Particle identification in high-granularity 3D calorimeters for space-borne applications

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 common in particle and astroparticle physics experiments utilizing calorimeters with layer segmentation. In this study, we present a strategy for analyzing the energy deposit in a crystal array calorimeter, utilizing the 3D parametrization of both longitudinal and transversal shapes of showers to implement likelihood tests on single events. While this analysis was developed using the High Energy cosmic Radiation Detector (HERD) calorimeter as a case study, its applicability may extend to any high granularity, homogeneous, isotropic calorimeter employed in particle physics experiments.