The HERD experiment
The HERD (High Energy Cosmic Radiation Detection) facility has been proposed as a payload onboard China's Space Station, planned to be assembled and launched in 2027 with an estimated operational lifetime of about 10 years. The main scientific objectives of HERD are the search of dark matter signatures, the study of cosmic-ray energy spectrum and composition and high energy gamma-ray astronomy.
HERD's objectives
The primary science objectives of HERD are:
- the indirect search of Dark Matter, looking for its annihilation or decay products in the energy spectra and anisotropy of high energy electrons and positrons from 10 GeV to 100 TeV and in the energy spectra of gamma-rays from 0.5 GeV to 100 TeV;
- the precise measurement of primary cosmic rays from 30 GeV up to the PeV scale to determine the origin of the "knee" structure;
- wide Field-of-View monitoring of the high energy gamma-ray sky.
To achieve these challenging goals, HERD must have the capability of accurate electron and gamma-ray tracking and energy measurement as well as good cosmic ray energy resolution and charged particle identification to distinguish between the different nuclei.
The baseline design consists of a 3-D cubic imaging calorimeter (CALO) surrounded on its top and four lateral sides by three other detectors: first the scintillating FIber Tracker (FIT), then the Plastic Scintillator Detector (PSD) and finally the Silicon Charge Detector (SCD); an additional Transition Radiation Detector (TRD) will be placed on one of the lateral sides.
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