Advantages and Requirements in Time Resolving Tracking for Astroparticle Experiments in Space

Matteo Duranti,Valerio Formato,Maura Graziani,Valerio Vagelli,Bruna Bertucci,Mattia Barbanera,Giovanni Ambrosi,Andrea Serpolla,Lucio Moriconi,Luca Tosti,Federico Donnini,Alberto Oliva,Enrico Catanzani,Francesco Faldi,Gianluigi Silvestre,Maria Ionica

doi:10.3390/instruments5020020

Abstract

A large-area, solid-state detector with single-hit precision timing measurement will enable several breakthrough experimental advances for the direct measurement of particles in space. Silicon microstrip detectors are the most promising candidate technology to instrument the large areas of the next-generation astroparticle space borne detectors that could meet the limitations on power consumption required by operations in space. We overview the novel experimental opportunities that could be enabled by the introduction of the timing measurement, concurrent with the accurate spatial and charge measurement, in Silicon microstrip tracking detectors, and we discuss the technological solutions and their readiness to enable the operations of large-area Silicon microstrip timing detectors in space.

Highlights

Dedicated studies are required to quantify the separation power depending on the energy and on the detector layout, these preliminary results provide a robust confirmation that hit timing measurements in tracking detectors can provide additional and independent information to enhance the e/p separation capabilities of systems based on Si-trackers and calorimeters (4.), providing information that is strongly independent from what is measured by other detectors used for hadron background suppression
Si-pixel detectors are increasingly providing an excellent solution for solidstate tracking systems in a wide variety of applications, the most suitable candidate technology to instrument several m2 of Si-tracker to be operated in space remains SiMS technology
The operation of the current generation of large CCR detectors has opened a new era of precision particle physics in space

Summary

Introduction

Cosmic Rays (CR) are messengers from the universe that, with the recent opportunity to operate precision particle physics detectors in space, stand as major probes to investigate astrophysical processes (with both Charged CR (CCR) [1,2] and photons at all wavelengths: radio [3,4], microwaves [5,6,7,8], IR and sub-mm [9,10,11,12,13], optical and UV [14,15,16,17], X-rays [18,19,20], γ-rays (GR) [20,21,22]) and fundamental physics (Dark Matter [23,24,25,26], Gravitational Waves [27], Antimatter Asymmetry [28,29,30], Cosmology [31]), producing unique and complementary information to what is provided by experiments in laboratories at ground. The feasibility of operating such detectors in space and their performances have been demonstrated by the successful operations of AMS-01 [32] and confirmed by the following missions (e.g., PAMELA [33], Fermi-LAT [22], AGILE [20], AMS-02 [1], DAMPE [34]) In spectrometric experiments, such as PAMELA and AMS-02, tracking systems based on several layers of SiMS sensors are placed inside a magnetic field volume to accurately measure the coordinate crossing of each particle to infer the trajectory curvature and measure the particle rigidity. The “3D sensor” technological approach is, for example, a possible feasible technology that may provide excellent timing resolutions [52], but it seems to not be suitable for large tracking areas (several m2 ), with low power budget consumption (few or fraction of kW), as required for CR space measurement applications. We mainly analyze the experimental advantages in the prospects of

Advantages with 5D Tracking in Astroparticle Experiments

Technological Solutions

Additional Opportunities from Operations of Thin Si-Microstrip Sensors

Conclusions

Methods

Findings