Scientific article
English

Investigation of hadronic cross sections of cosmic ray carbon and oxygen on BGO from 200 GeV to 10 TeV energy at the DAMPE experiment

ContributorsDAMPE Collaboration
Published inPhysical review. D, vol. 112, no. 2, 022004
Publication date2025
First online date2025-07-25
Abstract

The Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) has made significant progress in measuring the fluxes of cosmic rays. These new measurements are pivotal in advancing our understanding of the origins and propagation mechanisms of cosmic rays. The bismuth germanium oxide (BGO) calorimeter plays a crucial role in these measurements, particularly in the precise determination of cosmic ray fluxes. However, for a calorimetric experiment like DAMPE, uncertainties in hadronic models persist as a major barrier in achieving more accurate measurements of fluxes of cosmic ray nuclei. This study centers on the measurement of the inelastic hadronic cross sections of carbon and oxygen nuclei interacting BGO crystals target over an extensive energy range, spanning from 200 GeV to 10 TeV. For carbon nuclei interacting with the BGO target. The measurements of the cross sections have achieved a total relative uncertainty of less than 10% below 8 TeV for carbon, and below 3 TeV for oxygen. For oxygen nuclei, the same level of precision was attained below 3 TeV. Additionally, we compare the experimental results with $\mathrm{Geant4}$ and $\mathrm{FLUKA}$ simulations to validate the accuracy and consistency of these simulation tools. Through comprehensive analysis of the inelastic hadronic interaction cross sections, this research provides validation for the hadronic interaction models used in DAMPE’s cosmic-ray flux measurements.

Research groups
Funding
  • Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • National Key Research and Development Program of China [2022YFF0503303]
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China [12220101003]
  • Tianjin Municipal Outstanding Youth Science Foundation [12022503]
  • Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [2021450]
  • China Academy of Space Technology [YESS20220197]
  • Explorers Club
  • Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
  • Project for Young Scientists in Basic Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [YSBR-061]
  • Strategic Priority Program on Space Science of Chinese Academy of Sciences [E02212A02S]
  • Program for Innovative Talents and Entrepreneur in Jiangsu
  • European Commission - Direct Detection of TeV--PeV Cosmic Rays in Space [851103]
Citation (ISO format)
DAMPE Collaboration. Investigation of hadronic cross sections of cosmic ray carbon and oxygen on BGO from 200 GeV to 10 TeV energy at the DAMPE experiment. In: Physical review. D, 2025, vol. 112, n° 2, p. 022004. doi: 10.1103/k2wp-c3hb
Main files (2)
Article (Published version)
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Article (Submitted version)
accessLevelPublic
Identifiers
Additional URL for this publicationhttps://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/k2wp-c3hb
Journal ISSN2470-0010
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