The last generation of Galactic cosmic-ray experiments (AMS-02, CALET, DAMPE, ISS-CREAM) is providing a wealth of high-precision new data. The interpretation of these data is stimulating a very rich and active debate in the community, with strong discovery and constraining potentials on many topics (dark matter, acceleration and transport of cosmic rays, Galactic sources etc.). However, the...
Reduced atmospheric interference, the potential of stable and long-term observations free from Earth's Magnetosphere combined with tectonic stability and a field of view encompassing the entire Earth's disk make the Moon extremely attractive for observing the Earth and studying the Universe. The Earth-Moon-Mars (EMM) project aims to capitalize on these advantages.
EMM is an NRRP-funded...
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is a particle physics experiment on board the International Space Station (ISS) designed to accurately measure the principal and the rarest Cosmic Rays components in the rigidity range from 1 GV to several TV.
Following a long period of construction and testing, AMS was launched to the ISS and installed on May 19, 2011, and since then collects data and it...
The High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection facility (HERD) is an international space-borne experiment set to be installed on the China Space Station (CSS). HERD will address several major problems in fundamental physics and astrophysics, including cosmic ray (CR) direct measurements up to PeV energies, dark matter searches, and a gamma-ray survey above 0.1 GeV. The current design of HERD...
We present Beam-monitor with Extreme Range (BeER), an innovative charge detector with high resolution and a wide dynamic range, initially designed to provide unique information on high-energy ion beams, which are commonly used in cosmic ray experiments for detector characterization. Several detector prototypes, built using Si photodiodes and custom readout electronics, have undergone extensive...
Apparent discrepancies exist among cosmic-ray (CR) nuclei flux measurements from recent precision experiments such as AMS, CALET, and DAMPE. While it is difficult to determine the origin of these discrepancies, a predominant source of systematic error in these measurements arises from understanding nuclear interactions in detector materials.
Interactions of heavy nuclei with detector...
The formation of low-energy anti-deuterons in cosmic ray collisions with the Interstellar Medium (ISM) is kinetically unfavored, while several Dark Matter (DM) models foresee the production of these light nuclei even at low energy.
The search of cosmic anti-deuterons in the kinetic energy range from a few MeV to several hundred MeV is an interesting channel for DM indirect observation....
The MoonRay project is carrying out a concept study of a permanent lunar cosmic-ray (CR) and gamma-ray observatory, in view of the implementation of habitats on our satellite. The idea is to build a modular telescope that will be able to overcome the limitations, in available power and weight, of the present generation of CR instruments in Low Earth Orbit, while carrying out high energy...
The SQM-ISS detector is an advanced instrument designed to search from the International Space Station (ISS) for heavy, slow-moving particles, such as strange quark matter (SQM), Q-balls or primordial black holes. These particles, if they exist and form a part of dark matter, are expected to travel at speeds of up to 250 km/s, which corresponds to typical galactic orbital velocities. The...
Low Gain Avalanche Diodes (LGADs) are silicon detectors with an intrinsic gain, developed for timing measurements in High Energy Physics Experiments. The sate-of-the-art LGADs foreseen for ATLAS and CMS experiments feature a channel size of about 2 mm$^2$ on 50 $\mu$m thick silicon providing a timing resolution of about 30 ps for Minimum Ionizing Particles (MIPs). These detectors are radiation...
Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) have emerged as a key enabling technology in particle physics, offering µm-level spatial resolution, low material budget, simplified assembly, and lower production costs compared to alternative detector technologies.
Following the success of ALPIDE, designed by the ALICE collaboration and currently operational in LHC Run 3, interest in MAPS has expanded...
In the context of the Pentadimensional Tracking Space Detector
project (PTSD), we are currently developing a demonstrator to increase the Technological Readiness Level of LGAD Si-microstrip tracking detectors for applications in space-borne instruments.
Low Gain Avalanche Diodes (LGAD) is a consolidated technology developed for particle detectors at colliders which allows for simultaneous...
The PHeSCAMI project (Pressurized Helium Scintillating Calorimeter for AntiMatter Identification) aims to detect anti-deuterium in cosmic rays by utilizing delayed annihilations (~μs) expected within a pressurized helium target. This technique relies on capturing the helium scintillation signal (80 nm), which requires a two-stage Wavelength Shifter (WLS) conversion.
This study presents...
In this contribution we present a novel compact particle identification (PID) detector concept based on Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) optimized to perform combined Ring-Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) and Time-of-Flight (TOF) measurements using a common photodetector layer. The system consists of a Cherenkov radiator layer separated from a photosensitive surface equipped with SiPMs by an...
High granularity 3D calorimeters offer the potential to precisely reconstruct the 3D topology of electromagnetic and hadronic showers originating from isotropic sources. This distinctive capability creates the opportunity for applying reconstruction and analysis methods that could yield additional information compared to those based on the traditional layer-by-layer energy deposit analysis...
The use of scintillating fiber detectors, read out with silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) arrays, has emerged as a promising technology for particle tracking in high-energy physics, cosmic-ray and gamma-ray astrophysics. The FIber Tracker (FIT), proposed for the upcoming High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection (HERD) facility, provides a spatial resolution at the scale of tens of micrometers with...
Scintillators such as EJ-200 plastic and LYSO inorganic crystals are widely used in current and future astroparticle physics experiments. However, significant discrepancies exist among reported measurements of light yield quenching for these materials that impacts the accuracy of expected detector responses. This study presents new experimental data obtained using muons, protons, carbon ions,...
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) was installed on the
International Space Station in 2011. This particle physics experiment
is designed to measure the composition of cosmic rays in low Earth
orbit, with the primary goal of distinguishing between antimatter and
matter. AMS is equipped with a permanent magnet and multiple detectors,
allowing it to analyze incoming cosmic rays with...
NUSES is a pathfinder satellite that will be deployed in a low Earth orbit, designed with new technologies for space-based detectors. Zirè is one of the payload of NUSES and aims to measure electrons, protons, and light nuclei in an kinetic energy range spanning from a few MeVs to several hundred MeVs, as well as photons in the energy range from 0.1 MeV to 10 MeV. Zirè consists of a Fiber...
In this paper we discuss the observational capabilities and sensitivity of the SQM-ISS detector to primordial black holes.
Primordial black holes are hypothetical black holes that could have formed in the early Universe as a result of density fluctuations in the primordial plasma, and could span a wide range of masses, from microscopic to several solar masses.
Their detection would provide...
The X and Gamma Imager and Spectrometer (XGIS) on board THESEUS is a finely pixelized and modular instrument designed for broadband high-energy transient detection. XGIS consists of two cameras, each composed of 10 supermodules, with each supermodule further divided into 10 modules, and each module made with 64 independently readout pixels based on Silicon Drift Detectors coupled with 5x5x30...
Plastic scintillator detectors can provide charge measurement and participate in the anti-coincidence trigger system for gamma detection in space-born cosmic ray experiments, such as HERD (High Energy Cosmic Radiation Detection). In order to achieve its objective, the plastic scintillator bars will be equipped with two different kinds of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) for HighZ and LowZ...
Timepix3 [1] is a hybrid pixel detector with $55\,\mu\mathrm{m}$ pixel pitch in a matrix $256 \times 256$ pixels. It can measure in data-driven mode when it detects both the deposited energy and time of arrival (ToA) in the pixels. The ToA is written with $1.56\,\mathrm{ns}$ precision. The fine ToA resolution permits 3D reconstruction of tracks within the sensor [2]. This makes Compton camera...
A next-generation gamma-ray observatory operating in the medium-energy gamma-ray band (~100 keV to 100 MeV) will provide crucial capabilities needed to identify and classify multi-messenger sources and to probe the explosive and energetic processes in the universe including relativistic jets and gamma-ray bursts. Advancements in tracker detector technologies and instrument design are critical...
In the context of the Pentadimensional Tracking Space Detector project (PTSD), we are currently developing a demonstrator to increase the Technological Readiness Level of LGAD Si-microstrip tracking detectors for applications in space-borne instruments. Low Gain Avalanche Diodes (LGAD) is a consolidated technology developed for particle detectors at colliders which allows for simultaneous and...
The General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS) is a stratospheric balloon experiment designed to search for low-energy cosmic-ray antinuclei as potential indirect evidence of dark matter annihilation or decay. Flying over Antarctica, GAPS will complete three flights for a combined mission duration of approximately 100 days. By targeting the largely unexplored sub-250 MeV/n energy range, GAPS...
The Advanced Particle Astrophysics Telescope (APT) is a proposed next-generation space-based observatory designed for gamma-ray astronomy in the MeV-TeV energy range. To validate its technology and design, a small-scale prototype, the Antarctic Demonstrator for APT (ADAPT), is currently under development for a high-altitude balloon flight during the 2026-2027 Antarctic summer. Among its...
X-ray fluorescence (XRF) techniques allow us to detect the characteristic X-rays from a material. This process has been used in several application fields, from environmental studies on air particulates to pigments composing a specific artwork.
Regolith covers the moon's surface for meters, and its thickness varies from micrometers up to centimeters. Its dust is electrically charged, and...
This work describes the development of the Multi-channel Integrated Zone-sampling Analogue-memory based Readout (MIZAR) ASIC. This 64-channel chip was designed as part of NASA's POEMMA Balloon with RADIO (PBR) mission, which aims to detect Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) and showers produced by the interaction of Cosmic Neutrinos (CNs) in the crust. The ASIC was implemented to read...
THESEUS (Transient High-Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor) is one of the three M7 mission candidates currently in Phase A for assessment and launch opportunity in 2037. The mission is designed to provide unprecedented capabilities for detecting and characterizing X-ray and gamma-ray transients, supporting time-domain and multi-messenger astrophysics. A key instrument on board THESEUS is...
newASTROGAM is a breakthrough mission concept for the study of the non-thermal Universe from space with gamma rays in the energy range from 100 keV to 3 GeV. It is based on an advanced space-proven detector technology, which will achieve unprecedented sensitivity, angular and energy resolution combined with polarimetric capability. Since the MeV gamma-ray energy range is the most...
The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) is an upcoming NASA Small Explorer (SMEX) satellite mission with a planned Falcon 9 launch in 2027. COSI operates as a Compton telescope in the 0.2-5 MeV gamma-ray bandpass, it has an instantaneous field of view of >25%-sky, and it obtains coverage the entire sky every day. COSI provides imaging, spectroscopy, and polarimetry of astrophysical...
The Crystal Eye detector is an all-sky spaceborne gamma-ray monitor intended to cover the energy range between 10 keV - 30 MeV, a region currently lacking of extensive observations and monitoring. To optimize its design and estimate its scientific potential, it is essential to understand the environment where it will operate and how it could affect the observation process. With this aim, we...
The Galactic Annihilation Line Explorer (GALE) mission will address a long-outstanding question in our understanding of the sources of Galactic positrons: whether they are produced by unresolved astrophysical sources or created via diffuse processes, possibly due to dark matter decays and/or interactions. This problem of Galactic positrons that produce 511-keV gamma-ray emission from the...
The astrophysical community is currently focusing on the development of next-generation gamma-ray telescopes designed to detect low-energy photons in the MeV-GeV range, operating in both the Compton and pair conversion regimes. The proposed Advanced Particle-astrophysics Telescope (APT) is a MeV-TeV gamma-ray space-based planned mission aimed at providing an order of magnitude improvement in...
High-density and high-Z crystals are a key element of most detectors used to observe High Energy (HE) $\gamma-$rays and cosmic rays from space, such as Fermi-LAT and DAMPE. The lattice structure of these materials is usually ignored for all practical purposes, such as instrument calibration or simulation. However, recent studies have shown that this is a rough approximation, since $e^\pm$ and...
The launch of the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) on December 9, 2021, marked a transformative milestone in high-energy astrophysics, solidifying X-ray polarimetry as the "Holy Grail" of this field. IXPE has not only met but has consistently upheld its pre-launch performance expectations, operating with an impressive duty cycle close to 100%. In particular detectors are compliant...
The CUbesat Solar Polarimeter (CUSP) project is a CubeSat mission planned for a launch in low-Eart orbit and aimed to measure the linear polarization of solar flares in the hard X-ray band by means of a Compton scattering polarimeter. CUSP will allow to study the magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration in the flaring magnetic structures of our star. CUSP is a project in the framework...
COCOA (COmpact COmpton cAmera) is a next-generation, cost-effective gamma-ray telescope designed for astrophysical observations in the MeV energy range. The detector comprises a scatterer volume employing the LiquidO detection technology and an array of scintillating crystals acting as absorber. Surrounding plastic scintillator panels serve as a veto system for charged particles. The...
The eXTP (enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry) mission is a major project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), that had a large involvement of Europe, until it was de-scoped to a "China-only" mission in 2024. The scientific payload of the former eXTP included four instruments: SFA (Spectroscopy Focusing Array) and PFA (Polarimetry Focusing Array) - led by China - and LAD (Large Area...
The Lunar Electromagnetic Monitor in X-rays (LEM-X) is a proposed all-sky X-ray observatory to be installed on the surface of the Moon for the rapid identification of high-energy transients and the long-term monitoring of astrophysical sources in the 2 − 50 keV band. Developed within the Earth Moon Mars (EMM) project of the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan, LEM-X has been...
POEMMA-Balloon with Radio (PBR) is designed as a payload for a NASA suborbital Super Pressure Balloon that will circle over the Southern Ocean and a mission duration as long as 50 days. The PBR instrument consists of a 1.1 m aperture Schmidt telescope similar to the POEMMA design with two cameras in its focal surface: a Fluorescence Camera (FC) and a Cherenkov Camera (CC). The CC camera is...
Understanding the universe at the highest energies requires innovative approaches, as the fluxes of CRs at these energies are exceedingly low due to the power-law nature of the CR spectra. Current state-of-the-art experiments, such as the Pierre Auger Observatory and Telescope Array (TA) ground-based detectors for CR physics and IceCube and KM3Net for neutrino observations, have already...
The High Energy Particle Detector HEPD-02 is primarily devoted to observe fluxes of cosmic-ray electrons, protons and light nuclei, with kinetic energies in the MeV range – up to a few hundreds. HEPD-02 will be hosted on-board the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite CSES-02, on a quasi-polar, low-Earth orbit; the launch is currently foreseen during 2025.
The CSES mission, coordinated by...
The Zirè detector is one of the two scientific payloads of the NUSES satellite, which is currently under construction and test. Zirè aims to measure electrons, protons, and light nuclei in an kinetic energy range spanning from a few MeVs up to several hundred MeVs, enabling the study of low-energy cosmic rays, space weather phenomena, and potential Magnetosphere-Lithosphere-Ionosphere Coupling...
The General Anti Particle Spectrometer (GAPS) is a balloon-borne cosmic-ray experiment expected to be launched during the Antarctic summer season 25/26.
Its primary science goal is to search for light antinuclei in cosmic rays at kinetic energies below 0.25 GeV/n, as a possible indirect dark matter signature.
GAPS will measure the antiproton component with unprecedented statistics in an...
LISA will be the first space-based gravitational wave observatory sensitive to the unexplored frequency band of 0.1 mHz – 1 Hz. It will consist of three identical spacecraft (SC) 2.5 million km away from each other. Each SC will be equipped with lasers and free-falling Au/Pt solid cubes (known as Test Masses, TMs). Gravitational waves will be detected by measuring small variations in the...
Operating a space-based detector in high-radiation regions such as the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) presents challenges for both hardware design and data acquisition. The Low Energy Module (LEM) has been conceived to address these demands, offering robust measurement capabilities even under hostile conditions. NUSES is a forthcoming space mission intended to test innovative observational and...
The forthcoming second China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-02) will host the novel generation High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD-02), optimized for the detection of 30 MeV - 200 MeV protons and 3 MeV - 100 MeV electrons. HEPD-02 is equipped with a silicon pixel tracker, a stack of plastic scintillators, and a segmented LYSO crystal scintillator. The complex design of the detector...
The China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) mission is a collaborative effort between China and Italy aimed at building a constellation of multi-payload space observatories dedicated to studying Earth’s geophysical properties from space using non-imaging remote sensing methods. The project seeks to develop a network of small satellites that continuously gather data from the entire...
MAPS are silicon-based solid-state detectors used in high-energy physics experiments, such as the Inner Tracking System of the ALICE experiment at CERN, used for their high granularity and minimal material budget. Here we present the first application of this technology to a spaceborne detector, the High Energy Particle Detector (HEPD-02), scheduled for launch during 2025 onboard the China...
The counting process of individual physical events in the presence of an extended dead time (EDT) in the electronics results in the saturation and quenching of the counting rate, due to pile-up. This effect can be accounted for, on average, by inverting the saturation curve, provided the electronics double pulse resolution associated with the counting process is known. In the present work, we...
The Mini-EUSO mission operates from inside the International Space Station (ISS) to detect UV photons produced by ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), ELVES, meteors or other transient atmospheric or ground phenomena, using multi-anode photomultiplier tubes (MAPMTs) in single photoelectron counting mode. Because of the $\sim 6$ ns extended dead time (EDT) associated with the use of the...
The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) Balloon with Radio (PBR) is an instrument designed to be borne by a NASA suborbital Super Pressure Balloon (SPB), in a mission planned to last as long as 50 days. The PBR instrument consists of a 1.1 m aperture Schmidt telescope, similar to the POEMMA design, with two cameras in its hybrid focal surface: a Fluorescence Camera (FC) and...
Future space detectors for Ultra High Energy neutrinos and cosmic rays will utilize Cherenkov telescopes to detect forward-beamed Cherenkov light produced by charged particles in Extensive Air Showers. A Cherenkov detector can be equipped with an array of Silicon Photo-Multiplier (SiPM) pixels, which offer several advantages over traditional photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). SiPMs are compact,...
The silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) is increasingly used in single-photon or few-photon based applications such as spectroscopy, quantum experiments and distance measurements (LIDAR). Also, it founds its niche in fast timing applications such as time of flight positron emission tomography (TOF-PET) and in high energy physics (HEP).
In astrophysics, SiPM arrays find their use in the...
WINK is a test prototype for the innovative technology of Crystal Eye, a detector developed for the all-sky detection of gamma and X rays in 0.1-30 MeV range aimed to study the EM emissions associated with extreme phenomena in the Universe as, for example, production of gravitational waves, and to investigate phenomena such as the prompt emissions of Gamma Rays Bursts (GBRs), while also...
The Space Industry Responsive Intelligent Thermal (SpIRIT) is a 6U CubeSat
nano-satellite mission born from a collaboration between Australia and Italy in
high-energy astrophysics. The 6U CubeSat carries an actively cooled detector
system payload in a Sun-synchronous orbit. This payload unit hosts advanced X-
ray and gamma-ray detectors identical to those on board the High Energy...
Transient High-Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor (THESEUS), a multi-instrument space mission concept, is currently one of the three candidates of the European Space Agency (ESA) M7 medium size missions, with strong heritage derived from the M5 Phase-Assessment (Phase-A) study in 2018-2021.
With an intended launch in 2037, the main goals of this mission include exploring the early...
The Large Area Detector (LAD) is an instrument concept for high-throughput spectral timing studies of compact astrophysical sources in the X-ray energy band (2-30 keV), originally proposed for the LOFT, eXTP and STROBE-X space missions. The LAD is based on an array of collimated large-area linear Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs), that can be combined to accumulate a large effective area. The...
The Antarctic Demonstrator for the Advanced Particle-Astrophysics Telescope (ADAPT) is a NASA suborbital mission planned for a high-altitude balloon flight over Antarctica during the 2026-2027 season. ADAPT aims to validate key detector technologies for the forthcoming space-based Advanced Particle-Astrophysics Telescope (APT) mission, an MeV-TeV gamma-ray telescope designed to provide an...
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are among the most powerful and violent events in the Universe. Despite over half a century of observations of these transient sources, many open questions remain about their nature and the physical emission mechanisms at play. Polarization measurements of the GRB prompt γ-ray emission have long been theorized to be able to answer most of these questions. With the aim...
A gamma-ray observatory with high sensitivity in the MeV range (100 keV - 100 MeV) and with good spectral and polarimetric capabilities will bring unprecedented insights into many astrophysical domains such as cosmic ray production and propagation, nucleosynthesis processes and transient and extreme phenomena, and will be key in addressing fundamental physics questions such as the nature of...
We present a novel large-volume, extended field-of-view Time Projection Chamber (TPC) tailored for hard X‑ray polarimetry. Originally developed for directional Dark Matter searches, the system has been adapted to measure the polarization of X‑rays, providing a new tool to probe the high-energy universe. The detector employs a triple-GEM configuration coupled with an optical readout, using a...
The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is a NASA-ASI space mission launched in 2021 and it is the current state-of-the-art of astrophysical X-ray polarimetry. It measures the linear polarization of different astrophysical sources over the photon energy range 2-8 keV.
Its core detector is the Gas Pixel Detector (GPD): it employs the photoelectric effect and the polarization is recovered...
The direct measurement of the antimatter components in cosmic rays provides a crucial information on the mechanisms responsible for their acceleration/propagation and represent a powerful tool for the indirect search of dark matter. At present, charge sign discrimination has been performed by the use of magnetic spectrometers, which are not suited to extend the current measurements at higher...
A new era of space missions is needed to address the unresolved questions raised by current experiments, and further advance our understanding of charged cosmic rays and gamma rays. The challenge of the direct detection at increasingly higher energies, combined with enhanced energy and angular resolutions, is shaping the design of future detectors. FIT is a modular, high-resolution particle...
Machine Learning (ML) techniques have proven highly effective in gamma-ray data analysis performed in ground-based pipelines. Implementing ML analysis directly onboard satellites introduces transformative capabilities that enhance both spacecraft autonomy and ground segment efficiency. Onboard ML processing significantly reduces the required downlink bandwidth by selecting relevant data before...
The integration of advanced artificial intelligence techniques into astroparticle experiments marks a transformative step in data analysis and experimental design. As space missions grow increasingly complex, the adoption of AI technologies becomes critical to optimizing performance and achieving robust scientific outcomes.
This study focuses on the development of innovative AI-driven...
The growing demand for GPUs has led to the rapid development of machine learning research techniques in all areas of science, including High Energy Physics.
We present a study focused on the classification task of simulated electrons and protons as they would be detected by the High Energy Cosmic-Radiation Detection (HERD) Facility. HERD is a high-energy cosmic-ray detector based on a deep...
