New high-precision measurement system for electron-positron pairs from sub-GeV/GeV gamma-rays in the emulsion telescope

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new high-precision emulsion scanning system that significantly improves angular resolution in gamma-ray observations, enabling more detailed cosmic gamma-ray studies and potential polarization measurements.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel high-precision scanning algorithm and system that enhances spatial resolution by an order of magnitude, improving gamma-ray angular resolution in emulsion-based telescopes.

Findings

Achieved a track positional resolution of ~70 nm, comparable to nuclear emulsion intrinsic resolution.

Expected gamma-ray angular resolution of 0.1° at 1 GeV with the new system.

Reanalyzed previous data to obtain three times higher angular resolution in 500-700 MeV range.

Abstract

The GRAINE project observes cosmic gamma-rays, using a balloon-borne emulsion-film-based telescope in the sub-GeV/GeV energy band. We reported in our previous balloon experiment in 2018, GRAINE2018, the detection of the known brightest source, Vela pulsar, with the highest angular resolution ever reported in an energy range of $>$80 MeV. However, the emulsion scanning system used in the experiment was designed to achieve a high-speed scanning, and it was not accurate enough to ensure the optimum spacial resolution of the emulsion film and limited the performance. Here, we report a new high-precision scanning system that can be used to greatly improve the observation result of GRAINE2018 and also be employed in future experiments. The system involves a new algorithm that recognizes each silver grain on an emulsion film and is capable of measuring tracks with a positional resolution for the passing points of tracks of almost the same as the intrinsic resolution of nuclear emulsion film ($\sim$70 nm). This resolution is approximately one order of magnitude smaller than that obtained with the high-speed scanning system. With this system, an angular resolution for gamma-rays of 0.1$^\circ$ at 1 GeV is expected to be achieved. Furthermore, we successfully combine the new high-precision system with the existing high-speed system, establishing the system to make a high-speed and high-precision measurement. Employing these systems, we reanalyze the gamma-ray events detected previously by only the high-speed system in GRAINE2018 and obtain an about three times higher angular resolution (0.22$^\circ$) in 500--700 MeV than the original value. The high-resolution observation may bring new insights into the gamma-ray emission from the Galactic center region and may realize polarization measurements of high-energy cosmic gamma-rays.