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...
We present a preliminary design study of a superconducting magnetic spectrometer aimed at detecting light galactic antinuclei in space. As an initial step, we are developing a smaller demonstrator spectrometer for testing aboard a stratospheric balloon above Antarctica. To assess the feasibility of this approach, we performed a Geant4 simulation to evaluate the survival probability of...
NUSES is a pathfinder satellite that will be deployed in a low Earth orbit, designed with new technologies for space-based detectors. Zirรจ 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. Zirรจ 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 ๏ด showers produced by the interaction of Cosmic Neutrinos (CNs) in the crust. The ASIC was implemented to read...
The Earth-Moon-Mars (EMM) initiative, funded under Italyโs National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) and jointly coordinated by INAF, ASI, and CNR, aims to establish the Moon as a versatile platform for scientific research. Central to the project is the development of the Lunar Adaptive Outpost for Remote Italian Experiments (LAORIE), through which three advanced and highly specialized...
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 Earthโs 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...
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...
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 ฮณ-ray emission have long been theorized to be able to answer most of these questions. With the aim...
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...
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...
