The Advanced Particle-astrophysics Telescope: Simulation of the Instrument Performance for Gamma-Ray Detection

Alnussirat S, Altomare C, Bose RG, Braun D, Buckley JH, Buhler JD, Burns E, Chamberlain RD, Chen W, Cherry ML, Di Venere L, Dumonthier J, Errando M, Funk S, Giordano F, Hoffman J, Hughes Z, Huth DJ, Kelly PL, Krizmanic JF, Kuwahara M, Licciulli F, Liu G, Mazziotta MN, Mitchell JG, Mitchell JW, de Nolfo GA, Paoletti R, Pillera R, Rauch BF, Serini D, Simburger G, Sudvarg M, Suarez G, Tatoli T, Varner GS, Wulf E, Zink A, Zober WV (2022)

Publication Type: Conference contribution

Publication year: 2022

Journal

PoS - Proceedings of Science SISSA

Publisher: Sissa Medialab Srl

Book Volume: 395

Conference Proceedings Title: Proceedings of Science

Event location: Berlin DE

Abstract

We present simulations of the instrument performance of the Advanced Particle-astrophysics Telescope (APT), a mission concept of a γ-ray and cosmic-ray observatory in a sun-Earth Lagrange orbit. The key components of the APT detector include a multiple-layer tracker composed of scintillating fibers and an imaging calorimeter composed of thin layers of CsI:Na scintillators. The design is aimed at maximizing effective area and field of view for γ-ray and cosmic-ray measurements, subject to constraints on instrument cost and total payload mass. We simulate a detector design based on 3-meter scintillating fibers and develop reconstruction algorithms for γ-rays from a few hundreds of keV up to a few TeV energies. At the photon energy above 30 MeV, pair-production/shower reconstruction is applied; the results show that APT could provide an order of magnitude improvement in effective area and sensitivity for γ-ray detection compared with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). A multiple-Compton-scattering reconstruction at photon energies below 10 MeV achieves sensitive detection of faint γ-ray bursts (GRBs) and other γ-ray transients down to ∼ 0.01 MeV/cm2 with degree-level to sub-degree-level localization accuracy. The Compton analysis also provides a measurement of polarization where the minimum detectable degree of polarization for ∼ 1 MeV/cm2 GRBs is below 20%. In addition to the APT simulations, we present the simulated performance of the Antarctic Demonstrator for APT, a 0.5m-square cross section balloon experiment that includes all of the key elements of the full APT detector.

Authors with CRIS profile

Stefan Funk Lehrstuhl für Physik Adrian Zink Physikalisches Institut

Involved external institutions

Washington University US United States (USA) (US) National Institute for Nuclear Physics / Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) IT Italy (IT) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) US United States (USA) (US) Louisiana State University US United States (USA) (US) Università degli Studi di Siena (UNISI) / University of Siena IT Italy (IT) University of Minnesota (UMN) US United States (USA) (US) U.S. Naval Research Laboratory US United States (USA) (US) University of Maryland, Baltimore County US United States (USA) (US) University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa US United States (USA) (US) George Washington University (GWU) US United States (USA) (US)

How to cite

APA:

Alnussirat, S., Altomare, C., Bose, R.G., Braun, D., Buckley, J.H., Buhler, J.D.,... Zober, W.V. (2022). The Advanced Particle-astrophysics Telescope: Simulation of the Instrument Performance for Gamma-Ray Detection. In Proceedings of Science. Berlin, DE: Sissa Medialab Srl.

MLA:

Alnussirat, S., et al. "The Advanced Particle-astrophysics Telescope: Simulation of the Instrument Performance for Gamma-Ray Detection." Proceedings of the 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference, ICRC 2021, Berlin Sissa Medialab Srl, 2022.

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