Title: Performance and science reach of the Probe of Extreme Multimessenger Astrophysics for ultrahigh-energy particles

Abstract

The Probe of Extreme Multimessenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) is a potential NASA Astrophysics Probe-class mission designed to observe ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and cosmic neutrinos from space. POEMMA will monitor colossal volumes of the Earth’s atmosphere to detect extensive air showers (EASs) produced by extremely energetic cosmic messengers: UHECRs above 20 EeV over the full sky and cosmic neutrinos above 20 PeV. We focus most of this study on the impact of POEMMA for UHECR science by simulating the detector response and mission performance for EAS from UHECRs. We show that POEMMA will provide a significant increase in the statistics of observed UHECRs at the highest energies over the entire sky. POEMMA will be the first UHECR fluorescence detector deployed in space that will provide high-quality stereoscopic observations of the longitudinal development of air showers. Therefore it will be able to provide event-by-event estimates of the calorimetric energy and nuclear mass of UHECRs. The particle physics in the interactions limits the interpretation of the shower maximum on an event-by-event basis. In contrast, the calorimetric energy measurement is significantly less sensitive to the different possible final states in the early interactions. POEMMA will increase by a factor of 30 fluorescence observations, withmore » accurate measurements of the shower maximum. Here, we study the prospects to discover the origin and nature of UHECRs using expectations for measurements of the energy spectrum, the distribution of arrival direction, and the atmospheric column depth at which the EAS longitudinal development reaches maximum. We also explore supplementary science capabilities of POEMMA through its sensitivity to particle interactions at extreme energies and its ability to detect ultrahigh-energy neutrinos and photons produced by top-down models including cosmic strings and superheavy dark matter particle decay in the halo of the Milky Way.« less

Authors:

Anchordoqui, Luis A. ^[1]; Bergman, Douglas R.  ^[2];

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Bertaina, Mario E.  ^[3];

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Fenu, Francesco ^[3]; Krizmanic, John F. ^[4]; Liberatore, Alessandro  ^[3];

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Olinto, Angela V.  ^[5];

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Reno, Mary Hall  ^[6];

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Sarazin, Fred  ^[7];

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Shinozaki, Kenji ^[3]; Soriano, Jorge F.  ^[8];

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Ulrich, Ralf  ^[9];

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Unger, Michael  ^[9];

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Venters, Tonia M. ^[10]; Wiencke, Lawrence  ^[7]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Lehman College, City Univ. of New York, NY (United States); City Univ. of New York, NY (United States); American Museum of Natural History, New York City, NY (United States)
2. Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)
3. Univ. di Torino (Italy)
4. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); Univ. of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Baltimore, MD (United States)
5. Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)
6. Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA (United States)
7. Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)
8. Lehman College, City Univ. of New York, NY (United States); City Univ. of New York, NY (United States)
9. Karlsruher Inst. für Technologie (Germany)
10. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)

Publication Date:

2020-01-15

Research Org.:

Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP) (SC-25)

OSTI Identifier:

1595250

Grant/Contract Number:  

SC0010113

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Physical Review D

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 101; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 2470-0010

Publisher:

American Physical Society (APS)

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; Cosmic rays