暗物质粒子探测卫星的能量重建和宇宙线质子能谱的分析

宇宙线的观测研究和暗物质粒子的间接探测是高能天体物理领域两个重大研究课题. 自1912年V. Hess发现宇宙线开始, 人类对宇宙线的观测历史已经超过了一个世纪, 传统理论模型预言``膝''区以下能段的宇宙线能谱应服从单一幂率分布, 而近些年的空间和高空气球实验表明10 GeV--100 TeV的宇宙线质子能谱可能存在偏离单一幂律谱分布的重要结构, 这对研究银河系内宇宙线的起源、传播和加速机制具有重要意义. 另一方面, 得益于宇宙线和伽马射线观测精度的提高和观测能段的拓宽, 暗物质粒子的间接探测在国际上受到越来越多的关注, 暗物质粒子可能会发生湮灭或衰变产生稳定的普通高能粒子, 包括正负电子对、正反质子对、伽马射线和中微子等, 进而在宇宙线或伽马射线留下可探测的信号.     

宇宙线直接探测进展概述

宇宙线从发现起至今已超过百年。在20世纪上半叶,大型粒子加速器技术成熟以前,对宇宙线的研究引领着基本粒子物理的发展,从宇宙线研究中取得的多项成果斩获诺贝尔奖。21世纪,宇宙线因其与极端高能的物理规律和暗物质等新物理现象联系密切而绽放出新的活力,宇宙线起源、加速、传播等相关的天文学及物理学问题也备受关注。简述了近年来在空间直接观测宇宙线实验方面取得的进展,以及其对理解宇宙线物理问题的推动。最后概述了中国在相关领域的研究历程和现状。     

暗物质粒子探测卫星有效载荷综合测试系统的设计与实现

暗物质粒子探测卫星(Dark Matter Particle Explorer,DAMPE)是一个空间高能宇宙射线探测器.DAMPE的有效载荷包括塑闪阵列探测器、硅阵列探测器、BGO(Bismuth germanate)量能器、中子探测器(Neutron Detector,NUD)以及载荷数管5个分系统,这5个分系统协同完成宇宙线事例信息的采集.卫星发射之前需要对有效载荷的功能进行系统性验证,因此基于Lab Windows/CVI(C programming language Virtual Instrument)开发平台建设了一套用于暗物质粒子探测卫星有效载荷系统测试的地面综合测试系统.该系统实现了有效载荷系统测试的集成化、自动化,提高了测试的安全性、可靠性和测试效率,为暗物质粒子探测卫星有效载荷的顺利交付提供了保障.     

高海拔宇宙线观测站LHAASO概况

宇宙线发现百年以来,宇宙线起源仍然是一个谜.研究宇宙线起源主要在甚高能(VHE)伽马射线天文学和宇宙线物理学两个领域交叉展开.新一代高海拔宇宙线观测站(LHAASO)拥有高海拔、全天候和大规模优势,利用多种探测手段对宇宙线开展联合观测,大幅提升对伽马射线和宇宙线的鉴别能力. LHAASO将开展全天区伽马源扫描搜索以大量发现新伽马源,将获得30 TeV以上伽马射线探测的最高灵敏度,将在宽达5个数量级的能量范围内精确测量宇宙线分成份能谱,为揭开宇宙线起源谜团给出重要判据.系统介绍了LHAASO的探测器结构、性能优势和科学目标.     

暗物质粒子探测卫星中子探测器的GEANT4模拟

近几十年暗物质研究已逐渐成为天文学研究的重要领域之一,相关理论研究和试验项目日新月异,中国的暗物质粒子探测卫星正是在此背景下提出的.由于暗物质粒子探测卫星的探测对象涉及高能电子,为了减少其他带电粒子(主要是质子)被误认为是电子的事件率,必须采用适当的方法区分质子和电子.实验表明高能质子在BGO(锗酸铋)量能器内发生的强子簇射与电子在BGO量能器内发生的电磁簇射有明显的区别,且强子簇射通常伴随着大量的次级中子产生,通过测量BGO量能器底部出射的次级中子信号和入射粒子在BGO量能器中簇射的形状可以有效区分入射到BGO量能器的粒子是质子还是电子.介绍了暗物质粒子探测卫星中子探测器的构成以及探测原理,利用GEANT4软件,模拟了特征能量的质子和电子在中子探测器中产生的信号,并且总结出了中子探测器在不同电子接收效率情况下的电子、质子区分能力.     

宇宙线的超新星遗迹起源

宇宙线的起源是高能天体物理的核心问题之一.一直以来,超新星爆发被认为是能谱膝区以下宇宙线的主要来源.多波段观测表明,超新星遗迹有能力加速带电粒子至亚PeV (10~(15)eV)能量.扩散激波加速被认为是最有效的天体高能粒子加速机制之一,而超新星遗迹的大尺度激波正好为这一机制提供平台.近年来,一系列较高精度的地面和空间实验极大地推动了对宇宙线以及超新星遗迹的研究.新的观测事实挑战着传统的扩散激波加速模型以及其在银河系宇宙线超新星遗迹起源学说上的应用,深化了人们对宇宙高能现象的认识.结合超新星遗迹辐射能谱的时间演化特性,构建的时间依赖的超新星遗迹粒子加速模型,不仅能够解释200 GV附近宇宙线的能谱反常,还自然地形成能谱膝区,甚至可以将超新星遗迹粒子加速对宇宙线能谱的贡献延伸至踝区.该模型预期超新星遗迹中粒子的输运行为表现为湍流扩散,这需要未来的观测以及与粒子输运相关的等离子体数值模拟工作来进一步验证.     

宇宙线中高能电子能谱及宇宙线基本性质探讨

宇宙线中高能电子谱的研究是高能天体物理重要研究课题之一,它涉及到宇宙线的起源和传播问题.传统的做法是寻求一种能谱的稳态解,这种做法模糊了银河系中宇宙线传播过程的真实物理图象.本文设想了几种合适的源函数工作模式,采用文[2]中提出的方法,对电子传输方程寻求非定常解.     

太阳风、高能暴粒子、太阳高能粒子和太阳宇宙线的谱指数研究

本文根据卫星提供的1963—1978年太阳风实验资料,将太阳风中的质子流作为极低能宇宙线,则能得到0.3—4kev的质子积分通量—动能曲线,使低能宇宙线的能谱向前推进了约三个数量级。所得的极低能宇宙线能谱亦呈幂律谱,即:J(>E)=A_sE~(-γ),具有双幂指数,约在1kev处发生转折,与低能太阳宇宙线能谱非常类似。 最近,卫星ISEE—3观测到46次与行星际激波相联系的高能暴粒子(ESP)事例,在能域35—53kev的各次质子峰值强度恰好绘于联结两能谱的虚线之中。这样,从太阳风、ESP、太阳高能粒子(SEP)到太阳低能宇宙线的能谱都被连接了起来,对于它们的起源,也能获得合理地很好地解释。     

BGO量能器大动态范围读出的线性标定系统的设计和实现

暗物质空间探测器是中国科学院紫金山天文台空间实验室提出的,其目的是为了探测暗物质粒子湮灭可能产生的高能电子和伽玛粒子.BGO量能器是暗物质粒子探测卫星主要载荷之一,高能粒子的能量主要沉积在BGO量能器中.为了使探测器覆盖5 GeV~10T'eV的探测范围,要求每个BGO探测单元具有约1.5×10~5的动态范围.为了对这一大动态范围的探测单元进行测试,提出一种比较简易的线性测试方法,并在实验室构建一个相应的测试系统,对BGO量能器探测单元读出系统的线性进行测试.测试结果表明BGO量能器探测单元读出的非线性度好于2.7%.     

暗物质空间探测器BGO量能器的读出设计

暗物质空间探测器是中国科学院紫金山天文台暗物质空间天文实验室提出的,其目的是为了探测暗物质粒子湮灭可能产生的高能电子和伽玛粒子.整个探测器主要由BGO(Bismuth germanate,锗酸铋)高能图像量能器和闪烁体径迹探测器构成.探测器的能量探测范围将覆盖10 GeV到10 TeV的高能电子和伽玛粒子,其中高能粒子的能量主要沉积在BGO量能器中.为了验证探测器方案,紫金山天文台暗物质空间天文实验室设计了暗物质空间探测器BGO量能器的读出系统原型,并对其进行了初步的测试.     

Overview of Direct Measurements of Cosmic Rays

The history of cosmic ray studies can be traced back to the 1910s when Hess and other scientists first discovered them. Cosmic rays are very important laboratories of particle physics, and have led to many important discoveries of fundamental particles, such as the positrons, muons, pions, and a series of strange particles. Cosmic rays are nowadays the key probes of the extremely high-energy physics and dark matter particles. A brief review about the history and recent progresses of direct observations of cosmic rays is presented. In recent years, the new space-borne experiments such as PAMELA and AMS-02, as well as a few of balloon-borne experiments, have measured the energy spectra of cosmic rays very precisely, and revealed several new features/anomalies. Remarkable excesses of positron fraction in the total electron plus positron fluxes have been observed, which may be caused by the annihilation/decay of dark matter particles or by astrophysical pulsars. The cosmic ray antiprotons, which are expected to have the same secondary origin as that of positrons, do not show significant excesses compared with the background prediction. This result also constrains the modeling of the positron excesses. In addition, the spectral hardening above several hundred GeV of cosmic ray nuclei has been revealed. These results have important and interesting implications on our understandings of the origin, acceleration, and propagation of cosmic rays. In particular, China has launched the Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) to indirectly search for the dark matter and explore the high-energy universe in the TeV window. Most recently, the DAMPE collaborators reported the new measurements of the cosmic ray electron plus positron fluxes up to about 5 TeV with a very high precision. The DAMPE data revealed clearly a deflection around 0.9 TeV in the electron energy spectrum. Possible fine structures of the electron plus positron spectra can be critically addressed with the accumulation of data in the coming years.     

Introduction to Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO)

Since the century discovery of cosmic ray, the origin of cosmic ray is always a mystery. The study on the origin of high-energy cosmic ray is in an interdiscipline between the very high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray astronomy and the cosmic ray physics. The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) is a unique and new generation cosmic-ray station with the advantages of high altitude, all-weather, and large-scale. It takes the function of hybrid technology to detect cosmic rays and to upgrade greatly the resolving power between gamma rays and cosmic rays. The LHAASO is expected to make the full-sky survey to find new gamma-ray sources, to obtain the highest sensitivity of gamma-ray detection at the high energy band of > 30 TeV, and to make the very high precision measurement on the component energy spectra of cosmic rays in a broad energy range of 5 orders of magnitude, in order to provide the evidence for revealing the mystery of the origin of cosmic ray. This paper describes the detector structure, performance superiority and scientific motivation of the LHAASO.     

Gamma-ray emitting supernova remnants as the origin of Galactic cosmic rays?

The origin of cosmic rays is one of the long-standing mysteries in physics and astrophysics. Simple arguments suggest that a scenario of supernova remnants (SNRs) in the Milky Way as the dominant sources for the cosmic ray population below the knee could work: a generic calculation indicates that these objects can provide the energy budget necessary to explain the observed flux of cosmic rays. However, this argument is based on the assumption that all sources behave in the same way, i.e. they all have the same energy budget, spectral behavior and maximum energy. In this paper, we investigate if a realistic population of SNRs is capable of producing the cosmic ray flux as it is observed below the knee. We use 21 SNRs that are well-studied from radio wavelengths up to gamma-ray energies and derive cosmic ray spectra under the assumption of hadronic emission. The cosmic ray spectra show a large variety in their energy budget, spectral behavior and maximum energy. These sources are assumed to be representative for the total class of SNRs, where we assume that about 100–200 cosmic ray emitting SNRs should be present today. Finally, we use these source spectra to simulate the cosmic ray transport from individual SNRs in the Galaxy with the GALPROP code for cosmic ray propagation. We find that the cosmic ray budget can be matched well for these sources. We conclude that gamma-ray emitting SNRs can be a representative sample of cosmic ray emitting sources. In the future, experiments like CTA and HAWC will help to distinguish hadronic from leptonic sources and to further constrain the maximum energy of the sources and contribute to producing a fully representative sample in order to further investigate the possibility of SNRs being the dominant sources of cosmic rays up to the knee.     

Spectrum and anisotropy of cosmic rays at TeV–PeV-energies and contribution of nearby sources

The role of nearby galactic sources, the supernova remnants, in formation of observed energy spectrum and large-scale anisotropy of high-energy cosmic rays is studied. The list of these sources is made up based on radio, X-ray and gamma-ray catalogues. The distant sources are treated statistically as ensemble of sources with random positions and ages. The source spectra are defined based on the modern theory of cosmic ray acceleration in supernova remnants while the propagation of cosmic rays in the interstellar medium is described in the frameworks of galactic diffusion model. Calculations of dipole component of anisotropy are made to reproduce the experimental procedure of “two-dimensional” anisotropy measurements. The energy dependence of particle escape time in the process of acceleration in supernova remnants and the arm structure of sources defining the significant features of anisotropy are also taken into account. The essential new trait of the model is a decreasing number of core collapse SNRs being able to accelerate cosmic rays up to the given energy, that leads to steeper total cosmic ray source spectrum in comparison with the individual source spectrum. We explained simultaneously the new cosmic ray data on the fine structure of all particle spectrum around the knee and the amplitude and direction of the dipole component of anisotropy in the wide energy range 1 TeV–1 EeV. Suggested assumptions do not look exotic, and they confirm the modern understanding of cosmic ray origin.     

Gamma rays from molecular clouds

It is believed that the observed diffuse gamma-ray emission from the galactic plane is the result of interactions between cosmic rays and the interstellar gas. Such emission can be amplified if cosmic rays penetrate into dense molecular clouds. The propagation of cosmic rays inside a molecular cloud has been studied assuming an arbitrary energy and space dependent diffusion coefficient. If the diffusion coefficient inside the cloud is significantly smaller compared to the average one derived for the galactic disk, the observed gamma-ray spectrum appears harder than the cosmic ray spectrum, mainly due to the slower penetration of the low energy particles towards the core of the cloud. This may produce a great variety of gamma-ray spectra.     

Energetic particles from the sun

This paper discusses solar cosmic ray phenomena and related topics from the solar physical point of view. Basic physics of the solar atmosphere and solar flare phenomena are, therefore, considered in some detail. Since solar cosmic rays are usually produced by solar flares, we must first understand the processes and mechanism of solar flares, especially the so-called proton flares, in order to understand the acceleration mechanism of solar cosmic rays and their behaviour in both the solar atmosphere and interplanetary space. For this reason, detailed discussion is given on various phenomena associated with solar flares, proton flare characteristics, and the mechanism of solar flares.Since the discovery of solar cosmic rays by Forbush, the interplanetary space has been thought of as medium in which solar cosmic rays propagate. In this paper, the propagation of solar cosmic rays in this space is, therefore, discussed briefly by referring to the observed magnetic properties of this space. Finally, some problems related to the physics of galactic cosmic rays are discussed.Astrophysics and Space Science Review Paper.     

Spiral arms as cosmic ray source distributions

The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy with (or without) a bar-like central structure. There is evidence that the distribution of suspected cosmic ray sources, such as supernova remnants, are associated with the spiral arm structure of galaxies. It is yet not clearly understood what effect such a cosmic ray source distribution has on the particle transport in our Galaxy. We investigate and measure how the propagation of Galactic cosmic rays is affected by a cosmic ray source distribution associated with spiral arm structures.We use the PICARD code to perform high-resolution 3D simulations of electrons and protons in galactic propagation scenarios that include four-arm and two-arm logarithmic spiral cosmic ray source distributions with and without a central bar structure as well as the spiral arm configuration of the NE2001 model for the distribution of free electrons in the Milky Way. Results of these simulation are compared to an axisymmetric radial source distribution. Also, effects on the cosmic ray flux and spectra due to different positions of the Earth relative to the spiral structure are studied.We find that high energy electrons are strongly confined to their sources and the obtained spectra largely depend on the Earth’s position relative to the spiral arms. Similar finding have been obtained for low energy protons and electrons albeit at smaller magnitude. We find that even fractional contributions of a spiral arm component to the total cosmic ray source distribution influences the spectra on the Earth. This is apparent when compared to an axisymmetric radial source distribution as well as with respect to the Earth’s position relative to the spiral arm structure. We demonstrate that the presence of a Galactic bar manifests itself as an overall excess of low energy electrons at the Earth.Using a spiral arm geometry as a cosmic ray source distributions offers a genuine new quality of modeling and is used to explain features in cosmic ray spectra at the Earth that are else-wise attributed to other propagation effects. We show that realistic cosmic ray propagation scenarios have to acknowledge non-axisymmetric source distributions.     

A new component of cosmic rays?

Recent direct measurements of the energy spectra of the major mass components of cosmic rays have indicated the presence of a ‘kink’ in the region of 200 GeV per nucleon. The kink, which varies in magnitude from one element to another, is much sharper than predicted by our cosmic ray origin model in which supernova remnants are responsible for cosmic ray acceleration and it appears as though a new, steeper component is responsible.The component amounts to about 20 percent of the total at 30 GeV/nucleon for protons and helium nuclei and its magnitude varies with nuclear charge; the unweighted fraction for all cosmic rays being 36%.The origin of the new component is subject to doubt but the contenders include O, B, A, supergiant and Wolf-Rayet stars, by way of their intense stellar winds. Another explanation is also in terms of these particles as the sources but then being trapped, and even further accelerated, in the Local Bubble.     

The nature of cosmic ray sources

The limitations on the nature of cosmic ray acceleration regions and processes, as deduced from cosmic ray measurements and propagation studies, are reviewed. The power requirements for these acceleration regions are estimated from measurements of the local cosmic ray energy density, anisotropy and spallation-deduced pathlength. Possible constraints on the acceleration spectrum of the cosmic rays and on a charge dependence of the acceleration process, implied by the measured cosmic ray spectrum and composition, are considered. Various suggested sources and processes of cosmic ray acceleration are discussed in the light of these limitations.Astrophysics and Space Science Review Paper.