The Plastic Scintillator Detector for the future High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection facility on board the Chinese Space Station
Abstract The High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection (HERD) facility, that will be installed on board the Chinese Space Station, is expected to make significant advancements in cosmic-ray observations, dark matter searches, and gamma-ray astronomy, thanks to its innovative design. The HERD geometry is based on a 3-dimensional imaging calorimeter, which is surrounded on five sides by a fiber tracker, a plastic scintillator detector (PSD), and a silicon charge detector. This unique configuration enables HERD to address key questions in high-energy astrophysics with unprecedented sensitivity and resolution. The PSD will be used as an anti-coincidence system for precise gamma-ray detection (charged particle veto) and charged cosmic-ray nuclei identification. In order to achieve high performance in terms of detection efficiency and charge resolution, the PSD requires a highly segmented geometry, as well as the optimization of the light sensors and electronic read-out. The current design consists of long trapezoidal scintillator tiles coupled to Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs). Different prototypes have been built and tested at CERN, Switzerland, and at the CNAO (Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica) facility in Italy to study and improve the performance of the PSD. In this contribution, we present the overall project design and the PSD preliminary performances achieved during the beam test campaign at CERN SPS, with a focus on the nuclei identification capability.
Authors
- R. Triggiani
- E. Ghose (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7485-1498)
- F. Loparco (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1173-5673)
- A. Surdo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2715-589X)
- Leandro Silveri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6825-714X)
- Felicia Barbato (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0751-6731)
- A. Sanuy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5767-3623)
- I. Cagnoli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8822-5914)
- D. Guberman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9636-1825)
- Giulio Fontanella (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-9890-8397)
- R. Pillera (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3808-963X)
- Dimitrios Kyratzis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5894-271X)
- F. Gargano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5055-6395)
- I. De Mitri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8665-1730)
- D. Serini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9754-6530)
- M. Papagni
- Pierpaolo Loizzo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2404-760X)
- A. Sanmukh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2303-1286)
- G. De Palma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-5110-1445)
- F. Licciulli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6955-0321)
- P. Fusco
- F. de Palma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5898-2834)
- M. N. Mazziotta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9325-4672)
- A. Comerma-Montells (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8980-6048)
- F. Cuna (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3414-9092)
- L. Di Venere (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0703-824X)
- A. Espinya
- J. Mauricio (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9331-1363)
- D. Gascón (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9607-6154)
- A. Di Giovanni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8462-4894)
- S. Gomez Fernandez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3064-9834)
- E. Casilli
- N.M. Aprile Ximenes
Institutions
- University of Salento (IT)
- University of Trento (IT)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (IT)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Lecce (IT)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari (IT)
- Gran Sasso Science Institute (IT)
- Polytechnic University of Bari (IT)
- Universitat de Barcelona (ES)
- Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (ES)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Instrumentation
- Published
- 2025-07-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/20/07/c07014
- Primary Topic
- Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00