First demonstration of gamma-ray imaging using balloon-borne emulsion telescope

We promote the precise gamma-ray observation project Gamma-Ray Astro-Imager with Nuclear Emulsion (GRAINE), which uses balloon-borne emulsion gamma-ray telescopes. The emulsion telescope realizes observations with high angular resolution, polarization sensitivity, and large aperture area in the 0.01...

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Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Rokujo, Hiroki, Aoki, Shigeki, Hamada, Kaname, Hara, Toshio, Inoue, Tatsuki, Ishiguro, Katsumi, Iyono, Atsushi, Kawahara, Hiroaki, Kodama, Koichi, Komatani, Ryosuke, Komatsu, Masahiro, Kosaka, Tetsuya, Mizutani, Fukashi, Miyanishi, Motoaki, Morishima, Kunihiro, Morishita, Misaki, Nakamura, Mitsuhiro, Nakano, Toshiyuki, Nishio, Akira, Niwa, Kimio, Otsuka, Naoto, Ozaki, Keita, Sato, Osamu, Shibayama, Emi, Takahashi, Satoru, Suzuki, Atsumu, Tanaka, Ryo, Tateishi, Yurie, Tawa, Shuichi, Yabu, Misato, Yamada, Kyohei, Yamamoto, Saya, Yoshimoto, Masahiro
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 21.04.2018
Subjects
Aluminum
Angular resolution
Apertures
Cosmic rays
Data analysis
Flight characteristics
Gamma ray telescopes
Gamma rays
Imaging
Read out systems
Telescopes
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Summary:We promote the precise gamma-ray observation project Gamma-Ray Astro-Imager with Nuclear Emulsion (GRAINE), which uses balloon-borne emulsion gamma-ray telescopes. The emulsion telescope realizes observations with high angular resolution, polarization sensitivity, and large aperture area in the 0.01--100 GeV energy region. Herein, we report the data analysis of emulsion tracks and the first demonstration of gamma-ray imaging via an emulsion telescope by using the flight data from the balloon experiment performed in 2015 (GRAINE 2015). The emulsion films were scanned by the latest read-out system for a total area of 41 m\(^2\) in three months, and then the gamma-ray event selection was automatically processed. Millions of electron-pair events are accumulated in the balloon-borne emulsion telescope. The emulsion telescope detected signals from a calibration source (gamma rays from the interaction of cosmic rays with an aluminum plate) with a high significance during the balloon observation and created a gamma-ray image consistent with the source size and the expected angular resolution in the energy range of 100--300 MeV. The flight performance obtained in the GRAINE 2015 experiment proves that balloon-borne emulsion telescope experiments with larger area are feasible while maintaining expected imaging performance.
ISSN:2331-8422