The possibilities of simultaneous detection of gamma rays, cosmic-ray electrons and positrons on the GAMMA-400 space observatory

The GAMMA-400 space observatory will provide precise measurements of gamma rays, electrons, and positrons in the energy range 0.1–3000 GeV. The good angular and energy resolutions, as well as identification capabilities (angular resolution ~0.01°, energy resolution ~1%, and proton rejection factor ~106) will allow us to study the main galactic and extragalactic sources, diffuse gamma-ray background, gamma-ray bursts, and to measure electron and positron fluxes. The peculiar characteristics of the experiment is simultaneous detection of gamma rays and cosmic-ray electrons and positrons, which can be connected with annihilation or decay of dark matter particles

Modifications of a method for low energy gamma-ray incident angle reconstruction in the GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope

The GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope is designed to measure the gamma-ray fluxes in the energy range from 3c20 MeV to 3c1 TeV, performing a sensitive search for high-energy gamma-ray emission when annihilating or decaying dark matter particles. Such measurements will be also associated with the following scientific goals: searching for new and studying known Galactic and extragalactic discrete high-energy gamma-ray sources (supernova remnants, pulsars, accreting objects, microquasars, active galactic nuclei, blazars, quasars). It will be possible to study their structure with high angular resolution and measuring their energy spectra and luminosity with high-energy resolution; identify discrete gamma-ray sources with known sources in other energy ranges. The major advantage of the GAMMA-400 instrument is excellent angular and energy resolutions for gamma rays above 10 GeV. The gamma-ray telescope angular and energy resolutions for the main aperture at 100-GeV gamma rays are 3c0.01% and 3c1%, respectively. The motivation of presented results is to improve physical characteristics of the GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope in the energy range of 3c20-100 MeV, most unexplored range today. Such observations are crucial today for a number of high-priority problems faced by modern astrophysics and fundamental physics, including the origin of chemical elements and cosmic rays, the nature of dark matter, and the applicability range of the fundamental laws of physics. To improve the reconstruction accuracy of incident angle for low-energy gamma rays the special analysis of topology of pair-conversion events in thin layers of converter performed. Choosing the pair-conversion events with more precise vertical localization allows us to obtain significantly better angular resolution in comparison with previous and current space and ground-based experiments. For 50-MeV gamma rays the GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope angular resolution is better than 50

ALICE: Physics Performance Report, Volume II

ALICE is a general-purpose heavy-ion experiment designed to study the physics of strongly interacting matter and the quark-gluon plasma in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC. It currently involves more than 900 physicists and senior engineers, from both the nuclear and high-energy physics sectors, from over 90 institutions in about 30 countries. The ALICE detector is designed to cope with the highest particle multiplicities above those anticipated for Pb-Pb collisions (dN(ch)/dy up to 8000) and it will be operational at the start-up of the LHC. In addition to heavy systems, the ALICE Collaboration will study collisions of lower-mass ions, which are a means of varying the energy density, and protons (both pp and pA), which primarily provide reference data for the nucleus-nucleus collisions. In addition, the pp data will allow for a number of genuine pp physics studies. The detailed design of the different detector systems has been laid down in a number of Technical Design Reports issued between mid-1998 and the end of 2004. The experiment is currently under construction and will be ready for data taking with both proton and heavy-ion beams at the start-up of the LHC. Since the comprehensive information on detector and physics performance was last published in the ALICE Technical Proposal in 1996, the detector, as well as simulation, reconstruction and analysis software have undergone significant development. The Physics Performance Report (PPR) provides an updated and comprehensive summary of the performance of the various ALICE subsystems, including updates to the Technical Design Reports, as appropriate. The PPR is divided into two volumes. Volume I, published in 2004 (CERN/LHCC 2003-049, ALICE Collaboration 2004 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 30 1517-1763), contains in four chapters a short theoretical overview and an extensive reference list concerning the physics topics of interest to ALICE, the experimental conditions at the LHC, a short summary and update of the subsystem designs, and a description of the offline framework and Monte Carlo event generators. The present volume, Volume II, contains the majority of the information relevant to the physics performance in proton-proton, proton-nucleus, and nucleus-nucleus collisions. Following an introductory overview, Chapter 5 describes the combined detector performance and the event reconstruction procedures, based on detailed simulations of the individual subsystems. Chapter 6 describes the analysis and physics reach for a representative sample of physics observables, from global event characteristics to hard processes