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A. V. Olinto

Publications and source records attributed to A. V. Olinto.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

POEMMA-Balloon with Radio: A multi-messenger, multi-detector balloon payload

A review of the current status of the field of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Ray (UHECR) including a summary of remaining open questions was presented in the white paper "Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays: at the Intersection of the Cosmic and Energy Frontiers" (Astropart. Phys. 147 (2023) 102794; arXiv:2205.05845). The authors concluded that two types of next-generation detectors are needed to answer these questions: high-accuracy instruments and detectors that maximize exposure at the highest energies. The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA), a proposed dual-satellite observatory, exemplifies the latter class and is designed to increase statistics of the highest-energy cosmic rays and to detect very-high-energy neutrinos following multi-messenger alerts. POEMMA-Balloon with Radio (PBR) implements a compact, balloon-borne version of the POEMMA concept, adapted for a Super-Pressure Balloon flight from Wanaka, New Zealand, with an expected campaign exceeding 20 days. PBR couples a wide field-of-view Schmidt telescope and a hybrid optical focal surface with a dedicated radio instrument to deliver simultaneous, complementary measurements of extensive air showers. The mission will validate the fluorescence detection strategy from space and raise technology readiness for a POEMMA-like space mission by observing UHECR-induced fluorescence light from suborbital altitudes, obtaining the first simultaneous optical Cherenkov and radio observations of high-altitude horizontal air showers above the cosmic-ray knee (E>3PeV), enabling energy-spectrum and composition studies at the PeV scale, and performing follow-ups of multi-messenger alerts to search for very-high-energy neutrinos via upward-going air showers. This paper summarizes the PBR payload and its expected performance.

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arXiv2023

Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays: The Intersection of the Cosmic and Energy Frontiers

The present white paper is submitted as part of the "Snowmass" process to help inform the long-term plans of the United States Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation for high-energy physics. It summarizes the science questions driving the Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic-Ray (UHECR) community and provides recommendations on the strategy to answer them in the next two decades.

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arXiv2023

EUSO-SPB2: A sub-orbital cosmic ray and neutrino multi-messenger pathfinder observatory

The next generation of ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) and very-high energy neutrino observatories will address the challenge of the extremely low fluxes of these particles at the highest energies. EUSO-SPB2 (Extreme Universe Space Observatory on a Super Pressure Balloon2) is designed to prepare space missions to address this challenge. EUSO-SPB2 is equipped with 2 telescopes: the Fluorescence Telescope, which will point downwards and measure fluorescence emission from UHECR air showers with an energy above 2EeV, and the Cherenkov Telescope (CT), which will point towards the Earth's limb and measure direct Cherenkov emission from cosmic rays with energies above 1PeV, verifying the technique. Pointed below the limb, the CT will search for Cherenkov emission produced by neutrino-sourced tau-lepton decays above 10PeV energies and study backgrounds for such events. The EUSO-SPB2 mission will provide pioneering observations and technical milestones on the path towards a space-based multi-messenger observatory.

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arXiv2021

Science and mission status of EUSO-SPB2

The Extreme Universe Space Observatory on a Super Pressure Balloon II (EUSO-SPB2) is a second generation stratospheric balloon instrument for the detection of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs, E > 1 EeV) via the fluorescence technique and of Very High Energy (VHE, E > 10 PeV) neutrinos via Cherenkov emission. EUSO-SPB2 is a pathfinder mission for instruments like the proposed Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA). The purpose of such a space-based observatory is to measure UHECRs and UHE neutrinos with high statistics and uniform exposure. EUSO-SPB2 is designed with two Schmidt telescopes, each optimized for their respective observational goals. The Fluorescence Telescope looks at the nadir to measure the fluorescence emission from UHECR-induced extensive air shower (EAS), while the Cherenkov Telescope is optimized for fast signals ($\sim$10 ns) and points near the Earth's limb. This allows for the measurement of Cherenkov light from EAS caused by Earth skimming VHE neutrinos if pointed slightly below the limb or from UHECRs if observing slightly above. The expected launch date of EUSO-SPB2 is Spring 2023 from Wanaka, NZ with target duration of up to 100 days. Such a flight would provide thousands of VHECR Cherenkov signals in addition to tens of UHECR fluorescence tracks. Neither of these kinds of events have been observed from either orbital or suborbital altitudes before, making EUSO-SPB2 crucial to move forward towards a space-based instrument. It will also enhance the understanding of potential background signals for both detection techniques. This contribution will provide a short overview of the detector and the current status of the mission as well as its scientific goals.

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arXiv2021

The POEMMA (Probe of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics) Observatory

The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) is designed to accurately observe ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and cosmic neutrinos from space with sensitivity over the full celestial sky. POEMMA will observe the extensive air showers (EASs) from UHECRs and UHE neutrinos above 20 EeV via air fluorescence. Additionally, POEMMA will observe the Cherenkov signal from upward-moving EASs induced by Earth-interacting tau neutrinos above 20 PeV. The POEMMA spacecraft are designed to quickly re-orientate to follow up transient neutrino sources and obtain unparalleled neutrino flux sensitivity. Developed as a NASA Astrophysics Probe-class mission, POEMMA consists of two identical satellites flying in loose formation in 525 km altitude orbits. Each POEMMA instrument incorporates a wide field-of-view (45$^\circ$) Schmidt telescope with over 6 m$^2$ of collecting area. The hybrid focal surface of each telescope includes a fast (1~$μ$s) near-ultraviolet camera for EAS fluorescence observations and an ultrafast (10~ns) optical camera for Cherenkov EAS observations. In a 5-year mission, POEMMA will provide measurements that open new multi-messenger windows onto the most energetic events in the universe, enabling the study of new astrophysics and particle physics at these otherwise inaccessible energies.

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arXiv2020

Extreme Universe Space Observatory on a Super Pressure Balloon 1 calibration: from the laboratory to the desert

The Extreme Universe Space Observatory on a Super Pressure Balloon 1 (EUSO-SPB1) instrument was launched out of Wanaka, New Zealand, by NASA in April, 2017 as a mission of opportunity. The detector was developed as part of the Joint Experimental Missions for the Extreme Universe Space Observatory (JEM-EUSO) program toward a space-based ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) telescope with the main objective to make the first observation of UHECRs via the fluorescence technique from suborbital space. The EUSO-SPB1 instrument is a refractive telescope consisting of two 1m$^2$ Fresnel lenses with a high-speed UV camera at the focal plane. The camera has 2304 individual pixels capable of single photoelectron counting with a time resolution of 2.5$μ$s. A detailed performance study including calibration was done on ground. We separately evaluated the properties of the Photo Detector Module (PDM) and the optical system in the laboratory. An end-to-end test of the instrument was performed during a field campaign in the West Desert in Utah, USA at the Telescope Array (TA) site in September 2016. The campaign lasted for 8 nights. In this article we present the results of the preflight laboratory and field tests. Based on the tests performed in the field, it was determined that EUSO-SPB1 has a field of view of 11.1$^\circ$ and an absolute photo-detection efficiency of 10%. We also measured the light flux necessary to obtain a 50% trigger efficiency using laser beams. These measurements were crucial for us to perform an accurate post flight event rate calculation to validate our cosmic ray search. Laser beams were also used to estimated the reconstruction angular resolution. Finally, we performed a flat field measurement in flight configuration at the launch site prior to the launch providing a uniformity of the focal surface better than 6%.

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arXiv2020

Mini-EUSO mission to study Earth UV emissions on board the ISS

Mini-EUSO is a telescope observing the Earth in the ultraviolet band from the International Space Station. It is a part of the JEM-EUSO program, paving the way to future larger missions, such as KEUSO and POEMMA, devoted primarily to the observation of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays from space. Mini-EUSO is capable of observing Extensive Air Showers generated by Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays with an energy above 10^21 eV and detect artificial showers generated with lasers from the ground. Other main scientific objectives of the mission are the search for nuclearites and Strange Quark Matter, the study of atmospheric phenomena such as Transient Luminous Events, meteors and meteoroids, the observation of sea bioluminescence and of artificial satellites and man-made space debris. Mini-EUSO will map the night-time Earth in the UV range (290 - 430 nm), with a spatial resolution of about 6.3 km and a temporal resolution of 2.5 microseconds, through a nadir-facing UV-transparent window in the Russian Zvezda module. The instrument, launched on August 22, 2019 from the Baikonur cosmodrome, is based on an optical system employing two Fresnel lenses and a focal surface composed of 36 Multi-Anode Photomultiplier tubes, 64 channels each, for a total of 2304 channels with single photon counting sensitivity and an overall field of view of 44 degrees. Mini-EUSO also contains two ancillary cameras to complement measurements in the near infrared and visible ranges. In this paper we describe the detector and present the various phenomena observed in the first months of operations.

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arXiv2020

Snowmass 2021 Letter of Interest: The Probe Of Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA)

The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) is designed to identify the sources of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) and to observe cosmic neutrinos, both with full-sky coverage. Developed as a NASA Astrophysics Probe-class mission, POEMMA consists of two spacecraft flying in a loose formation at 525 km altitude, 28.5 deg inclination orbits. Each spacecraft hosts a Schmidt telescope with a large collecting area and wide field of view. A novel focal plane is optimized to observe both the UV fluorescence signal from extensive air showers (EASs) and the beamed optical Cherenkov signals from EASs. In POEMMA-stereo fluorescence mode, POEMMA will measure the spectrum, composition, and full-sky distribution of the UHECRs above 20 EeV with high statistics along with remarkable sensitivity to UHE neutrinos. The spacecraft are designed to quickly re-orient to a POEMMA-limb mode to observe neutrino emission from Target-of-Opportunity (ToO) transient astrophysical sources viewed just below the Earth's limb. In this mode, POEMMA will have unique sensitivity to cosmic neutrino tau events above 20 PeV by measuring the upward-moving EASs induced by the decay of the emerging tau leptons following the interactions of neutrino tau inside the Earth.

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arXiv2019

The POEMMA (Probe of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics) mission

The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) is designed to observe cosmic neutrinos (CNs) above 20 PeV and ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) above 20 EeV over the full sky. The POEMMA mission calls for two identical satellites flying in loose formation, each comprised of a 4-meter wide field-of-view (45 degrees) Schmidt photometer. The hybrid focal surface includes a fast (1 $μ$s) ultraviolet camera for fluorescence observations and an ultrafast (10 ns) optical camera for Cherenkov observations. POEMMA will provide new multi-messenger windows onto the most energetic events in the universe, enabling the study of new astrophysics and particle physics at these otherwise inaccessible energies.

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arXiv2019

POEMMA (Probe of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics) design

The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) is a NASA Astrophysics probe-class mission designed to observe ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and cosmic neutrinos from space. Astro2020 APC white paper: Medium-class Space Particle Astrophysics Project.

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arXiv2017

POEMMA: Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics

The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) mission is being designed to establish charged-particle astronomy with ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and to observe cosmogenic tau neutrinos (CTNs). The study of UHECRs and CTNs from space will yield orders-of-magnitude increase in statistics of observed UHECRs at the highest energies, and the observation of the cosmogenic flux of neutrinos for a range of UHECR models. These observations should solve the long-standing puzzle of the origin of the highest energy particles ever observed, providing a new window onto the most energetic environments and events in the Universe, while studying particle interactions well beyond accelerator energies. The discovery of CTNs will help solve the puzzle of the origin of UHECRs and begin a new field of Astroparticle Physics with the study of neutrino properties at ultra-high energies.

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arXiv2017

Sensitivity of a proposed space-based Cerenkov astrophysical-neutrino telescope (CHANT)

Neutrinos with energies in the PeV to EeV range produce upgoing extensive air showers when they interact underground close enough to the surface of the Earth. We study the possibility for detection of such showers with a system of very wide field-of-view imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, named CHANT for CHerenkov from Astrophysical Neutrinos Telescope, pointing down to a strip below the Earth's horizon from space. We find that CHANT provides sufficient sensitivity for the study of the astrophysical neutrino flux in a wide energy range, from 10 PeV to 10 EeV. A space-based CHANT system can discover and study in detail the cosmogenic neutrino flux originating from interactions of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays in the intergalactic medium.

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arXiv2015

Super Heavy Dark Matter in light of BICEP2, Planck and Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays Observations

The announcement by BICEP2 of the detection of B-mode polarization consistent with primordial gravitational waves with a tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r=0.2^{+0.07}_{-0.05}$, challenged predictions from most inflationary models of a lower value for $r$. More recent results by Planck on polarized dust emission show that the observed tensor modes signal is compatible with pure foreground emission. A more significant constraint on $r$ was then obtained by a joint analysis of Planck, BICEP2 and Keck Array data showing an upper limit to the tensor to scalar ratio $r\le 0.12$, excluding the case $r=0$ with low statistical significance. Forthcoming measurements by BICEP3, the Keck Array, and other CMB polarization experiments, open the possibility for making the fundamental measurement of $r$. Here we discuss how $r$ sets the scale for models where the dark matter is created at the inflationary epoch, the generically called super-heavy dark matter models. We also consider the constraints on such scenarios given by recent data from ultrahigh energy cosmic ray observatories which set the limit on super-heavy dark matter particles lifetime. We discuss how super-heavy dark matter can be discovered by a precise measurement of $r$ combined with future observations of ultra high energy cosmic rays.

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arXiv2012

Summary Report of JEM-EUSO Workshop at KICP in Chicago

This document contains a summary of the workshop which took place on 22 - 24 February 2012 at the Kavli Institute of Cosmological Physics in the University of Chicago. The goal of the workshop was to discuss the physics reach of the JEM-EUSO mission and how best to implement a global ground based calibration system for the instrument to realize the physics goal of unveiling the origin of the highest energy cosmic rays.

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arXiv2009

The 2pt+: an enhanced 2 point correlation function

We introduce a new method for testing departure from isotropy of points on a sphere based on an enhanced form of the two-point correlation function that we named 2pt+. This method uses information from the two extra variables that define the vector between two points on a sphere. We show that this is a powerful method to test departure from isotropy of a distribution of points on a sphere especially when the number of events is small. We apply the method to a few examples in astronomy and discuss the relevance for limited datasets, such as the case of ultra-high energy cosmic rays.

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arXiv2009

A luminosity constraint on the origin of unidentified high energy sources

The identification of point sources poses a great challenge for the high energy community. We present a new approach to evaluate the likelihood of a set of sources being a Galactic population based on the simple assumption that galaxies similar to the Milky Way host comparable populations of gamma-ray emitters. We propose a luminosity constraint on Galactic source populations which complements existing approaches by constraining the abundance and spatial distribution of any objects of Galactic origin, rather than focusing on the properties of a specific candidate emitter. We use M31 as a proxy for the Milky Way, and demonstrate this technique by applying it to the unidentified EGRET sources. We find that it is highly improbable that the majority of the unidentified EGRET sources are members of a Galactic halo population (e.g., dark matter subhalos), but that current observations do not provide any constraints on all of these sources being Galactic objects if they reside entirely in the disk and bulge. Applying this method to upcoming observations by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has the potential to exclude association of an even larger number of unidentified sources with any Galactic source class.

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arXiv2009

White Paper on Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays

A fundamental question that can be answered in the next decade is: WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE HIGHEST ENERGY COSMIC PARTICLES? The discovery of the sources of the highest energy cosmic rays will reveal the workings of the most energetic astrophysical environments in the recent universe. Candidate sources range from the birth of compact objects to explosions related to gamma-ray bursts or generated around supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei. In addition to beginning a new era of high-energy astrophysics, the study of ultra-high energy cosmic rays will constrain the structure of the Galactic and extragalactic magnetic fields. The propagation of these particles from source to Earth also probes the cosmic background radiation and gives insight into particle interactions at orders of magnitude higher energy than can be achieved in terrestrial laboratories. Next generation observatories designed to study the highest energy cosmic rays will have unprecedented sensitivity to ultra-high energy photons and neutrinos, which will further illuminate the workings of the universe at the most extreme energies. For this challenge to be met during the 2010-2020 decade, a significant increase in the integrated exposure to cosmic rays above 6 1019 eV will be necessary. The technical capabilities for answering this open question are at hand and the time is ripe for exploring Charged Particle Astronomy.

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