On the 15th of June 2006, the PAMELA (Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics) satellite-borne experiment was launched onboard the Russian Resurs-DK1 satellite by a ...Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur space centre. The satellite was placed in a quasi-polar 70°inclination orbit at an altitude varying between 350 km and 600 km.
New results on the antiparticle component of the cosmic radiation were obtained. The positron energy spectrum and positron fraction were measured from 400 MeV up to 200 GeV revealing a positron excess over the predictions of commonly used propagation models. This can be interpreted either as evidence that the propagation models should be revised or in terms of dark matter annihilation or a pulsar contribution. The antiproton spectrum was measured over the energy range from 60 MeV to 350 GeV. The antiproton spectrum is consistent with secondary production and significantly constrains dark matter models.
The energy spectra of protons and helium nuclei were measured up to 1.2 TV. The spectral shapes of these two species are different and cannot be described well by a single power law. For the first time the electron spectrum was measured up to 600 GeV complementing the information obtained from the positron data. Nuclear and isotopic composition was obtained with unprecedented precision.
The variation of the low energy proton, electron and positron energy spectra was measured from July 2006 until December 2009 accurately sampling the unusual conditions of the most recent solar minimum activity period (2006–2009). Low energy particle spectra were accurately measured also for various solar events that occurred during the PAMELA mission.
The Earth’s magnetosphere was studied measuring the particle radiation in different regions of the magnetosphere. Energy spectra and composition of sub-cutoff and trapped particles were obtained. For the first time a belt of trapped antiprotons was detected in the South Atlantic Anomaly region. The flux was found to exceed that for galactic cosmic-ray antiprotons by three order of magnitude.
The potential of the planned GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope for detecting subhalos of mass between 10
6
M
⊙
and 10
9
M
⊙
in the Milky Way Galaxy that consist of annihilating dark matter in the form of ...weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) is studied. The inner structure of dark matter subhalos and their distribution in the Milky Way Galaxy are obtained on the basis of respective theoretical models. Our present analysis shows that the expected gamma-ray flux from subhalos depends strongly on the WIMP mass and on the subhalo concentration, but that it depends less strongly on the subhalo mass. Optimistically, a flux of 10 to 100 ph per year in the energy range above 100 MeV can be expected from the closest and most massive subhalos, which can therefore be thought to be detectable sources for GAMMA-400. Because of the smallness of fluxes, however, only via a joint analysis of future GAMMA-400 data and data from other telescopes would it become possible to resolve the inner structure of the subhalos. Also, the recent subhalo candidates 3FGL J2212.5+0703 and J1924.8–1034 are considered within our model. Our conclusion is that these sources hardly belong to the subhalo population.
The characteristics of the prototype of the scintillation detecting segment of time-of-flight and anticoincidence systems of being developed space-based GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope is studied. The ...amplitude resolution, time resolution and charged particle detection efficiency of the prototype with silicon photomultipliers readout obtained using
250 MeV positron beam of synchrotron C-25P ‘‘PAKHRA’’ of P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute are presented. The comparison of applying both ‘‘standard’’ and ‘‘fast’’ outputs of silicon photomultipliers type ON Semiconductor MICROFC-60035-SMT used in the prototype is featured.
Cosmophysical Research with GAMMA-400 Topchiev, N. P.; Galper, A. M.; Arkhangelskaja, I. V. ...
Physics of atomic nuclei,
08/2023, Volume:
86, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope is the successor of Soviet and Russian gamma-ray telescopes. GAMMA-400 is being developed for cosmophysical research in accordance with the Russian Federal Space ...Program 2016–2025. The GAMMA-400 experiment will be implemented aboard the Russian astrophysical space observatory in a highly elliptic orbit during 7 years to provide new data on gamma-ray emission mainly from the Galactic plane, Galactic Center, the Sun and cosmic-ray electron
positron fluxes. The main mode of observations will be the continuous point-source mode with the duration of up to
100 days. The GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope will study high-energy gamma-ray emission up to several TeV and cosmic-ray electrons
positrons up to 20 TeV. GAMMA-400 will have the never-achieved angular resolution, the high-energy and time resolutions, as well as very good separation efficiency of gamma rays from cosmic-ray background and of electrons
positrons from protons. The distinctive features of GAMMA-400 are the excellent angular resolution of
at
GeV that exceeds resolutions of the space-based and ground-based gamma-ray telescopes by a factor of 5–10, as well as high-energy resolution of
at
GeV. GAMMA-400 studies can discover gamma-ray emission from annihilation or decay of dark matter particles, identify many unassociated discrete sources, explore the structure of extended sources, search for gamma-ray bursts and solar gamma-ray flares, improve the data on cosmic-ray electron
positron spectra for energies of >50 GeV.
The space-based gamma-ray telescope must effectively separate photons from charged particles of instrumental background and cosmic rays. It requires that the anticoincidence system of the telescope ...must have high detection efficiency, large dynamic range and good enough energy and time resolution for charged particles. The main results obtained using 246 MeV secondary positron beam of synchrotron S-25R “PAKHRA” of Lebedev Physical Institute with prototype of system of anticoincidence detectors of space-based gamma-ray telescope GAMMA-400 are presented. The amplitude resolution, time resolution and charged particles detection efficiency are adduced. All measurements were performed using “fast” output of silicon photomultipliers of prototype scintillation detectors sensors. Fractal dimensions of temporal profiles registered during measurements using positron beam and atmospheric muons are discussed.
The GAMMA-400 (Gamma Astronomical Multifunctional Modular Apparatus) will be a new generation satellite gamma-observatory. The gamma-ray telescope GAMMA-400 consists of the anticoincidence system ...(top and lateral sections—ACtop and AClat), the converter-tracker (
C
), the time-of-flight system TOF (two sections
S
1 and
S
2), the position-sensitive and electromagnetic calorimeters (CC1 and CC2), the scintillation detectors of the calorimeter (
S
3 and
S
4) and lateral anticoincidence detectors of the calorimeter LD. Two apertures used for observation of transient events do not require the best angular resolution as for the gamma-ray bursts and solar flares from both upper and lateral directions. Additional aperture allows the particle registering from upper direction, which do not interact with converter-tracker and do not form a TOF signal. The lateral aperture allows registering of γ-quanta in perpendicular direction with respect to main axis of GAMMA-400 due to CC2, LD,
S
3, and
S
4. The thickness of CC2 in this direction is ∼44
X
0
and this allows detection of gammas, electrons and positrons with energies up to 10 TeV. The results of calculation of the fractal dimension of temporal profiles of additional aperture prototype of GAMMA-400 during its calibration using secondary positron beam of the synchrotron C-25P “PAKHRA” of Lebedev Physical Institute confirm the absence of any correlation between the AC and CC1 characteristics and correspondence of additional aperture background to Poisson statistics or Erlang one with shape parameter up to 10.
The GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope is planned for the launch at the end of this decade on the Navigator service platform designed by Lavochkin Association on an elliptical orbit with following initial ...parameters: an apogee ~300000, a perigee ~500 km, a rotation period ~7 days and inclination of 51.4°. The apparatus is expected to operate more than 5 years, reaching an unprecedented sensitivity for the search of dark matter signatures and the study of the unresolved and so far unidentified gamma-ray sources. An electronics system, which consists of 14 front-end multichannel electronics modules and the main processing unit with a total power consumption of about 400 W (74W for main processing unit), has been developed for providing fast trigger and veto for the data taking to the experiment. The communication between front-end modules, main processing unit and scientific data acquisition system of the gamma-ray telescope is performed via high-speed SPACEWIRE network. To assure the long-term reliability in space environment, a series of critical issues such as the radiation hardness, thermal design, components and board level quality control, warm and cold redundancy are taken into consideration. The main design concepts for the system, measurements setups together with some test results are presented.
The future GAMMA-400 γ-ray telescope will provide fundamentally new data on discrete sources and spectra of γ-ray emissions and electrons + positrons due to its unique angular and energy resolutions ...in the wide energy range from 20 MeV up to several TeV. The γ-ray telescope consists of the anticoincidence system (AC), the converter-tracker (C), the time-of-flight system (S1 and S2), the position-sensitive and electromagnetic calorimeters (CC1 and CC2), the scintillation detectors of the calorimeter (S3 and S4) and lateral anticoincidence detectors of the calorimeter (LD). To extend the GAMMA-400 capabilities to measure γ-ray bursts, Monte-Carlo simulations were performed for lateral aperture of the one of the versions of GAMMA-400. Second-level trigger based on signals from CC2, LD, S3, and S4 allows us to detect γ-ray bursts in the energy range of ~10-300 MeV with high effective area about 1 m2.
The space observatory GAMMA-400 is processed currently in accordance with the Federal Space Program of the Russian Federation for 2016–2025. The observatory includes a gamma-ray telescope for ...experimental studies of gamma rays in the energy range from ~20 MeV to ~1 TeV with high angular and energy resolution, as well as for research of electrons + positrons at energies above 100 GeV in both the main (top-down), and lateral apertures. At present time, there are experimental indications concerning the possibility of existing of spectrum break in electrons + positrons intensities about TeV energies. This point stimulates several speculations to explain such phenomena. In this paper we examined capabilities of GAMMA-400 telescope to explore this problem. The methods for electron detection in the energy range from 100 GeV up to 10 TeV from the lateral aperture of a gamma-ray telescope are presented. Also, the results of calculation for proton rejection factor and for electron acceptance are revealed.
The future space-based GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope will be installed on the Navigator platform of the Russian Astrophysical Observatory. A highly elliptical orbit will provide observations for 7-10 ...years of many regions of the celestial sphere continuously for a long time (~ 100 days). GAMMA-400 will measure gamma-ray fluxes in the energy range from ~ 20 MeV to several TeV and electron + positron fluxes up to ~ 20 TeV. GAMMA-400 will have an excellent separation of gamma rays from the background of cosmic rays and electrons + positrons from protons and an unprecedented angular (~ 0.01° at E
γ
= 100 GeV) and energy (~ 1% at E
γ
= 100 GeV) resolutions better than for Fermi-LAT, as well as ground-based facilities, by a factor of 5-10. Observations of GAMMA-400 will provide new fundamental data on discrete sources and spectra of gamma-ray emission and electrons + positrons, as well as the nature of dark matter.
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