High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection Facility Research Articles

Potential for Constraining Propagation Parameters of Galactic Cosmic Rays with the High Energy Cosmic-radiation Detection Facility on Board China’s Space Station

Precise measurements of the spectra of secondary and primary cosmic rays are crucial for understanding the origin and propagation of those energetic particles. The High Energy Cosmic-radiation Detection (HERD) facility on board China’s Space Station, which is expected to operate in 2027, will push the direct and precise measurements of cosmic-ray fluxes up to PeV energies. In this work, we investigate the potential of HERD for studying the propagation of cosmic rays using measurements of boron, carbon, and oxygen spectra. We find that, compared with the current results, the new HERD measurements can improve the accuracy of the propagation parameters by 8%–40%. The constraints on the injection spectra at high energies will also be improved.

Monte Carlo simulation of HERD side-on transition radiation detector prototype

The High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection facility (HERD) is a calorimetry-based cosmic-ray detection mission on board China space station. A side-on transition radiation detector (TRD) focuses on the TeV energy range calibration of the HERD calorimeter with an error of less than 10% by measuring the Lorentz factor γ of high-energy cosmic-ray protons. A side-on TRD prototype was developed for the performance study and tested by Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron electron beams. In this paper, the Monte Carlo simulation based on GEANT4 was compared with the experiment results. All simulations were in good agreement with the test beam results.

Attaining the PeV frontier of the cosmic ray spectrum in space with HERD

The High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection facility (HERD) is a calorimetric experiment planned to be launched in 2027. It will be operational for at least 10 years on board the China Space Station. With HERD we will measure the energy flux of cosmic protons and heavier nuclei from 30 GeV up to, for the first time in space, a few PeV. We will search for signatures of annihilation and decay products of dark matter in the energy spectrum of cosmic electrons and gamma rays from 10 GeV to 100 TeV. A wide field of view monitoring of the gamma-ray full-sky from 100 MeV will also be performed. The five HERD subdetectors, the calorimeter (CALO), the scintillating fiber tracker (FIT), the plastic scintillator detector (PSD), the silicon charge detector (SCD) and the transition radiation detector (TRD), are currently under development. The design, prospects and expected performance of HERD, as well as its contribution to the multimessenger astronomy will be presented in this contribution.