Relativistic particle measurement in jupiter’s magnetosphere with Pix.PAN

Abstract

Pix.PAN is a compact cylindrical magnetic spectrometer, intended to provide excellent high energy particle measurements under high rate and hostile operating conditions in space. Its principal design is composed of two Halbach-array magnetic sectors and six Timepix4-based tracking layers; the latest hybrid silicon pixel detector readout ASIC designed. Due to Pix.PAN’s compact and relatively simple design, it has the potential to be used for space missions exploring with measurements of unprecedented precision, high energy particles in radiation belts and the heliophere (solar energetic particles, anomalous and galactic cosmic rays). In this white paper, we discuss the design and expected performance of Pix.PAN for COMPASS (Comprehensive Observations of Magnetospheric Particle Acceleration, Sources, and Sinks), a mission concept submitted to NASA’s Call “B.16 Heliophysics Mission Concept Studies (HMCS)” in 2021 that targets the extreme high energy particle environment of Jupiter’s inner radiation belts. We also discuss PixPAN’s operational conditions and interface requirements. The conceptual design shows that is possible to achieve an energy resolution of<12% for electrons in the range of 10 MeV-1 GeV and<35% for protons between \(\sim \)200 MeV to a few GeV. Due to the timestamp precision of Timepix4, a time resolution (on an instrument level) of about 100 ps can be achieved for time-of-flight measurements. In the most intense radiation environments of the COMPASS mission, Pix.PAN is expected to have a maximum hit rate of 44\(\frac{\text {MHz}}{\text {cm}^2}\) which is below the design limit of 360\(\frac{\text {MHz}}{\text {cm}^2}\) of Timepix4. Finally, a sensor design is proposed which allows the instrument to operate with a power budget of 20W without the loss of scientific performance.