Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

The High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection (HERD) facility

Jingyuan Ren
(Ren Jingyuan, Su Meng for the HERD collaboration)

Abstract:

The High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection (HERD) facility is one of the several space astronomy payloads onboard future China’s Space Station (CSS), which is planned for operation starting around 2025 for about 10 years. HERD is an international cooperative project with hardware contribution from Europe (Italy) and an international consortium for joint science study. The primary scientific objectives of HERD are: (1) searching for signatures of the annihilation products of dark matter particles in the energy spectra and anisotropy of high energy electrons and gamma-rays from 500 MeV to 100 TeV; (2) measuring precisely and directly the energy spectra and composition of primary cosmic rays from 10 GeV up to PeV; (3) wide FOV monitoring of the high energy gamma-ray sky from 500 MeV for gamma-ray bursts, active galactic nuclei and Galactic microquasars. The expected performance of HERD and basic instrumentation of payload, as well as R&D of HERD calorimeter, will also be included.