Estimation of the detected background by the future gamma-ray transient mission CAMELOT

TL;DR

This paper estimates the background noise for the CAMELOT gamma-ray detection mission, focusing on radiation environment effects, duty cycle, and detector optimization for precise transient localization.

Contribution

It provides a detailed background estimation and radiation environment analysis for the proposed CAMELOT nanosatellite fleet, enhancing gamma-ray transient detection accuracy.

Findings

Radiation environment impacts on detector performance analyzed

Duty cycle estimates for South Atlantic Anomaly crossings provided

Optimization strategies for detector casing and operation discussed

Abstract

This study presents a background estimation for the Cubesats Applied for MEasuring and LOcalising Transients (CAMELOT), which is a proposed fleet of nanosatellites for the all-sky monitoring and timing based localization of gamma-ray transients with precise localization capability at low Earth orbits. CAMELOT will allow to observe and precisely localize short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) associated with kilonovae, long GRBs associated with core-collapse massive stars, magnetar outbursts, terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, and gamma-ray counterparts to gravitational wave sources. The fleet of at least nine 3U CubeSats is proposed to be equipped with large and thin CsI(Tl) scintillators read out by multi-pixel photon counters (MPPC). A careful study of the radiation environment in space is necessary to optimize the detector casing, estimate the duty cycle due to the crossing of the South Atlantic Anomaly and polar regions, and to minimize the effect of the radiation damage of MPPCs.