arXiv subjects

Yoshitaka Mizumura

Publications and source records attributed to Yoshitaka Mizumura.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Three-dimensional recoil-electron reconstruction using combined optical imaging and waveform readout for electron-tracking Compton cameras

Accurate reconstruction of recoil-electron directions is critical for enhancing the point-spread function of electron-tracking Compton cameras (ETCCs) in gamma-ray imaging. Although full three-dimensional (3D) readout systems achieve high-precision reconstruction, they are impractical for large-area detectors because of the enormous data volume. This study proposes and demonstrates a practical alternative for inferring the 3D recoil-electron direction in Compton scattering. This method combines a high-resolution two-dimensional optical image, a one-dimensional waveform signal, and a deep-learning-based method through simulations. The proposed method achieved an angular resolution of approximately $44^\circ$ for the recoil-electron direction in the 40-50 keV range, corresponding to an improvement of a factor of about 1.3 compared with our previous strip-readout approach using pseudo-experimental data generated by Geant4 and MAGBOLTZ simulations for an argon-based gas time projection chamber. In addition, the starting-point resolution of the electron track was improved over the previous method across the 5-50 keV electron energy range. These results demonstrate that complementary information from the transverse image and longitudinal waveform can effectively recover the 3D track topology without requiring full 3D readout. The proposed approach provides a realistic pathway for improving ETCC imaging performance.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2026

Observation of Galactic center in the sub-MeV gamma-ray band with electron-tracking Compton camera

We report the direct detection of gamma-ray emission from the Galactic center in the 150-600 keV band using the electron-tracking Compton camera (ETCC), which has a wide field of view of 3.1 sr. This represents the first application of this linear, imaging-spectroscopy method to observations of the Galactic center. Measurements in a one-day flight over Australia yielded significant gamma-ray detection in the light curve and revealed a $7.9σ$ excess over the background in the image map from the Galactic center region. These results, obtained through a simple and unambiguous analysis, demonstrate the high reliability and sensitivity of the ETCC and establish its potential for future high-precision MeV gamma-ray observations. The measured intensity and spatial distribution were tested against three emission models: a single point-like source, a multi-component structure, and a symmetric two-dimensional Gaussian. All three were found to be statistically consistent with the data. The positronium-related flux provided by the multi-component model is $(3.2~\pm~1.4) \times 10^{-2}$ photons cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$, consistent with the value reported by INTEGRAL within $1σ$. These results establish the potential of the ETCC for future high-precision MeV gamma-ray surveys.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Systematic Biases from ARM-Based Sensitivity and Imaging in Compton Cameras

The angular resolution measure (ARM) is widely used in Compton camera analyses to characterize angular uncertainty and to define event selection criteria. However, the ARM distribution is fundamentally different from the point spread function (PSF), which represents the true spatial imaging response of the system on the celestial sphere. In this study, motivated by applications in gamma-ray astrophysics, we investigated the consequences of using ARM-based definitions in sensitivity estimation and image reconstruction. Through Monte Carlo simulations of 662 keV gamma-rays, we demonstrated that the background rejection power of ARM-based region-of-interest selections with the ARM resolution of 7.0$^{\circ}$ is equivalent to that of a PSF resolution of 33$^{\circ}$. As a result, treating the ARM resolution as a surrogate for the PSF resolution leads to significant overestimation of the signal-to-noise ratio, particularly in analyses assuming isotropic backgrounds. We further show that image reconstructions at pixel scales finer than the PSF resolution introduce substantial statistical uncertainties, reducing the effective number of independent spatial degrees of freedom. These findings underscore the necessity of PSF-based analysis for accurate sensitivity evaluation and statistically robust imaging in Compton cameras, particularly in applications where the background discrimination is critical.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2024

High-energy extension of the gamma-ray band observable with an electron-tracking Compton camera

Although the MeV gamma-ray band is a promising energy-band window in astrophysics, the current situation of MeV gamma-ray astronomy significantly lags behind those of the other energy bands in angular resolution and sensitivity. An electron-tracking Compton camera (ETCC), a next-generation MeV detector, is expected to revolutionize the situation. An ETCC tracks each Compton-recoil electron with a gaseous electron tracker and determines the incoming direction of each gamma-ray photon; thus, it has a strong background rejection power and yields a better angular resolution than classical Compton cameras. Here, we study ETCC events in which the Compton-recoil electrons do not deposit all energies to the electron tracker but escape and hit the surrounding pixel scintillator array (PSA). We developed an analysis method for this untapped class of events and applied it to laboratory and simulation data. We found that the energy spectrum obtained from the simulation agreed with that of the actual data within a factor of 1.2. We then evaluated the detector performance using the simulation data. The angular resolution for the new-class events was found to be twice as good as in the previous study at the energy range 1.0--2.0~MeV, where both analyses overlap. We also found that the total effective area is dominated by the contribution of the double-hit events above an energy of 1.5~MeV. Notably, applying this new method extends the sensitive energy range with the ETCC from 0.2--2.1 MeV in the previous studies to up to 3.5~MeV. Adjusting the PSA dynamic range should improve the sensitivity in even higher energy gamma-rays. The development of this new analysis method would pave the way for future observations by ETCC to fill the MeV-band sensitivity gap in astronomy.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

First observation of MeV gamma-ray universe with bijective imaging spectroscopy using the Electron-Tracking Compton Telescope aboard SMILE-2+

MeV gamma-rays provide a unique window for the direct measurement of line emissions from radioisotopes, but observations have made little significant progress after COMPTEL/{\it CGRO}. To observe celestial objects in this band, we are developing an electron-tracking Compton camera (ETCC), which realizes both bijective imaging spectroscopy and efficient background reduction gleaned from the recoil electron track information. The energy spectrum of the observation target can then be obtained by a simple ON-OFF method using a correctly defined point spread function on the celestial sphere. The performance of celestial object observations was validated on the second balloon SMILE-2+ installed with an ETCC having a gaseous electron tracker with a volume of 30$\times$30$\times$30 cm$^3$. Gamma-rays from the Crab nebula were detected with a significance of 4.0$σ$ in the energy range 0.15--2.1 MeV with a live time of 5.1 h, as expected before launching. Additionally, the light curve clarified an enhancement of gamma-ray events generated in the Galactic center region, indicating that a significant proportion of the final remaining events are cosmic gamma rays. Independently, the observed intensity and time variation were consistent with the pre-launch estimates except in the Galactic center region. The estimates were based on the total background of extragalactic diffuse, atmospheric, and instrumental gamma-rays after accounting for the variations in the atmospheric depth and rigidity during the level flight. The Crab results and light curve strongly support our understanding of both the detection sensitivity and the background in real observations. This work promises significant advances in MeV gamma-ray astronomy.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Development of Convolutional Neural Networks for an Electron-Tracking Compton Camera

Electron-tracking Compton camera, which is a complete Compton camera with tracking Compton scattering electron by a gas micro time projection chamber, is expected to open up MeV gamma-ray astronomy. The technical challenge for achieving several degrees of the point spread function is the precise determination of the electron-recoil direction and the scattering position from track images. We attempted to reconstruct these parameters using convolutional neural networks. Two network models were designed to predict the recoil direction and the scattering position. These models marked 41$~$degrees of the angular resolution and 2.1$~$mm of the position resolution for 75$~$keV electron simulation data in Argon-based gas at 2$~$atm pressure. In addition, the point spread function of ETCC was improved to 15$~$degrees from 22$~$degrees for experimental data of 662$~$keV gamma-ray source. These performances greatly surpassed that using the traditional analysis.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2018

Systematic Study of Nuclear Gamma-Ray Spectra of One Hundred Super Novae Expected by Future Nuclear Gamma-Ray Imaging Spectroscopic Observations

Supernovae (SNe) are the most fascinating objects in astronomy and are intensely investigated. However, many mysteries such as nucleosynthesis and the origin of SNe Ia remain unsolved. Although the thermonuclear explosion of a single-degenerate white dwarf has been considered to be the origin of SNe Ia, a merger of two white dwarfs (double-degenerate scenario) has been frequently denoted to be more promising than a single-degenerate white dwarf. Recently the importance of observing the MeV gamma-ray band to conclusively determine the origin has been remarked. MeV gamma-rays are unique probes directly emitted from the exploding or merging region. It is evident that statistical analysis based on imaging spectroscopic observations of ~100 SNe Ia with MeV gamma-rays is necessary to obtain a definite answer. To achieve this, a telescope with a sensitivity that is 100 times that of COMPTEL is necessary. Proper imaging spectroscopy for the MeV gamma-ray band has been established by an electron-tracking Compton camera; hence, a concrete design of a MeV gamma-ray telescope has been proposed in our previous work. We have studied the details of the spectroscopic feature of SNe Ia based on the performance of a proposed telescope and found that statistical analysis can considerably suppress fluctuations of the individual properties of SNe and reveal their intrinsic differences in averaged light curves of SNe up to 60 Mpc. Our answer for the origin of SNe Ia extends to the case of single-degenerate scenario and double-degenerate coexistence scenario.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2017

Imaging Polarimeter for a Sub-MeV Gamma-Ray All-Sky Survey using an Electron-Tracking Compton Camera

X-ray and gamma-ray polarimetry is a promising tool to study the geometry and the magnetic configuration of various celestial objects, such as binary black holes or gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). However, statistically significant polarizations have been detected in few of the brightest objects. Even though future polarimeters using X-ray telescopes are expected to observe weak persistent sources, there are no effective approaches to survey transient and serendipitous sources with a wide field of view (FoV). Here we present an electron-tracking Compton camera (ETCC) as a highly-sensitive gamma-ray imaging polarimeter. The ETCC provides powerful background rejection and a high modulation factor over a FoV of up to 2$π$ sr thanks to its excellent imaging based on a well-defined point spread function. Importantly, we demonstrated for the first time the stability of the modulation factor under realistic conditions of off-axis incidence and huge backgrounds using the SPring-8 polarized X-ray beam. The measured modulation factor of the ETCC was 0.65 $\pm$ 0.01 at 150 keV for an off-axis incidence with an oblique angle of 30$^\circ$ and was not degraded compared to the 0.58 $\pm$ 0.02 at 130 keV for on-axis incidence. These measured results are consistent with the simulation results. Consequently, we found that the satellite-ETCC proposed in Tanimori et al. (2015) would provide all-sky surveys of weak persistent sources of 13 mCrab with 10% polarization for a 10$^{7}$ s exposure and over 20 GRBs down to a $6\times10^{-6}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ fluence and 10% polarization during a one-year observation.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2017

Establishment of Imaging Spectroscopy of Nuclear Gamma-Rays based on Geometrical Optics

Since the discovery of nuclear gamma-rays, its imaging has been limited to pseudo imaging, such as Compton Camera (CC) and coded mask. Pseudo imaging does not keep physical information (intensity, or brightness in Optics) along a ray, and thus is capable of no more than qualitative imaging of bright objects. To attain quantitative imaging, cameras that realize geometrical optics is essential, which would be, for nuclear MeV gammas, only possible via complete reconstruction of the Compton process. Recently we have revealed that "Electron Tracking Compton Camera" (ETCC) provides a well-defined Point Spread Function (PSF). The information of an incoming gamma is kept along a ray with the PSF and that is equivalent to geometrical optics. Here we present an imaging-spectroscopic measurement with the ETCC. Our results highlight the intrinsic difficulty with CCs in performing accurate imaging, and show that the ETCC surmounts this problem. The imaging capability also helps the ETCC suppress the noise level dramatically by ~3 orders of magnitude without a shielding structure. Furthermore, full reconstruction of Compton process with the ETCC provides spectra free of Compton edges. These results mark the first proper imaging of nuclear gammas based on the genuine geometrical optics.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2017

First On-Site True Gamma-Ray Imaging-Spectroscopy of Contamination near Fukushima Plant

We have developed an Electron Tracking Compton Camera (ETCC), which provides a well-defined Point Spread Function (PSF) by reconstructing a direction of each gamma as a point and realizes simultaneous measurement of brightness and spectrum of MeV gamma-rays for the first time. Here, we present the results of our on-site pilot gamma-imaging-spectroscopy with ETCC at three contaminated locations in the vicinity of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants in Japan in 2014. The obtained distribution of brightness (or emissivity) with remote-sensing observations is unambiguously converted into the dose distribution. We confirm that the dose distribution is consistent with the one taken by conventional mapping measurements with a dosimeter physically placed at each grid point. Furthermore, its imaging spectroscopy, boosted by Compton-edge-free spectra, reveals complex radioactive features in a quantitative manner around each individual target point in the background-dominated environment. Notably, we successfully identify a "micro hot spot" of residual caesium contamination even in an already decontaminated area. These results show that the ETCC performs exactly as the geometrical optics predicts, demonstrates its versatility in the field radiation measurement, and reveals potentials for application in many fields, including the nuclear industry, medical field, and astronomy.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2016

Possibility of Systematic Study of Supernova Explosions by Nuclear Imaging Spectroscopy

An all-sky monitor with nuclear imaging spectroscopy is a promising tool for the systematic study of supernova explosions. In particular, progenitor scenarios of type-Ia supernovae, which are not yet well understood, can be resolved using light curves in the nuclear gamma-ray band. Here we report an expected result of an all-sky monitor with imaging spectroscopy using electron-tracking Compton camera, which will enable us to observe nuclear gamma-ray lines from type-Ia supernovae.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2015

New readout and data-acquisition system in an electron-tracking Compton camera for MeV gamma-ray astronomy (SMILE-II)

For MeV gamma-ray astronomy, we have developed an electron-tracking Compton camera (ETCC) as a MeV gamma-ray telescope capable of rejecting the radiation background and attaining the high sensitivity of near 1 mCrab in space. Our ETCC comprises a gaseous time-projection chamber (TPC) with a micro pattern gas detector for tracking recoil electrons and a position-sensitive scintillation camera for detecting scattered gamma rays. After the success of a first balloon experiment in 2006 with a small ETCC (using a 10$\times$10$\times$15 cm$^3$ TPC) for measuring diffuse cosmic and atmospheric sub-MeV gamma rays (Sub-MeV gamma-ray Imaging Loaded-on-balloon Experiment I; SMILE-I), a (30 cm)$^{3}$ medium-sized ETCC was developed to measure MeV gamma-ray spectra from celestial sources, such as the Crab Nebula, with single-day balloon flights (SMILE-II). To achieve this goal, a 100-times-larger detection area compared with that of SMILE-I is required without changing the weight or power consumption of the detector system. In addition, the event rate is also expected to dramatically increase during observation. Here, we describe both the concept and the performance of the new data-acquisition system with this (30 cm)$^{3}$ ETCC to manage 100 times more data while satisfying the severe restrictions regarding the weight and power consumption imposed by a balloon-borne observation. In particular, to improve the detection efficiency of the fine tracks in the TPC from $\sim$10\% to $\sim$100\%, we introduce a new data-handling algorithm in the TPC. Therefore, for efficient management of such large amounts of data, we developed a data-acquisition system with parallel data flow.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2015

A performance study of an electron-tracking Compton camera with a compact system for environmental gamma-ray observation

An electron-tracking Compton camera (ETCC) is a detector that can determine the arrival direction and energy of incident sub-MeV/MeV gamma-ray events on an event-by-event basis. It is a hybrid detector consisting of a gaseous time projection chamber (TPC), that is the Compton-scattering target and the tracker of recoil electrons, and a position-sensitive scintillation camera that absorbs of the scattered gamma rays, to measure gamma rays in the environment from contaminated soil. To measure of environmental gamma rays from soil contaminated with radioactive cesium (Cs), we developed a portable battery-powered ETCC system with a compact readout circuit and data-acquisition system for the SMILE-II experiment. We checked the gamma-ray imaging ability and ETCC performance in the laboratory by using several gamma-ray point sources. The performance test indicates that the field of view (FoV) of the detector is about 1$\;$sr and that the detection efficiency and angular resolution for 662$\;$keV gamma rays from the center of the FoV is $(9.31 \pm 0.95) \times 10^{^-5}$ and $5.9^{\circ} \pm 0.6^{\circ}$, respectively. Furthermore, the ETCC can detect 0.15$\;μ\rm{Sv/h}$ from a $^{137}$Cs gamma-ray source with a significance of 5$σ$ in 13 min in the laboratory. In this paper, we report the specifications of the ETCC and the results of the performance tests. Furthermore, we discuss its potential use for environmental gamma-ray measurements.

physics.ins-det↗