight performance.
The observation of sub-GeV antideuteron in the cosmic ray flux, could be a very strong signature of dark matter annihilation in our galaxy. Goal of the Anti Deuteron Helium Detector (ADHD) project is ...to study the signatures offered by an high pressure Helium target for the identification of antideuterons in space.
The observation of sub-GeV antideuteron in the cosmic ray flux could be a very strong signature of dark matter (DM) annihilation in our galaxy. The predicted antideuteron flux resulting from ...secondary interactions of primary cosmic rays with the Inter-Stellar medium is expected to be very low and in particular is kinematically suppressed at low energy (sub-GeV). Well motivated theories beyond the Standard Model contain viable dark matter candidates, which could lead to a significant enhancement of the antideuteron flux due to annihilation or decay of dark matter particles. This flux contribution is believed to be relatively large at low energies, where the secondary background is suppressed, which leads to an high interest in the development of new detection techniques for low energy antideuteron. Current search of antideuteron in cosmic rays are based on the well established technique of magnetic spectrometry (BESS-Polar II and AMS-02 experiments). With the aim to explore kinetic energy regions below 0.2 GeV/n, i.e. below the lower threshold of current and past magnetic spectrometers, some new detection techniques, involving stopping antideuterons captured to form exotic atoms, have been developed. The GAPS experiment, based on the detection of characteristics X-rays, and the ADHD concept, based on the metastable states in Helium target, will be described. In particular the performances of an high pressure (200 bar) Helium scintillator prototype, capable of fast timing and good spatial and energy resolution will be shown. As a result of the preliminary test phase of this prototype in the INFN-TIFPA laboratory, the perspectives of this detection technique for antiproton rejection and its sensitivity to the Dark Matter search in the antideuteron annihilation channel will be described.
The deuteron flux in cosmic rays is one of the most valuable tools for understanding the propagation of CR in the galaxy and constrain the models that describe it. In this work, a new preliminary ...measurement of D flux is presented, obtained from the data of the AMS-02 experiment.
We present our new measurement of the cross-section for charm dimuon production in neutrino–iron interactions based upon the full statistics collected by the NOMAD experiment. After background ...subtraction we observe 15 344 charm dimuon events, providing the largest sample currently available. The analysis exploits the large inclusive charged current sample – about 9×106 events after all analysis cuts – and the high resolution NOMAD detector to constrain the total systematic uncertainty on the ratio of charm dimuon to inclusive Charged Current (CC) cross-sections to ∼2%. We also perform a fit to the NOMAD data to extract the charm production parameters and the strange quark sea content of the nucleon within the NLO QCD approximation. We obtain a value of mc(mc)=1.159±0.075 GeV/c2 for the running mass of the charm quark in the MS¯ scheme and a strange quark sea suppression factor of κs=0.591±0.019 at Q2=20 GeV2/c2.
Abstract
High-energy, long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) can be generated by the core collapse of massive stars at the end of their lives. When they happen in the close-by universe they can be ...exceptionally bright, as seen from the Earth in the case of the recent, giant, long-lasting GRB221009A. GRB221009A was produced by a collapsing star with a redshift of 0.152: this event was observed by many gamma-ray space experiments, which also detected an extraordinary long gamma-ray afterglow. The exceptionally large fluence of the prompt emission of about 0.013 erg cm
−2
illuminated a large geographical region centered on India and including Europe and Asia. We report in this paper the observation of sudden electron flux changes correlated with GRB221009A and measured by the HEPP-L charged particle detector on board the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite, which was orbiting over Europe at the time of the GRB event. The time structure of the observed electron flux closely matches the very distinctive time dependence of the photon flux associated with the main part of the emission at around 13:20 UTC on 2022 October 9. To test the origin of these signals, we set up a simplified simulation of one HEPP-L subdetector: the results of this analysis suggest that the signals observed are mostly due to electrons created within the aluminum collimator surrounding the silicon detector, providing real-time monitoring of the very intense photon fluxes. We discuss the implications of this observation for existing and forthcoming particle detectors on low Earth orbits.
Following the decision to maintain the International Space Station (ISS) on orbit until at least 2020 (possibly until 2028) the AMS collaboration decided to correspondingly extend the lifetime of the ...experiment. Since the limited amount of helium used to cool the superconducting magnet allowed for only a limited run time of the experiment, a change from the superconducting magnet to the permanent magnet used in AMS-01 became necessary. Due to the lower magnetic field, to maintain the resolution the silicon tracker also had to be reconfigured with the installation of a silicon plane on the top of the experiment and a new plane above the electromagnetic calorimeter.
Abstract
In this paper we report the detection of five strong gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) by the High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD-01) mounted on board the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite, ...operational since 2018 on a Sun-synchronous polar orbit at a ∼507 km altitude and 97° inclination. HEPD-01 was designed to detect high-energy electrons in the energy range 3–100 MeV, protons in the range 30–300 MeV, and light nuclei in the range 30–300 MeV n
−1
. Nonetheless, Monte Carlo simulations have shown HEPD-01 is sensitive to gamma-ray photons in the energy range 300 keV–50 MeV, even if with a moderate effective area above ∼5 MeV. A dedicated time correlation analysis between GRBs reported in literature and signals from a set of HEPD-01 trigger configuration masks has confirmed the anticipated detector sensitivity to high-energy photons. A comparison between the simultaneous time profiles of HEPD-01 electron fluxes and photons from GRB190114C, GRB190305A, GRB190928A, GRB200826B, and GRB211211A has shown a remarkable similarity, in spite of the different energy ranges. The high-energy response, with peak sensitivity at about 2 MeV, and moderate effective area of the detector in the actual flight configuration explain why these five GRBs, characterized by a fluence above ∼3 × 10
−5
erg cm
−2
in the energy interval 300 keV–50 MeV, have been detected.