The EUSO mission to study UHECR from space: Status and perspectives

The EUSO Collaboration has been studying a detector to be installed on the International Space Station which will observe ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECR) from space for the first time. The observation of UHECR from space offers several advantages such as large field of view, uniform observation of both celestial hemispheres, uniform detector response. For these reasons, spacebased observatories are complementary to the ground-based detectors. The EUSO Collaboration already built two pathfinders to test high-performance electronics and optical systems to meet the science requirements and the constraints (mass, power, hardness, ...) of space-borne detectors. Second-generation pathfinders, EUSO-SPB and Mini-EUSO, are currently under development. EUSO-SPB is a NASA Super Pressure Balloon payload scheduled to fly from New Zealand in Spring 2017 for a flight duration which may reach 100 days. The main scientific objective is the first observation and measurements of UHECR generated air showers by looking down from near space with a fluorescence detector. Mini-EUSO telescope (a joint ASIRoscosmos mission) will be placed on the Russian Module of the International Space Station in 2019. Its science objectives are the study of UV emission of natural, astronomical and artificial origin and of atmospheric phenomena. In this contribution, we will also report on the status and perspectives of the future EUSO mission

Capability of the PAMELA Time-Of-Flight to identify light nuclei: results from a beam test calibration

PAMELA is a space telescope orbiting around the Earth since June 2006. The scientific objectives addressed by the mission are the measurement of the antiprotons and positrons spectra in cosmic rays, the hunt for anti-nuclei as well as the determination of light nuclei fluxes from Hydrogen to Oxygen in a wide energy range and with very high statistics. In this paper the charge discrimination capabilities of the PAMELA Time-Of-Flight system for light nuclei, determined during a beam test calibration, will be presented.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, accepted for pubblication in NIM

The PAMELA Time-of-Flight system: status report

Abstract The PAMELA (Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics) satellite-borne experiment, scheduled to be launched in 2003, aboard a Soyuz TM2 rocket, is designed to provide a better understanding of the antimatter component of cosmic rays. In the following we report on the features and performances of its scintillator telescope system which will provide the primary experimental trigger and time-of-flight particle identification

The ToF and Trigger electronics of the PAMELA experiment

The PAMELA satellite-borne experiment, scheduled to be launched in 2004, is designed to provide a better understanding of the antimatter component of the cosmic rays. Its ToF scintillator system will provide the primary experimental trigger and time-of-flight particle identification. The time resolution requested is σ, < 120 ps. To fulfill the detector requirements the digitization electronics should have a time resolution ≤ 50 ps and provide a wide dynamic range for charge measurements. The peculiarity of the developed electronics arises from the need to obtain such a time resolution operating in a satellite environment, which implies low-power consumption, radiation hardness, redundancy and high reliability

The GAPS Experiment to Search for Dark Matter using Low-energy Antimatter

The GAPS experiment is designed to carry out a sensitive dark matter search by measuring low-energy cosmic ray antideuterons and antiprotons. GAPS will provide a new avenue to access a wide range of dark matter models and masses that is complementary to direct detection techniques, collider experiments and other indirect detection techniques. Well-motivated theories beyond the Standard Model contain viable dark matter candidates which could lead to a detectable signal of antideuterons resulting from the annihilation or decay of dark matter particles. The dark matter contribution to the antideuteron flux is believed to be especially large at low energies (E < 1 GeV), where the predicted flux from conventional astrophysical sources (i.e. from secondary interactions of cosmic rays) is very low. The GAPS low-energy antiproton search will provide stringent constraints on less than 10 GeV dark matter, will provide the best limits on primordial black hole evaporation on Galactic length scales, and will explore new discovery space in cosmic ray physics. Unlike other antimatter search experiments such as BESS and AMS that use magnetic spectrometers, GAPS detects antideuterons and antiprotons using an exotic atom technique. This technique, and its unique event topology, will give GAPS a nearly background-free detection capability that is critical in a rare-event search. GAPS is designed to carry out its science program using long-duration balloon flights in Antarctica. A prototype instrument was successfully flown from Taiki, Japan in 2012. GAPS has now been approved by NASA to proceed towards the full science instrument, with the possibility of a first long-duration balloon flight in late 2020. Here we motivate low-energy cosmic ray antimatter searches and discuss the current status of the GAPS experiment and the design of the payload.Comment: 8 pags, 3 figures, Proc. 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2017), Busan, Kore

Two years of flight of the Pamela experiment: results and perspectives

PAMELA is a satellite borne experiment designed to study with great accuracy cosmic rays of galactic, solar, and trapped nature in a wide energy range (protons: 80 MeV-700 GeV, electrons 50 MeV-400 GeV). Main objective is the study of the antimatter component: antiprotons (80 MeV-190 GeV), positrons (50 MeV-270 GeV) and search for antinuclei with a precision of the order of $10^{-8}$). The experiment, housed on board the Russian Resurs-DK1 satellite, was launched on June, $15^{th}$ 2006 in a $350\times 600 km$ orbit with an inclination of 70 degrees. In this work we describe the scientific objectives and the performance of PAMELA in its first two years of operation. Data on protons of trapped, secondary and galactic nature - as well as measurements of the December $13^{th}$ 2006 Solar Particle Event - are also provided.Comment: To appear on J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. as part of the proceedings of the International Workshop on Advances in Cosmic Ray Science March, 17-19, 2008 Waseda University, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japa

A new measurement of the antiproton-to-proton flux ratio up to 100 GeV in the cosmic radiation

A new measurement of the cosmic ray antiproton-to-proton flux ratio between 1 and 100 GeV is presented. The results were obtained with the PAMELA experiment, which was launched into low-earth orbit on-board the Resurs-DK1 satellite on June 15th 2006. During 500 days of data collection a total of about 1000 antiprotons have been identified, including 100 above an energy of 20 GeV. The high-energy results are a ten-fold improvement in statistics with respect to all previously published data. The data follow the trend expected from secondary production calculations and significantly constrain contributions from exotic sources, e.g. dark matter particle annihilations.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

The Time of Flight Detector and Trigger for the Pamela Experiment in Space

The electronics of the Time of Flight telescope and trigger of PAMELA experiment are described. The time resolution requested by the ToF system must be less than 120 ps. The contribution of the digitization electronics is negligible if the TDC resolution is < 50 ps. The peculiarity of the developed electronics arises from the need to obtain such a time resolution associated to a wide dynamic range for charge measurements, operating in satellite environment, which implies low power consumption, radiation hardness, redundancy and high reliabilit