2014/11/08 by Andreas Obermeier, Michael Korsmeier · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic physics #Cosmic ray #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Detector #Ion #Ionization #Muon #Nuclear physics #Optics #Particle Detector Development and Performance #Physics #Radiation #Radiation Detection and Scintillator Technologies #Rigidity (electromagnetism) #Transition radiation #astro-ph.HE #astro-ph.IM #physics.ins-det
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.asr.2014.10.033
published in Advances in Space Research 55(2), 716-721 (Elsevier BV) · Accepted for publication in Advances in Space Research
openalex publication_date 2014/11/08 · arxiv created 2014/11/12 · arxiv updated 2015/01/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Since May 2011 the AMS-02 experiment is installed on the International Space Station and is observing cosmic radiation. It consists of several state-of-the-art sub-detectors, which redundantly measure charge and energy of traversing particles. Due to the long exposure time of AMS-02 of many years the measurement of momentum for protons and ions is limited systematically by the spatial resolution and magnetic field strength of the silicon tracker. The maximum detectable rigidity for protons is about 1.8~TV, for helium about 3.6~TV. We investigate the possibility to extend the range of the energy measurement for heavy nuclei (Z≥2) with the transition radiation detector (TRD). The response function of the TRD shows a steep increase in signal from the level of ionization at a Lorentz factor γ of about 500 to γ≈20000, where the transition radiation signal saturates. For heavy ions the signal fluctuations in the TRD are sufficiently small to allow an energy measurement with the TRD beyond the limitations of the tracker. The energy resolution of the TRD is determined and reaches a level of about 20% for boron (Z=5). After adjusting the operational parameters of the TRD a measurement of boron and carbon could be possible up to 5~TeV/nucleon.