Science enabled by high precision inertial formation flying

The capability of maintaining two satellites in precise relative position, stable in a celestial coordinate system, would enable major steps forward in a number of scientific disciplines and with a variety of types of instrumentation. The common requirement is for formation flying of two spacecraft with the direction of their vector separation in inertial coordinates very well controlled and also extremely well determined as a function of time. We consider here the scientific goals that could be achieved with such technology and review some of the proposals that have been made for specific developments and missions. Types of instrumentation that will benefit from the development of this type of formation flying include (i) imaging systems, in which an optical element on one spacecraft forms a distant image recorded by a detector array on the other (ii) systems in which the front spacecraft of a pair carries an occulting disk allowing very high dynamic range observations. The first group includes telescopes capable of very high angular resolution. Though usually requiring more than two spacecraft, another class of instrument, also aiming at very high angular resolution, (iii) interferometers, demands very much the same developments

Balloon Measurements of Cosmic Ray Muon Spectra in the Atmosphere along with those of Primary Protons and Helium Nuclei over Mid-Latitude

We report here the measurements of the energy spectra of atmospheric muons and of the cosmic ray primary proton and helium nuclei in a single experiment. These were carried out using the MASS superconducting spectrometer in a balloon flight experiment in 1991. The relevance of these results to the atmospheric neutrino anomaly is emphasized. In particular, this approach allows uncertainties caused by the level of solar modulation, the geomagnetic cut-off of the primaries and possible experimental systematics to be decoupled in the comparison of calculated fluxes of muons to measured muon fluxes. The muon observations cover the momentum and depth ranges of 0.3-40 GeV/c and 5-886 g/cmsquared, respectively. The proton and helium primary measurements cover the rigidity range from 3 to 100 GV, in which both the solar modulation and the geomagnetic cut-off affect the energy spectra at low energies.Comment: 31 pages, including 17 figures, simplified apparatus figure, to appear in Phys. Rev.

The CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) for high-energy astroparticle physics on the International Space Station

The CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) is a space experiment, currently under development by Japan in collaboration with Italy and the United States, which will measure the flux of cosmic-ray electrons (and positrons) up to 20 TeV energy, of gamma rays up to 10 TeV, of nuclei with Z from 1 to 40 up to 1 PeV energy, and will detect gamma-ray bursts in the 7 keV to 20 MeV energy range during a 5 year mission. These measurements are essential to investigate possible nearby astrophysical sources of high energy electrons, study the details of galactic particle propagation and search for dark matter signatures. The main detector of CALET, the Calorimeter, consists of a module to identify the particle charge, followed by a thin imaging calorimeter (3 radiation lengths) with tungsten plates interleaving scintillating fibre planes, and a thick energy measuring calorimeter (27 radiation lengths) composed of lead tungstate logs. The Calorimeter has the depth, imaging capabilities and energy resolution necessary for excellent separation between hadrons, electrons and gamma rays. The instrument is currently being prepared for launch (expected in 2015) to the International Space Station ISS, for installation on the Japanese Experiment Module - Exposure Facility (JEM-EF)

Neutrino constraints on long-lived heavy dark sector particle decays in the Earth

Recent theoretical work has explored dark matter accumulation in the Earth and its drift toward the center of the Earth that, for the current age of the Earth, does not necessarily result in a concentration of dark matter (χ) in the Earth's core. We consider a scenario of long-lived (τχ∼1028 s), superheavy (mχ=107-1010 GeV) dark matter that decays via χ→ντν¯τ or χ→νμν¯μ. We show that an IceCube-like detector over 10 years can constrain a dark matter density that mirrors the Earth's density or has a uniform density with density fraction ϵρ combined with the partial decay width Bχ→ντν¯τΓχ in the range of (ϵρ/10-10)Bχ→ντΓχ1.5×10-29-1.5×10-28 s-1. For χ→νμν¯μ, mχ=108-1010 GeV, and Eμ>107 GeV, the range of constraints is (ϵρ/10-10)Bχ→νμΓχ3×10-29-7×10-28 s-1.Open access articleThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

The absolute flux of protons and helium at the top of the atmosphere using IMAX

The cosmic-ray proton and helium spectra from 0.2 GeV nucleon^(-1) to about 200 GeV nucleon^(-1) have been measured with the balloon-borne experiment Isotope Matter-Antimatter Experiment (IMAX) launched from Lynn Lake, Manitoba, Canada, in 1992. IMAX was designed to search for antiprotons and light isotopes using a superconducting magnet spectrometer together with scintillators, a time-of-flight system, and Cherenkov detectors. Using redundant detectors, an extensive examination of the instrument efficiency was carried out. We present here the absolute spectra of protons and helium corrected to the top of the atmosphere and to interstellar space. If demodulated with a solar modulation parameter of Φ = 750 MV, the measured interstellar spectra between 20 and 200 GV can be represented by a power law in rigidity, with (1.42 ± 0.21) × 10^4R^(-2.71±0.04) (m^2 GV s sr)^(-1) for protons and (3.15 ± 1.03) × 10^3R^(-2.79±0.08) (m^2 GV s sr)^(-1) for helium

The POEMMA (Probe of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics) mission

International audienceThe Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) is designed to observe cosmic neutrinos (CNs) above 20 PeV and ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) above 20 EeV over the full sky. The POEMMA mission calls for two identical satellites flying in loose formation, each comprised of a 4-meter wide field-of-view (45 degrees) Schmidt photometer. The hybrid focal surface includes a fast (1 ${\mu}$s) ultraviolet camera for fluorescence observations and an ultrafast (10 ns) optical camera for Cherenkov observations. POEMMA will provide new multi-messenger windows onto the most energetic events in the universe, enabling the study of new astrophysics and particle physics at these otherwise inaccessible energies

POEMMA (Probe of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics) design

The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) is a NASA Astrophysics probe-class mission designed to observe ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and cosmic neutrinos from space. Astro2020 APC white paper: Medium-class Space Particle Astrophysics Project