PoS - Proceedings of Science
Volume 395 - 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2021) - GAI - Gamma Ray Indirect
STACEX: RPC-based detector for a multi-messenger observatory in the Southern Hemisphere
G. Rodriguez Fernandez*, C. Bigongiari, A. Bulgarelli, P. Camarri, M. Cardillo, G. Di Sciascio, V. Fioretti, M. Romano, G. Piano, R. Santonico and M. Tavani
Full text: pdf
Pre-published on: July 20, 2021
Published on: March 18, 2022
Abstract
Recent findings by the LHAASO experiment are opening a new window, that of the PeV sky, to the observation of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Several astronomical objects emitting gamma-rays at energies well above 100 TeV have been observed with the LHAASO-KM2 array of scintillators and muon detectors, clearly demonstrating the feasibility of gamma-ray astronomy up to PeV energies.
An all-sky gamma-ray detector in the Southern Hemisphere, operating in the GeV-PeV range, could complement LHAASO observations, monitor the Inner Galaxy and the Galactic Center looking for PeVatrons.
As shown by LHAASO, a water-Cherenkov based detector is not well suited to measure the energy spectrum up to the PeV range, nor to reach the advisable 100 GeV threshold.
The ARGO-YBJ experiment, operated for many years at 4300 m a.s.l. with an energy threshold of about 300 GeV, demonstrated, on the contrary, the capability of a carpet of Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) to fully reconstruct showers starting from the GeV range up to about 10 PeV.
In this contribution we propose a hybrid detector made of a layer of RPCs on top of a water Cherenkov facility devoted to the detection of muons for the selection of gamma-induced showers by the muon-poor technique.
We present the layout and discuss the expected performance.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22323/1.395.0715
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