Spectral Performance of Single-Channel Plastic and GAGG Scintillator Bars of the CUbesat Solar Polarimeter (CUSP)

Our Sun is the closest X-ray astrophysical source to Earth. As such, it makes for a strong case study to better understand astrophysical processes. Solar flares are particularly interesting as they are linked to coronal mass ejections as well as magnetic field reconnection sites in the solar atmosphere. Flares can therefore provide insightful information on the physical processes at play on their production sites but also on the emission and acceleration of energetic charged particles towards our planet, making it an excellent forecasting tool for space weather. While solar flares are critical to understanding magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration, their hard X-ray polarization—key to distinguishing between competing theoretical models—remains poorly constrained by existing observations. To address this, we present the CUbesat Solar Polarimeter (CUSP), a mission under development to perform solar flare polarimetry in the 25–100 keV energy range. CUSP consists of a 6U-XL platform hosting a dual-phase Compton polarimeter. The polarimeter is made of a central assembly of four 4 × 4 arrays of plastic scintillators, each coupled to multi-anode photomultiplier tubes, surrounded by four strips of eight elongated GAGG scintillator bars coupled to avalanche photodiodes. Both types of sensors from Hamamatsu are, respectively, read out by the MAROC-3A and SKIROC-2A ASICs from Weeroc. In this manuscript, we present the preliminary spectral performances of single plastic and GAGG channels measured in a laboratory using development boards of the ASICs foreseen for the flight model.

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Journal
Particles
Published
2026-01-13
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/particles9010004
Primary Topic
Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics
Type
article
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article

Spectral Performance of Single-Channel Plastic and GAGG Scintillator Bars of the CUbesat Solar Polarimeter (CUSP)

Abhay Kumar, Simone Di Filippo, Emanuele Scalise, Alessandro Turchi et al.
Particles
Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics
article

Spectral Performance of Single-Channel Plastic and GAGG Scintillator Bars of the CUbesat Solar Polarimeter (CUSP)

Abhay Kumar, Simone Di Filippo, Emanuele Scalise, Alessandro Turchi, Paolo Tortora, Giovanni Cucinella, Giuseppe Di Persio, Dario Modenini, V. Vagelli, М. Мерге, Pierluigi Fanelli, Andrea Curatolo, Alessandro Zambardi, Andrea Del Re, Nicolas De Angelis, Massimo Perelli, Paolo Leonetti, Alda Rubini, Sergio Fabiani, Paolo Soffitta, Giulia De Iulis, Alice Ponti, Alessandro Lacerenza, Vito Di Bari, Nicolas Gagliardi, Daniele Pecorella, Francesca Sbop, Costantino Zazza, Valerio Campomaggiore, Enrico Silva, Andrea Alimenti, Andrea Negri, Pasqualino Loffredo, Paolo Romano, Daniele Brienza, Giovanni De Cesare, Enrico Costa, Immacolata Donnarumma, Riccardo Campana, Emanuele Zaccagnino, Ettore Del Monte, Fabio Muleri, Ilaria Baffo, Gabriele Minervini, Giovanni Lombardi, Davide Albanesi, Mauro Centrone, Sergio Di Cosimo
article en

Abstract

Our Sun is the closest X-ray astrophysical source to Earth. As such, it makes for a strong case study to better understand astrophysical processes. Solar flares are particularly interesting as they are linked to coronal mass ejections as well as magnetic field reconnection sites in the solar atmosphere. Flares can therefore provide insightful information on the physical processes at play on their production sites but also on the emission and acceleration of energetic charged particles towards our planet, making it an excellent forecasting tool for space weather. While solar flares are critical to understanding magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration, their hard X-ray polarization—key to distinguishing between competing theoretical models—remains poorly constrained by existing observations. To address this, we present the CUbesat Solar Polarimeter (CUSP), a mission under development to perform solar flare polarimetry in the 25–100 keV energy range. CUSP consists of a 6U-XL platform hosting a dual-phase Compton polarimeter. The polarimeter is made of a central assembly of four 4 × 4 arrays of plastic scintillators, each coupled to multi-anode photomultiplier tubes, surrounded by four strips of eight elongated GAGG scintillator bars coupled to avalanche photodiodes. Both types of sensors from Hamamatsu are, respectively, read out by the MAROC-3A and SKIROC-2A ASICs from Weeroc. In this manuscript, we present the preliminary spectral performances of single plastic and GAGG channels measured in a laboratory using development boards of the ASICs foreseen for the flight model.

ParticlesVol. 9(1)
University of Rome Tor Vergata (IT), Roma Tre University (IT), Università degli Studi della Tuscia (IT), Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania (IT), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bologna (IT), Fondazione Vincenzo Pansadoro (IT), National Institute for Astrophysics (IT), University of Bologna (IT), Politecnico di Milano (IT)
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