Experimental Astronomy最新文献

{"title":"The X-ray Integral Field Unit at the end of the Athena reformulation phase","authors":"Philippe Peille,&nbsp;Didier Barret,&nbsp;Edoardo Cucchetti,&nbsp;Vincent Albouys,&nbsp;Luigi Piro,&nbsp;Aurora Simionescu,&nbsp;Massimo Cappi,&nbsp;Elise Bellouard,&nbsp;Céline Cénac-Morthé,&nbsp;Christophe Daniel,&nbsp;Alice Pradines,&nbsp;Alexis Finoguenov,&nbsp;Richard Kelley,&nbsp;J. Miguel Mas-Hesse,&nbsp;Stéphane Paltani,&nbsp;Gregor Rauw,&nbsp;Agata Rozanska,&nbsp;Jiri Svoboda,&nbsp;Joern Wilms,&nbsp;Marc Audard,&nbsp;Enrico Bozzo,&nbsp;Elisa Costantini,&nbsp;Mauro Dadina,&nbsp;Thomas Dauser,&nbsp;Anne Decourchelle,&nbsp;Jan-Willem den Herder,&nbsp;Andrea Goldwurm,&nbsp;Peter Jonker,&nbsp;Alex Markowitz,&nbsp;Mariano Mendez,&nbsp;Giovanni Miniutti,&nbsp;Silvano Molendi,&nbsp;Fabrizio Nicastro,&nbsp;François Pajot,&nbsp;Etienne Pointecouteau,&nbsp;Gabriel W. Pratt,&nbsp;Joop Schaye,&nbsp;Jacco Vink,&nbsp;Natalie Webb,&nbsp;Simon Bandler,&nbsp;Marco Barbera,&nbsp;Maria Teresa Ceballos,&nbsp;Ivan Charles,&nbsp;Roland den Hartog,&nbsp;W. Bertrand Doriese,&nbsp;Jean-Marc Duval,&nbsp;Flavio Gatti,&nbsp;Brian Jackson,&nbsp;Caroline Kilbourne,&nbsp;Claudio Macculi,&nbsp;Sylvain Martin,&nbsp;Yann Parot,&nbsp;Frederick Porter,&nbsp;Damien Prêle,&nbsp;Laurent Ravera,&nbsp;Stephen Smith,&nbsp;Jan Soucek,&nbsp;Tanguy Thibert,&nbsp;Eija Tuominen,&nbsp;Fabio Acero,&nbsp;Stefano Ettori,&nbsp;Nicolas Grosso,&nbsp;Jelle Kaastra,&nbsp;Pasquale Mazzotta,&nbsp;Jon Miller,&nbsp;Salvatore Sciortino,&nbsp;Sophie Beaumont,&nbsp;Matteo D’Andrea,&nbsp;Jelle de Plaa,&nbsp;Megan Eckart,&nbsp;Luciano Gottardi,&nbsp;Maurice Leutenegger,&nbsp;Simone Lotti,&nbsp;Alexei Molin,&nbsp;Lorenzo Natalucci,&nbsp;Muhammad Qazi Adil,&nbsp;Andrea Argan,&nbsp;Elisabetta Cavazzuti,&nbsp;Mauro Fiorini,&nbsp;Pourya Khosropanah,&nbsp;Eduardo Medinaceli Villegas,&nbsp;Gabriele Minervini,&nbsp;James Perry,&nbsp;Frederic Pinsard,&nbsp;Desi Raulin,&nbsp;Manuela Rigano,&nbsp;Peter Roelfsema,&nbsp;Denis Schwander,&nbsp;Santiago Terron,&nbsp;Guido Torrioli,&nbsp;Joel Ullom,&nbsp;Monika Zuchniak,&nbsp;Laurence Chaoul,&nbsp;Jose Miguel Torrejon,&nbsp;Frank Brachet,&nbsp;Beatriz Cobo,&nbsp;Malcolm Durkin,&nbsp;Valentina Fioretti,&nbsp;Hervé Geoffray,&nbsp;Lionel Jacques,&nbsp;Christian Kirsch,&nbsp;Ugo Lo Cicero,&nbsp;Joseph Adams,&nbsp;Emilie Gloaguen,&nbsp;Manuel Gonzalez,&nbsp;Samuel Hull,&nbsp;Erik Jellyman,&nbsp;Mikko Kiviranta,&nbsp;Kazuhiro Sakai,&nbsp;Emanuele Taralli,&nbsp;Davide Vaccaro,&nbsp;Paul van der Hulst,&nbsp;Jan van der Kuur,&nbsp;Bert-Joost van Leeuwen,&nbsp;Dennis van Loon,&nbsp;Nicholas Wakeham,&nbsp;Natalia Auricchio,&nbsp;Daniele Brienza,&nbsp;Oscar Cheatom,&nbsp;Philippe Franssen,&nbsp;Sabine Julien,&nbsp;Isabelle Le Mer,&nbsp;David Moirin,&nbsp;Vitor Silva,&nbsp;Michela Todaro,&nbsp;Nicolas Clerc,&nbsp;Alexis Coleiro,&nbsp;Andy Ptak,&nbsp;Simonetta Puccetti,&nbsp;Christian Surace,&nbsp;Shariefa Abdoelkariem,&nbsp;Christophe Adami,&nbsp;Corinne Aicardi,&nbsp;Jérôme André,&nbsp;Matteo Angelinelli,&nbsp;Shebli Anvar,&nbsp;Luis Horacio Arnaldi,&nbsp;Anthony Attard,&nbsp;Damian Audley,&nbsp;Florian Bancel,&nbsp;Kimberly Banks,&nbsp;Vivian Bernard,&nbsp;Jan Geralt Bij de Vaate,&nbsp;Donata Bonino,&nbsp;Anthony Bonnamy,&nbsp;Patrick Bonny,&nbsp;Charles Boreux,&nbsp;Ayoub Bounab,&nbsp;Maïmouna Brigitte,&nbsp;Marcel Bruijn,&nbsp;Clément Brysbaert,&nbsp;Andrea Bulgarelli,&nbsp;Simona Calarco,&nbsp;Thierry Camus,&nbsp;Florent Canourgues,&nbsp;Vito Capobianco,&nbsp;Nicolas Cardiel,&nbsp;Edvige Celasco,&nbsp;Si Chen,&nbsp;James Chervenak,&nbsp;Fabio Chiarello,&nbsp;Sébastien Clamagirand,&nbsp;Odile Coeur-Joly,&nbsp;Leonardo Corcione,&nbsp;Mickael Coriat,&nbsp;Anais Coulet,&nbsp;Bernard Courty,&nbsp;Alexandre Coynel,&nbsp;Antonino D’Ai,&nbsp;Eugenio Dambrauskas,&nbsp;Fabio D’anca,&nbsp;Lea Dauner,&nbsp;Matteo De Gerone,&nbsp;Natalie DeNigris,&nbsp;Johannes Dercksen,&nbsp;Martin de Wit,&nbsp;Pieter Dieleman,&nbsp;Michael DiPirro,&nbsp;Eric Doumayrou,&nbsp;Lionel Duband,&nbsp;Luc Dubbeldam,&nbsp;Michel Dupieux,&nbsp;Simon Dupourqué,&nbsp;Jean Louis Durand,&nbsp;Dominique Eckert,&nbsp;Philippe Ferrando,&nbsp;Lorenzo Ferrari Barusso,&nbsp;Fred Finkbeiner,&nbsp;Mariateresa Fiocchi,&nbsp;Hervé Fossecave,&nbsp;Stefano Gabici,&nbsp;Giovanni Gallucci,&nbsp;Florent Gant,&nbsp;Jian-Rong Gao,&nbsp;Fabio Gastaldello,&nbsp;Ludovic Genolet,&nbsp;Simona Ghizzardi,&nbsp;Elisa Giovannini,&nbsp;Margherita Giustini,&nbsp;Alain Givaudan,&nbsp;Olivier Godet,&nbsp;Alicia Gomez,&nbsp;Raoul Gonzalez,&nbsp;Ghassem Gozaliasl,&nbsp;Laurent Grandsire,&nbsp;David Granena,&nbsp;Michel Gros,&nbsp;Corentin Guerin,&nbsp;Emmanuel Guilhem,&nbsp;Gian Paolo Guizzo,&nbsp;Liyi Gu,&nbsp;Kent Irwin,&nbsp;Christian Jacquey,&nbsp;Agnieszka Janiuk,&nbsp;Jean Jaubert,&nbsp;Antoine Jolly,&nbsp;Thierry Jourdan,&nbsp;Jürgen Knödlseder,&nbsp;Ole König,&nbsp;Andrew Korb,&nbsp;Ingo Kreykenbohm,&nbsp;David Lafforgue,&nbsp;Radek Lan,&nbsp;Maélyss Larrieu,&nbsp;Philippe Laudet,&nbsp;Philippe Laurent,&nbsp;Sylvain Laurent,&nbsp;Monica Laurenza,&nbsp;Maël Le Cam,&nbsp;Jean Lesrel,&nbsp;Sebastiano Ligori,&nbsp;Maximilian Lorenz,&nbsp;Alfredo Luminari,&nbsp;Kristin Madsen,&nbsp;Océane Maisonnave,&nbsp;Lorenzo Marelli,&nbsp;Wilfried Marty,&nbsp;Zoé Massida,&nbsp;Didier Massonet,&nbsp;Irwin Maussang,&nbsp;Pablo Eleazar Merino Alonso,&nbsp;Jean Mesquida,&nbsp;Teresa Mineo,&nbsp;Nicola Montinaro,&nbsp;David Murat,&nbsp;Kenichiro Nagayoshi,&nbsp;Yaël Nazé,&nbsp;Loïc Noguès,&nbsp;François Nouals,&nbsp;Cristina Ortega,&nbsp;Francesca Panessa,&nbsp;Luigi Parodi,&nbsp;Enrico Piconcelli,&nbsp;Ciro Pinto,&nbsp;Delphine Porquet,&nbsp;Thomas Prouvé,&nbsp;Michael Punch,&nbsp;Guillaume Rioland,&nbsp;Marc-Olivier Riollet,&nbsp;Louis Rodriguez,&nbsp;Anton Roig,&nbsp;Mauro Roncarelli,&nbsp;Lionel Roucayrol,&nbsp;Gilles Roudil,&nbsp;Lander Ruiz de Ocenda,&nbsp;Luisa Sciortino,&nbsp;Olivier Simonella,&nbsp;Michael Sordet,&nbsp;Ulrich Taubenschuss,&nbsp;Guilhem Terrasa,&nbsp;Régis Terrier,&nbsp;Pietro Ubertini,&nbsp;Ludek Uhlir,&nbsp;Michela Uslenghi,&nbsp;Henk van Weers,&nbsp;Salvatore Varisco,&nbsp;Peggy Varniere,&nbsp;Angela Volpe,&nbsp;Gavin Walmsley,&nbsp;Michael Wise,&nbsp;Andreas Wolnievik,&nbsp;Grzegorz Woźniak","doi":"10.1007/s10686-025-09984-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10686-025-09984-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The Athena mission entered a redefinition phase in July 2022, driven by the imperative to reduce the mission cost at completion for the European Space Agency below an acceptable target, while maintaining the flagship nature of its science return. This notably called for a complete redesign of the X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) cryogenic architecture towards a simpler active cooling chain. Passive cooling via successive radiative panels at spacecraft level is now used to provide a 50 K thermal environment to an X-IFU owned cryostat. 4.5 K cooling is achieved via a single remote active cryocooler unit, while a multi-stage Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator ensures heat lift down to the 50 mK required by the detectors. Amidst these changes, the core concept of the readout chain remains robust, employing Transition Edge Sensor microcalorimeters and a SQUID-based Time-Division Multiplexing scheme. Noteworthy is the introduction of a slower pixel. This enables an increase in the multiplexing factor (from 34 to 48) without compromising the instrument energy resolution, hence keeping significant system margins to the new 4 eV resolution requirement. This allows reducing the number of channels by more than a factor two, and thus the resource demands on the system, while keeping a 4’ field of view (compared to 5’ before). In this article, we will give an overview of this new architecture, before detailing its anticipated performances. Finally, we will present the new X-IFU schedule, with its short term focus on demonstration activities towards a mission adoption in early 2027</p></div>","PeriodicalId":551,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Astronomy","volume":"59 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143533148","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mission analysis, design and operations plan of India’s first polarimetry satellite: X-ray Polarimetry Satellite (XPoSat)","authors":"Himani Saini,&nbsp;K. V. Madhu,&nbsp;Ritu Karidhal","doi":"10.1007/s10686-025-09988-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10686-025-09988-6","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><b>X</b>-ray <b>Po</b>larimeter <b>Sat</b>ellite (XPoSat) is India’s first landmark mission dedicated to X-ray polarimetry, with the aim of measuring and studying X-rays emitted by bright astronomical objects such as black hole X-ray binaries, pulsar wind nebulae, and accretion-powered pulsars. Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C58 (PSLV-C58) launched the XPoSat mission on 1st January 2024, equipped with two significant, scientific instruments: XSPECT (X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing) and POLIX (POLarimeter Instrument in X-rays). With the launch of XPoSat, a new and important fourth dimension of polarization has been added. POLIX became the first in the world to provide measurements of polarization in <b>8–30</b> kilo electron Volt (keV) energy band. XSPECT is a spectroscopy payload responsible for providing timing and spectral information in 0.8–15 keV energy band of X-ray emissions from about 54 potential identified cosmic X-ray sources. Astronomical sources emitting X-rays are sites of strong gravity, and strong magnetic fields and have a variety of geometries for scattering, which are expected to give rise to polarization signatures in these sources. This article provides a comprehensive overview from mission specifications to mission design, mission planning, mission analysis, and mission operations aspects of spacecraft configuration, operations, and on-orbit operations of XPoSat mission with the science brought by the first-time flown payload in high energy bands, which will allow astronomers to explore materials under intense magnetic and gravitational fields. The challenges involved in planning and executing the mission operations with critical scenarios have also been highlighted.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":551,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Astronomy","volume":"59 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143489496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Sliding Flux Ramp Demodulation algorithm with high sampling rate in Microwave SQUID Multiplexer","authors":"Guofu Liao,&nbsp;Congzhan Liu,&nbsp;Zhengwei Li,&nbsp;Daikang Yan,&nbsp;Xiangxiang Ren,&nbsp;Yongjie Zhang,&nbsp;Laiyu Zhang,&nbsp;Yu Xu,&nbsp;Shibo Shu,&nbsp;He Gao,&nbsp;Yifei Zhang,&nbsp;Xuefeng Lu,&nbsp;Xufang Li,&nbsp;He Xu,&nbsp;Di Wu","doi":"10.1007/s10686-025-09986-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10686-025-09986-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Microwave SQUID Multiplexing (<span>(mu )</span>MUX) is a widely used technique in the low-temperature detectors community as it offers a high capacity for reading large-scale Transition-Edge Sensor (TES) arrays. This paper proposes a Sliding Flux Ramp Demodulation (SFRD) algorithm for <span>(mu )</span>MUX readout system. It can achieve a sampling rate in the order of MHz while maintaining a multiplexing ratio of about one thousand. Advancing of this large array readout technique makes it possible to observe scientific objects with improved time resolution and event count rate. This will be highly helpful for TES calorimeters in X-ray applications, such as X-ray astrophysics missions.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":551,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Astronomy","volume":"59 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143423113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"SVOM-GRM trigger performance study and verification","authors":"Jiang He,&nbsp;Jian-Chao Sun,&nbsp;Yong-Wei Dong,&nbsp;Bo-Bing Wu,&nbsp;Shi-Jie Zheng,&nbsp;Lu Li,&nbsp;Jiang-Tao Liu,&nbsp;Xin Liu,&nbsp;Hao-Li Shi,&nbsp;Li-Ming Song,&nbsp;Rui-Jie Wang,&nbsp;Juan Zhang,&nbsp;Li Zhang,&nbsp;Shuang-Nan Zhang,&nbsp;Xiao-Yun Zhao,&nbsp;Xing-Guang Liu","doi":"10.1007/s10686-025-09983-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10686-025-09983-x","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The Space-based multi-band astronomical Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) is a collaborative satellite developed by China and France, specifically designed for observing and studying Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) as well as other variable sources. Among its four on-board payloads, the Gamma-Ray Monitor (GRM) is responsible for detecting high-energy photons ranging from 15 keV to 5 MeV, equipped with real-time triggering and localization capabilities. In this paper, we primarily focus on investigating the triggering performance of GRM. Firstly, the energy response matrix of each detector is obtained by using the Geant4 simulation toolkit. Based on the results of background simulations and given samples of GRB, the instrument’s sensitivity and the detection efficiency to GRBs from different directions are estimated. The results demonstrate that GRM exhibits superior sensitivity to GRBs with harder energy spectrum, enabling more than <span>(80%)</span> of the GRBs to be triggered within its field of view. By considering satellite orbit and attitude, we conduct a 3-year simulation of GRB observations which reveals that approximately 106 GRBs can be detected annually in the energy range of 50-300 keV by GRM. Moreover, it is observed that optimal triggering energy range correlates with the hardness index values of the GRBs. Finally, we discuss the on-orbit triggering algorithm that has been implemented by GRM along with developing a ground-based multi-timescale search algorithm for identifying potential GRB events. Our work contributes to understanding the on-orbit triggering performance characteristics demonstrated by GRM, while also providing a benchmark for refining ground-based strategies focused on detecting new instances of GRBs, thus amplifying the scientific output obtained from utilizing GRM’s capabilities.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":551,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Astronomy","volume":"59 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143361647","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A multi-fidelity transfer learning strategy for surface deformation measurement of large reflector antennas","authors":"Zihan Zhang,&nbsp;Qian Ye,&nbsp;Na Wang,&nbsp;Guoxiang Meng","doi":"10.1007/s10686-025-09980-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10686-025-09980-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>As the observation frequency of large-aperture antennas increases, the requirements for measuring main reflector deformation have become more stringent. Recently, the rapid development of deep learning has led to its application in antenna deformation prediction. However, achieving high accuracy requires a large number of high-fidelity deformation samples, which is often challenging to obtain. To address these problems, this paper establishes a high-accuracy antenna surface deformation measurement model based on a multi-fidelity transfer learning neural network (MF-TLNN). Firstly, a low-fidelity surrogate model is constructed using a large number of simulation deformation samples to ensure its robustness. Secondly, the MF-TLNN structure is designed and trained using a small number of high-fidelity samples obtained from actual measurements of the main reflector deformation via out-of-focus (OOF) holography method. Thirdly, a Zernike correction module is utilized to provide additional constraints and ensure the stability of the results. Experimental results show that the proposed method can closely approximate radio holography measurements in terms of accuracy and is almost real-time in terms of speed.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":551,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Astronomy","volume":"59 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143361942","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"(gamma )/hadron discrimination by analysis of the muon lateral distribution and the ALPAQUITA array","authors":"M. Anzorena,&nbsp;E. de la Fuente,&nbsp;K. Fujita,&nbsp;R. Garcia,&nbsp;K. Goto,&nbsp;Y. Hayashi,&nbsp;K. Hibino,&nbsp;N. Hotta,&nbsp;G. Imaizumi,&nbsp;A. Jimenez-Meza,&nbsp;Y. Katayose,&nbsp;C. Kato,&nbsp;S. Kato,&nbsp;T. Kawashima,&nbsp;K. Kawata,&nbsp;T. Koi,&nbsp;H. Kojima,&nbsp;T. Makishima,&nbsp;Y. Masuda,&nbsp;S. Matsuhashi,&nbsp;M. Matsumoto,&nbsp;R. Mayta,&nbsp;P. Miranda,&nbsp;A. Mizuno,&nbsp;K. Munakata,&nbsp;Y. Nakamura,&nbsp;M. Nishizawa,&nbsp;Y. Noguchi,&nbsp;S. Ogio,&nbsp;M. Ohnishi,&nbsp;S. Okukawa,&nbsp;A. Oshima,&nbsp;M. Raljevic,&nbsp;H. Rivera,&nbsp;T. Saito,&nbsp;T. Sako,&nbsp;T. K. Sako,&nbsp;T. Shibasaki,&nbsp;S. Shibata,&nbsp;A. Shiomi,&nbsp;M. Subieta,&nbsp;F. Sugimoto,&nbsp;N. Tajima,&nbsp;W. Takano,&nbsp;M. Takita,&nbsp;Y. Tameda,&nbsp;K. Tanaka,&nbsp;R. Ticona,&nbsp;I. Toledano-Juarez,&nbsp;H. Tsuchiya,&nbsp;Y. Tsunesada,&nbsp;S. Udo,&nbsp;R. Usui,&nbsp;G. Yamagishi,&nbsp;K. Yamazaki,&nbsp;Y. Yokoe","doi":"10.1007/s10686-025-09981-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10686-025-09981-z","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>A new method using the muon lateral distribution and an underground muon detector to achieve high discrimination power against hadrons is presented. The method is designed to be applied in the Andes Large-area PArticle detector for Cosmic-ray physics and Astronomy (ALPACA) experiment in Bolivia. This new observatory in the Southern hemisphere has the goal of detecting &gt;100 TeV <span>(gamma )</span> rays in search for the origins of Galactic cosmic rays. The method uses the weighted sum of the lateral distribution of the muons detected by underground detectors to separate between air showers initiated by cosmic rays and <span>(gamma )</span> rays. We evaluate the performance of the method through Monte Carlo simulations with CORSIKA and Geant4 and apply the analysis to the prototype of ALPACA, ALPAQUITA. With the application of this method in ALPAQUITA, we achieve an improvement of about 18 % in the energy range from 60 to 100 TeV over the estimated sensitivity using only the total number of muons.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":551,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Astronomy","volume":"59 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10686-025-09981-z.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143107878","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Calibration of segmented BGO scintillation detectors for space-based gamma-ray polarimeter","authors":"A. Mkrtchyan,&nbsp;A. Pozanenko,&nbsp;P. Minaev,&nbsp;A. Strizhak,&nbsp;A. Ivashkin,&nbsp;A. Baranov,&nbsp;S. Musin","doi":"10.1007/s10686-025-09977-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10686-025-09977-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In the gamma range, polarization detection is particularly difficult. For example, the registration of linear polarization can help in determining the structure of the magnetic field in a jet when generating radiation in gamma-ray bursts. The measurement of linear polarization in the 511 keV line associated with the annihilation of electrons and positrons may be an indicator of the asymmetry of the distribution of radioactive nickel in the scattering shell of Supernovae. The principle of detecting the polarization of gamma radiation is based on the anisotropy of Compton scattering. This property can be used in the development of polarimeters, which are a segmented scintillation detector. The paper presents polarization calibrations for 3 BGO detectors, which are a simplified prototype of a segmented gamma-ray spectrometer (SGS) being developed for the Chibis-AI microsatellite. The complete assembly of the SGS detector consists of 32 BGO bars. Polarization calibrations of the SGS prototype in the 511 keV line were carried out at the experimental facility at the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences using the isotope <span>(^{22}text {Na})</span>. Also, for comparison, a simulation of the registration of linear polarization was carried out using the Geant4 software package. The experimental results agree withing <span>(2sigma )</span> of simulations.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":551,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Astronomy","volume":"59 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143108133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Asteroid family classification with machine learning: Investigative analysis of a novel two-step approach for categorizing known small asteroid families⋆","authors":"Fatin Abrar Shams,&nbsp;Abdullah Al Mahmud Nafiz,&nbsp;Md. Salman Mohosheu,&nbsp;Maheen Mashrur Hoque,&nbsp;Samiur Rashid Abir,&nbsp;Rashed Hasan Ratul,&nbsp;Md. Mushfiqur Rahman Mushfique,&nbsp;Aftab Ibn Nazim,&nbsp;Rubaiat Rehman Khan,&nbsp;Md Mahmudunnobe,&nbsp;Mohsinul Kabir","doi":"10.1007/s10686-025-09982-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10686-025-09982-y","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The term “asteroid family” refers to a collection of asteroids that share similar proper orbital elements such as semi-major axis, eccentricities, and orbital inclinations. Detecting small asteroid families has proved to be a challenge for a long time because of their extremely low sample size. In general, standalone machine learning classifiers tend to exhibit a bias towards classes with larger sample sizes, resulting in the inadequate classification of asteroid families with limited data. In this paper, a two-step supervised model was proposed for the effective classification of the asteroid families, especially for the tiny, small, and lower groups of medium asteroid families. The proposed model uses two-step classification in an attempt to resolve the challenges that come with the imbalanced dataset where at first a binary classification of small and large families was done with an XGB (Extreme Gradient boosting) classifier and then in the second stage Random Forest classifier was used alongside previously identified binary features to classify asteroid families. The proposed model performed better with higher F1 scores for tiny and small asteroid families compared to other algorithms tested in this work. It also achieved a perfect F1 score for 90 families, among 112 families which were tested. As for the lower group of medium sized asteroid families, it performed slightly worse compared to the previously used machine learning algorithms. Along with this, four dataset imbalance handling techniques have been employed in this work and compared to the proposed algorithm.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":551,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Astronomy","volume":"59 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143110091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"TARA: Concept study for an ESA Voyage Titan exploration mission","authors":"Brahma Gopalchetty,&nbsp;Andrew J. Coates","doi":"10.1007/s10686-025-09979-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10686-025-09979-7","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>As a study relevant to the ESA’s “Voyage 2050” programme, we present an ambitious L-class mission concept aimed at exploring one of the most intriguing bodies in the Solar System – Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Titan is a planet-like moon rich in organic compounds and features complex interactions between its interior, surface, and atmosphere, similar to those seen on Earth. Additionally, Titan is one of the few places in the Solar System with the highest potential for eventual habitability. Despite the groundbreaking discoveries made by the Cassini-Huygens mission, Titan still holds many mysteries that demand further exploration using more advanced technologies and diverse exploration vehicles. Our proposed mission, named TARA (Titan Atmospheric Research Ascendant), aims to conduct both orbital and in situ investigations of Titan, surpassing the scientific and technological achievements of Cassini-Huygens. TARA would provide comprehensive and close-up exploration of Titan over extended periods, utilizing capabilities that were previously unattainable. The mission architecture consists of two primary components: an orbiter equipped with an extensive suite of instruments that would orbit Titan, ideally in a low-eccentricity circular polar orbit, and an ornithopter equipped with a set of in situ exploration elements, both aimed to study Titan’s atmospheric dynamics and the evolution of pre-biotic environment. The ideal mission timeline would target an arrival at Titan just before its next northern Spring equinox in 2039, a period of heightened activity for observing Titan’s still poorly understood seasonal atmospheric and surface changes. TARA’s focus on Titan’s northern latitudes would complement NASA’s upcoming Dragonfly mission, which is scheduled to explore Titan’s equatorial regions in the mid-2030s. Together, these missions would provide comprehensive temporal, spatial, and scientific coverage of this fascinating moon.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":551,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Astronomy","volume":"59 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143110046","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Characterizing hole trap production due to proton irradiation in germanium cross-strip detectors","authors":"Sean N. Pike,&nbsp;Steven E. Boggs,&nbsp;Gabriel Brewster,&nbsp;Sophia E. Haight,&nbsp;Jarred M. Roberts,&nbsp;Albert Y. Shih,&nbsp;Joanna Szornel,&nbsp;John A. Tomsick,&nbsp;Andreas Zoglauer","doi":"10.1007/s10686-025-09978-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10686-025-09978-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We present an investigation into the effects of high-energy proton damage on charge trapping in germanium cross-strip detectors with the goal of accomplishing three important measurements. First, we calibrated and characterized the spectral resolution of a spare COSI-balloon detector in order to determine the effects of intrinsic trapping, finding that electron trapping due to impurities dominates over hole trapping in the undamaged detector. Second, we performed two rounds of proton irradiation of the detector in order to quantify, for the first time, the rate at which charge traps are produced by proton irradiation. We find that the product of the hole trap density and cross-sectional area, <span>([nsigma ]_textrm{h})</span>, follows a linear relationship with the proton fluence, <span>(F_textrm{p})</span>, with a slope of <span>((5.4pm 0.4)times 10^{-11},mathrm {cm/p^{+}})</span>. Third, by utilizing our measurements of physical trapping parameters, we performed calibrations which corrected for the effects of trapping and mitigated degradation to the spectral resolution of the detector.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":551,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Astronomy","volume":"59 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11757935/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143045335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}