Simulations of expected signal and background of gamma-ray sources by large field-of-view detectors aboard CubeSats

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Authors	GALGÓCZI Gábor ŘÍPA Jakub CAMPANA Riccardo WERNER Norbert PÁL András OHNO Masanori MÉSZÁROS László MIZUNO Tsunefumi TARCAI Norbert TORIGOE Kento UCHIDA Nagomi FUKAZAWA Yasushi TAKAHASHI Hiromitsu NAKAZAWA Kazuhiro HIRADE Naoyoshi HIROSE Kengo HISADOMI Syohei ENOTO Teruaki ODAKA Hirokazu ICHINOHE Yuto FREI Zsolt KISS László
Year of publication	2021
Type	Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source	Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems
MU Faculty or unit	Faculty of Science
Citation
Web	https://arxiv.org/pdf/2102.08104.pdf https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.7.2.028004
Doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.7.2.028004
Keywords	Geant4; gamma-ray burst; gamma-rays; satellite; cosmic background
Description	In recent years, the number of CubeSats (U-class spacecrafts) launched into space has increased exponentially marking the dawn of the nanosatellite technology. In general, these satellites have a much smaller mass budget compared to conventional scientific satellites, which limits shielding of scientific instruments against direct and indirect radiation in space. We present a simulation framework to quantify the signal in large field-of-view gamma-ray scintillation detectors of satellites induced by x-ray/gamma-ray transients, by taking into account the response of the detector. Furthermore, we quantify the signal induced by x-ray and particle background sources at a Low-Earth Orbit outside South Atlantic Anomaly and polar regions. Finally, we calculate the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) taking into account different energy threshold levels. Our simulation can be used to optimize material composition and predict detectability of various astrophysical sources by CubeSats. We apply the developed simulation to a satellite belonging to a planned CAMELOT CubeSat constellation. This project mainly aims to detect short and long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and as a secondary science objective, to detect soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) and terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs). The simulation includes a detailed computer-aided design model of the satellite to take into account the interaction of particles with the material of the satellite as accurately as possible. Results of our simulations predict that CubeSats can complement the large space observatories in high-energy astrophysics for observations of GRBs, SGRs, and TGFs. For the detectors planned to be on board the CAMELOT CubeSats, the simulations show that detections with SNR of at least 9 for median GRB and SGR fluxes are achievable.
Related projects:	MUNI Award in Science and Humanities 3