HERD Proposal
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HERD proposal The Joint Working Team for the HERD collaboration O. Adriani1,2, G. Ambrosi3, Y. Bai4, B. Bertucci3,5, X. Bi6, J. Casaus7, I. De Mitri8,9, M. Dong10, Y. Dong6, I. Donnarumma11, F. Gargano12, E. Liang13, H. Liu13, C. Lyu10, G. Marsella14,15, M.N. Maziotta12, N. Mori2, M. Su16, A. Surdo14, L. Wang4, X. Wu17, Y. Yang10, Q. Yuan18, S. Zhang6, T. Zhang10, L. Zhao10, H. Zhong10, and K. Zhu6 ii 1University of Florence, Department of Physics, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Italy 2Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Firenze, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Italy 3Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Perugia, I-06123 Perugia, Italy 4Xi’an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of CAS, 17 Xinxi Road, New Industrial Park, Xi’an Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China 5Dipartimento di Fisica e Geologia, Universita degli Studi di Perugia, I-06123 Perugia, Italy 6Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 19B Yuquan Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing 100049, China 7Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologicas, CIEMAT. Av. Complutense 40, Madrid E-28040, Spain 8Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI), Via Iacobucci 2, I-67100, L’Aquila, Italy 9INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Assergi, L’Aquila, Italy 10Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 9 Dengzhuang South Rd., Haidian Dist., Beijing 100094, China 11Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), I-00133 Roma, Italy 12Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, I-70125, Bari, Italy 13Guangxi University, 100 Daxue East Road, Nanning City, Guangxi, China 14Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Lecce, I-73100, Lecce, Italy 15Universita del Salento - Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica ”E. De Giorgi”, I-73100, Lecce, Italy 16Department of Physics and Laboratory for Space Research, the University of Hong Kong, PokFuLam, Hong Kong SAR, China 17Department of Nuclear and Particle Physics, University of Geneva, CH-1211, Switzerland 18Key Laboratory of Dark Matter and Space Astronomy, Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China 2 CONTENTS 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 1.1 Executive summary 1 2 SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES 5 2.1 Measurement of cosmic electron spectrum and Dark Matter signal search 5 2.1.1 Fine structure at the electron spectrum 6 2.1.2 The contribution to CR electrons from nearby astrophysical sources 8 2.1.3 The measurement of the anisotropy of CR electrons 8 2.1.4 Test of the sharp feature possibly detected by DAMPE 10 2.1.5 Search for spectral features in the electron spectrum 10 2.1.6 The gamma-ray line signature - the smoking gun signature for DM 11 2.1.7 ALP searches 13 2.2 Origin of Cosmic Ray 13 2.2.1 Introduction 13 2.2.2 Potential of HERD 15 2.3 Gamma Ray Observatory 18 2.3.1 Galactic and extragalactic γ-ray origins of diffuse emission and the nature of unidentified sources 18 iii iv CONTENTS 2.3.2 Mechanisms of particle acceleration in celestial sources 21 2.3.3 Nature of Dark Matter 26 2.3.4 Cosmology and the early universe 27 2.3.5 Future of multi-messenger astronomy 27 References 29 3 MISSION PROFILE 37 3.1 Technical conditions of Chinese Space Station 37 3.2 Technical Condition Analysis 39 3.2.1 Orbit 39 3.2.2 Attitude 39 3.2.3 Observation Field 39 3.2.4 Support of Astronauts and Robotic Arm 40 3.3 Mission Analysis 40 3.4 Mission Profile 42 4 PAYLOAD 45 4.1 Overall Design 45 4.2 CALOrimeter 47 4.2.1 Crystal array 48 4.2.2 IsCMOS camera 50 4.2.3 Trigger sub-system 53 4.2.4 Beam test verification 53 4.2.5 Alternative readout with photodiodes 54 4.2.6 Tracker In Calorimeter 57 4.3 Tracker 58 4.3.1 Silicon TracKer 58 4.3.2 Alternative choice: Fiber Tracker (FIT) 61 4.4 Plastic Scintillator Detector 64 4.5 Transition Radiation Detector 67 4.6 In-orbit calibration 69 4.6.1 MIP Calibration 69 4.6.2 Cross calibration for TeV proton 70 4.7 Trigger strategy 70 4.8 Technical Analysis and Validation 72 4.8.1 Structure design and analysis 72 4.8.2 Electronics and information design 73 4.8.3 Thermal analysis 74 4.9 Key technologies 76 4.9.1 IsCMOS 76 4.10 Payload mass and power budget 76 CONTENTS v References 79 5 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS 81 5.1 Launching, transportation and installation 81 5.2 Operation 82 5.3 In-orbit replacement 83 6 PROGRAMMATIC AND COLLABORATION 85 6.1 HERD product tree 85 6.2 Model philosophy 86 6.3 Project schedule 86 6.4 Science operation 87 6.5 Data sharing and publication 87 CHAPTER 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1.1 Executive summary It is widely accepted that neutral, cold/warm and non-baryonic dark matter (DM) domi- nates the total matter content in the universe. One way to detect DM is to search in space for its annihilation/decay products, which may lead to characteristic features in the spectra of rare charged CR components or of gamma-rays. Some circumstantial evidence or hints of anomalies have been reported in recent observations of electron and positron spectra; however, astrophysical sources like pulsars and pulsar wind nebulae can also contribute to these results. New precise measurements of the e+ + e− energy spectrum and anisotropy in a wider and unexplored energy range will be able to definitively probe the origin of high energy electrons. The steepening of the primary cosmic ray (CR) spectrum around PeV, the so-called ”knee” region, is a classic but still unresolved problem in CR physics since the first ob- servations in 1958. Due to the rapidly falling intensity of the CR flux with energy, experi- ments with large acceptances and operating over several years are needed to explore the CR spectrum at the PeV energies. Indirect CR measurements, performed by means of ground- based extensive air shower detector arrays, have been therefore used in the past thanks to their large achievable exposures; but they have difficulties in making composition-resolved high-energy resolution measurements of the fine structure of the knee. Conversely, CR measurements in space, which can directly measure the particle charge and energy, have been suffering from small geometrical factors or exposure times preventing them to make statistically meaningful measurements at energies above few TeVs. New space exper- 1 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY iments with an exposure of ∼ 20 m2 sr yrs are needed to definitively explore the knee structure of the CR spectrum. Several generations of wide field of view (FOV) space gamma-ray telescopes in the GeV energy regime and ground based narrow FOV gamma-ray telescopes in hundreds of GeV energy regimes have discovered several new populations of astrophysical objects, which allow deeper understanding of the laws of nature under extreme physical conditions only available in cosmic laboratories. In particular the wide FOV space gamma-ray telescopes often provide crucial guidance to the observations of the ground-based narrow FOV tele- scopes. Unfortunately, the much more powerful ground-based Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), currently under development, may not have the needed guidance from a space wide FOV gamma-ray telescope, once the Fermi satellite will stop its operations. A new wide FOV space gamma-ray telescope is urgently needed to replace Fermi. In order to address the above major problems in fundamental physics and astrophysics, the High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection (HERD) facility has been proposed as one of several space astronomy payloads onboard the future China’s Space Station (CSS), which is planned for operation starting around 2025 for about 10 years. The primary scientific objectives of HERD are: (1) to search for signatures of the an- nihilation/decay products of dark matter particles in the energy spectra and anisotropy of high energy electrons from 10 GeV to 100 TeV and in the gamma-ray spectrum from 500 MeV to 100 TeV; (2) to measure precisely the energy spectra and composition of primary cosmic rays from 30 GeV up to PeV in order to determine the mechanism of the cosmic rays ’knee’ structure. The secondary scientific objectives of HERD include wide FOV monitoring of the high energy gamma-ray sky from 500 MeV for gamma-ray bursts, active galactic nuclei and Galactic microquasars. HERD is composed of 4 subdetectors. The main one is a homogeneous, almost cubic, electromagnetic calorimeter (CALO) made of LYSO cubic crystals and capable of accept- ing particles impinging on its top face but also on the four lateral faces. Each sensitive face is instrumented with a silicon tracker (STK), and the whole instrument is surrounded by a plastic scintillator (PSD) detector with the aim of separating gamma rays from charged particles. Additionally, a transition radiation detector (TRD) is located on one of the lateral faces for the purpose of energy calibration. This design results in an effective geometric factor which is more than one order of magnitude larger than that of previous missions, and also in good particle identification capabilities (in particular electron/hadron separa- tion by means of topological shower analysis thanks to the 3D structure of the CALO). With the current design the geometric factor expected for the HERD payload is >3 m2sr for electrons and >2 m2sr for protons. Within the framework of Chinese Manned Space Program, HERD will be launched in a cargo ship at Wenchang Launching Site by the CZ-7 carrier. After docking of the cargo ship onto the CSS, the HERD payload will be transfered by robotic arm to the dedicated mounting points of Experiment Module I.