Modifications of a method for low energy gamma-ray incident angle reconstruction in the GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope

• Published in: Journal of physics. Conference series 2017-01, Vol.798 (1), p.12012
• Main Authors: Leonov, A A, Galper, A M, Topchiev, N P, Bonvicini, V, Adriani, O, Arkhangelskaja, I V, Arkhangelskiy, A I, Bakaldin, A V, Bobkov, S G, Boezio, M, Dalkarov, O D, Egorov, A E, Glushkov, N A, Gorbunov, M S, Gusakov, Yu V, Hnatyk, B I, Kadilin, V V, Kaplin, V A, Kheymits, M D, Korepanov, V E, Longo, F, Mikhailov, V V, Mocchiutti, E, Moiseev, A A, Moskalenko, I V, Naumov, P Yu, Picozza, P, Runtso, M F, Serdin, O V, Sparvoli, R, Spillantini, P, Stozhkov, Yu I, Suchkov, S I, Taraskin, A A, Tavani, M, Yurkin, Yu T, Zverev, V G
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Active galactic nuclei; Angular resolution; Astrophysics; Chemical elements; Conversion; Converters; Cosmic rays; Dark matter; Deposition; Energy; Energy resolution; Energy spectra; Gamma emission; Gamma ray astronomy; Gamma ray sources; Gamma ray telescopes; Gamma rays; High energy astronomy; Luminosity; Particle decay; Physical properties; Physics; Pulsars; Quasars; Reconstruction; Space telescopes; Supernova remnants; Thin films; Topology
• ISSN: 1742-6588; 1742-6596
• DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/798/1/012012

The GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope is designed to measure the gamma-ray fluxes in the energy range from ∼20 MeV to ∼1 TeV, performing a sensitive search for high-energy gamma-ray emission when annihilating or decaying dark matter particles. Such measurements will be also associated with the following scientific goals: searching for new and studying known Galactic and extragalactic discrete high-energy gamma-ray sources (supernova remnants, pulsars, accreting objects, microquasars, active galactic nuclei, blazars, quasars). It will be possible to study their structure with high angular resolution and measuring their energy spectra and luminosity with high-energy resolution; identify discrete gamma-ray sources with known sources in other energy ranges. The major advantage of the GAMMA-400 instrument is excellent angular and energy resolutions for gamma rays above 10 GeV. The gamma-ray telescope angular and energy resolutions for the main aperture at 100-GeV gamma rays are ∼0.01% and ∼1%, respectively. The motivation of presented results is to improve physical characteristics of the GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope in the energy range of ∼20-100 MeV, most unexplored range today. Such observations are crucial today for a number of high-priority problems faced by modern astrophysics and fundamental physics, including the origin of chemical elements and cosmic rays, the nature of dark matter, and the applicability range of the fundamental laws of physics. To improve the reconstruction accuracy of incident angle for low-energy gamma rays the special analysis of topology of pair-conversion events in thin layers of converter performed. Choosing the pair-conversion events with more precise vertical localization allows us to obtain significantly better angular resolution in comparison with previous and current space and ground-based experiments. For 50-MeV gamma rays the GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope angular resolution is better than 50.