Description du projet
Une précision accrue pour la détection des rayons cosmiques
La mission Dark Matter Particle Explorer a inauguré une nouvelle ère dans la physique des astroparticules, avec des mesures directes de spectres de rayons cosmiques allant au-delà d’un téra-électron-volt (TeV). Le projet PeVSPACE, financé par l’UE, vise à améliorer encore davantage la précision des mesures directes des rayons cosmiques aux plus hautes énergies – dans la gamme TeV-PeV (péta-eV). Il s’agit de répondre aux questions concernant l’origine des rayons cosmiques et leurs effets sur la composition de l’univers. L’équipe du projet développera des techniques de reconstruction et d’identification des traces de rayons cosmiques TeV-PeV à l’aide de l’intelligence artificielle, et entamera un programme de recherche pour améliorer la précision des modèles hadroniques employant la méthode de Monte-Carlo. Obtenir une meilleure précision dans la mesure des rayons cosmiques ouvrira des opportunités uniques pour de nouvelles découvertes.
Objectif
The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) mission has recently marked a new epoch in astroparticle physics, extending the direct measurements of cosmic ray spectra beyond a TeV with unprecedented energy resolution. With this project, based on my leadership position in DAMPE and its unique data, I propose to fundamentally improve the precision of direct cosmic ray measurements at the highest energies – in the TeV–PeV range, using for the first time a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence approach. The project will help to solve the century-long problem of cosmic-ray origin at such high energies and its effects on the Universe composition. It will study the cosmic-ray spectrum close to the region of a mysterious decline, so-called “knee”, and shed light on the nature of Dark Matter through the discovery of characteristic fine structures in cosmic-ray and gamma-ray spectra. To achieve this, based on my expertise I propose: i) to develop the TeV–PeV cosmic-ray track reconstruction and identification techniques, using a deep learning or similar artificial intelligence approach; ii) to set up a unique research programme to iteratively improve the precision of hadronic Monte-Carlo models in this rarely explored energy domain, based on the available DAMPE data and data from future experiments. The developed results will be applied to the processing of DAMPE data at the first stage, and will be then extended to the next generation High Energy Cosmic Radiation Detection (HERD) experiment. The research strategy is designed to reduce drastically the dominant uncertainties of the cosmic-ray measurements in space, related to the particle type/direction identification and modeling of hadronic interactions in the detector. As a result of the project, cosmic ray spectra will be directly measured in space in TeV–PeV energy range with qualitatively higher precision, opening up an unprecedented opportunities for new discoveries.
Champ scientifique
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ERC-STG - Starting GrantInstitution d’accueil
1211 Geneve
Suisse