Prototype of the fast timing Cherenkov detector, applicable in high-energy collider experiments, has been developed basing on the modified Planacon XP85012 MCP-PMT and fused silica radiators. We present the reasons and description of the MCP-PMT modification, timing and amplitude characteristics of the prototype including the summary of the detector’s response on particle hits at oblique angles and MCP-PMT performance at high illumination rates.

The GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope with excellent angular and energy resolutions is designed to search for signatures of dark matter in the fluxes of gamma-ray emission and electrons + positrons. Precision investigations of gamma-ray emission from Galactic Center, Crab, Vela, Cygnus, Geminga, and other regions will be performed, as well as diffuse gamma-ray emission, along with measurements of high-energy electron + positron and nuclei fluxes. Furthermore, it will study gamma-ray bursts and gamma-ray emission from the Sun during periods of solar activity. The energy range of GAMMA-400 is expected to be from ~20 MeV up to TeV energies for gamma rays, up to 20 TeV for electrons + positrons, and up to 10E15 eV for cosmic-ray nuclei. For high-energy gamma rays with energy from 10 to 100 GeV, the GAMMA-400 angular resolution improves from 0.1{\deg} to ~0.01{\deg} and energy resolution from 3% to ~1%; the proton rejection factor is ~5x10E5. GAMMA-400 will be installed onboard the Russian space observatory.

Analysis of fast timing and trigger Cherenkov detector's design for its use in collider experiments is presented. Several specific requirements are taken into account - necessity of the radiator's placement as close to the beam pipe as possible along with the requirement of gapless (solid) radiator's design. Characteristics of the Cherenkov detector's laboratory prototype obtained using a pion beam at the CERN Proton Synchrotron are also presented, showing the possibility of obtaining sufficiently high geometrical efficiency along with good enough time resolution (50 ps sigma).

The main goal for the GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope mission is to perform a sensitive search for signatures of dark matter particles in high-energy gamma-ray emission. Measurements will also concern the following scientific goals: detailed study of the Galactic center region, investigation of point and extended gamma-ray sources, studies of the energy spectra of Galactic and extragalactic diffuse emissions. To perform these measurements the GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope possesses unique physical characteristics for energy range from ~20 MeV to ~1000 GeV in comparison with previous and current space and ground-based experiments. The major advantage of the GAMMA-400 instrument is excellent angular and energy resolutions for gamma-rays above 10 GeV. The gamma-ray telescope angular and energy resolutions for the main aperture at 100-GeV gamma rays are ~0.01 deg and ~1%, respectively. The special goal is to improve physical characteristics in the low- energy range from ~20 MeV to 100 MeV. Minimizing the amount of dead matter in the telescope aperture allows us to obtain the angular and energy resolutions better in this range than in current space missions. The gamma-ray telescope angular resolution at 50-MeV gamma rays is better than 5 deg and energy resolution is ~10%. We report the method providing these results.

The GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope is intended to measure the fluxes of gamma-rays and cosmic-ray electrons and positrons in the energy range from 100 MeV to several TeV. Such measurements concern the following scientific tasks: investigation of point sources of gamma-rays, studies of the energy spectra of Galactic and extragalactic diffuse emission, studies of gamma-ray bursts and gamma-ray emission from the Sun, as well as high precision measurements of spectra of high-energy electrons and positrons. Also the GAMMA- 400 instrument provides the possibility for protons and nuclei measurements up to knee. But the main goal for the GAMMA-400 mission is to perform a sensitive search for signatures of dark matter particles in high-energy gamma-ray emission. To fulfill these measurements the GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope possesses unique physical characteristics in comparison with previous and present experiments. The major advantage of the GAMMA-400 instrument is excellent angular and energy resolution for gamma-rays above 10 GeV. The GAMMA-400 experiment will be installed onboard of the Navigator space platform, manufactured by the NPO Lavochkin Association. The expected orbit will be a highly elliptical orbit (with apogee 300.000 km and perigee 500 km) with 7 days orbital period. An important profit of such an orbit is the fact that the full sky coverage will always be available for gamma ray astronomy.

The development of the GAMMA-400 γ-ray telescope continues. The GAMMA-400 is designed to measure fluxes of γ-rays and the electron-positron cosmic-ray component possibly associated with annihilation or decay of dark matter particles; and to search for and study in detail discrete γ-ray sources, to measure the energy spectra of Galactic and extragalactic diffuse γ-rays, and to study γ-ray bursts and γ-rays from the active Sun. The energy range for measuring γ-rays and electrons (positrons) is from 100 MeV to 3000 GeV. For 100-GeV γ-rays, the γ-ray telescope has an angular resolution of ∼0.01°, an energy resolution of ∼1%, and a proton rejection factor of ∼5 × 105. The GAMMA-400 will be installed onboard the Russian Space Observatory.

Some features of scintillation anticoincidence system (includes ACtop detector section located upper the converter-tracker and four AClat ones placed from its lateral sides) of the GАММА-400 gamma-ray telescope, related to joint operations with another fast scintillation systems: SDC (scintillation detector system of calorimeter) and TOF (time-of-flight system) are considered. The main problem for high-energy (over 50GeV) gamma-rays registration by gamma-telescopes is the presence of so-called «backsplash current» (BS) of particles from massive calorimeter when detecting of particles is provided. BS is a set of low energy particles, moving up from the calorimeter and producing triggering of the anticoincidence detectors, imitating detection of a charged particle. As an additional indicator of BS particles presence of in the ACtop detector, we offer the value of energy release in the S3 scintillation detector placing between two parts of the calorimeter (CC1 and CC2). Fast trigger signal in the main aperture for gamma-quanta is composed of analysis of TOF system signal, showing that charged particle or particles move in the direction from up to down, and ACtop energy deposition taking in to account specially designed for GAMMA-400 algorithms of backsplash rejection.

GAMMA-400 γ-ray telescope is designed to measure fluxes of γ-rays and the electron–positron cosmic ray component possibly generated in annihilation or decay of dark matter particles; to search for and study in detail discrete γ-ray sources, to examine the energy spectra of Galactic and extragalactic diffuse γ-rays, to study γ-ray bursts and γ-rays from the active Sun. GAMMA-400 consists of plastic scintillation anticoincidence top and lateral detectors, converter-tracker, plastic scintillation detectors for the time-of-flight system (TOF), two-part calorimeter (CC1 and CC2), plastic scintillation lateral detectors of calorimeter, plastic scintillation detectors of calorimeter, and neutron detector. The converter-tracker consists of 13 layers of double (x, y) silicon strip coordinate detectors (pitch of 0.08 mm). The first three and final one layers are without tungsten while the middle nine layers are interleaved with nine tungsten conversion foils. The thickness of CC1 and CC2 is 2 X0 (0.1λ0) and 23 X0 (1.1λ0) respectively (where X0 is radiation length and λ0 is nuclear interaction one). The total calorimeter thickness is 25 X0 or 1.2λ0 for vertical incident particles registration and 54 X0 or 2.5λ0 for laterally incident ones. The energy range for γ-rays and electrons (positrons) registration in the main aperture is from ∼0.1 GeV to ∼3.0 TeV. The γ-ray telescope main aperture angular and energy resolutions are respectively ∼0.01 and ∼1% for 102 GeV γ-quanta, the proton rejection factor is ∼5×105. The first three strip layers without tungsten provide the registration of γ-rays down to ∼20 MeV in the main aperture. Also this aperture allows investigating high energy light nuclei fluxes characteristics. Electrons, positrons, light nuclei and gamma-quanta will also register from the lateral directions due to special aperture configuration. Lateral aperture energy resolution is the same as for main aperture for electrons, positrons, light nuclei and gamma-quanta in energy range E>1.0 GeV. But using lateral aperture it is possible to detect low-energy gammas in the ranges 0.2 − 10 MeV and 10 MeV – 1.0 GeV with energy resolution 8% − 2% and 2% correspondingly accordingly to GAMMA-400 “Technical Project” stage results. Angular resolution in the lateral aperture provides only for low-energy gamma-quanta from non-stationary events (GRB, solar flares and so on) due segments of CC2 count rate analysis. GAMMA-400 γ-ray telescope will be installed onboard the Russian Space Observatory GAMMA-400. The lifetime of the space observatory will be at least seven years. The launch of the space observatory is scheduled for the early 2020s.

GAMMA-400 is a new space mission, designed as a dual experiment, capable to study both high energy gamma rays (from $\sim$100 MeV to few TeV) and cosmic rays (electrons up to 20 TeV and nuclei up to $\sim$10$^{15}$ eV). The full simulation framework of GAMMA-400 is based on the Geant4 toolkit. The details of the gamma-ray reconstruction pipeline in the pre-shower and calorimeter will be outlined. The performance of GAMMA-400 (PSF, effective area) have been obtained using this framework. The most updated results on them will be shown.

The present design of the new space observatory GAMMA-400 is presented in this paper. The instrument has been designed for the optimal detection of gamma rays in a broad energy range (from ~100 MeV up to 3 TeV), with excellent angular and energy resolution. The observatory will also allow precise and high statistic studies of the electron component in the cosmic rays up to the multi TeV region, as well as protons and nuclei spectra up to the knee region. The GAMMA-400 observatory will allow to address a broad range of science topics, like search for signatures of dark matter, studies of Galactic and extragalactic gamma-ray sources, Galactic and extragalactic diffuse emission, gamma-ray bursts and charged cosmic rays acceleration and diffusion mechanism up to the knee.

We describe the detecting system of a high-energy charged particle telescope spectrometer for a space experiment to be performed on the outer surface of the Russian section of the International Space Station and other spacecraft, including small satellites. The spectrometer’s detecting system is a multilayer scintillation detector (MSD) of polystyrene plates scanned by photomultipliers. It allows high-intensity fluxes of electrons (up to ∼105 cm−2 s−1) several milliseconds long with energies of 3 to 30 MeV to be measured with an accuracy of ∼1 μs, along with time profiles and the evolution of particle energy spectra. The MSD is characterized by an energy resolution no worse than 10%, an angular resolution of ∼10 degrees, a geometric factor of ∼40 cm2 sr, and a trigger system time resolution of ∼20 ns.

GAMMA-400 is a new space mission which will be installed on board the Russian space platform Navigator. It is scheduled to be launched at the beginning of the next decade. GAMMA-400 is designed to study simultaneously gamma rays (up to 3 TeV) and cosmic rays (electrons and positrons from 1 GeV to 20 TeV, nuclei up to 10^15-10^16 eV). Being a dual-purpose mission, GAMMA-400 will be able to address some of the most impelling science topics, such as search for signatures of dark matter, cosmic-rays origin and propagation, and the nature of transients. GAMMA-400 will try to solve the unanswered questions on these topics by high-precision measurements of the Galactic and extragalactic gamma-ray sources, Galactic and extragalactic diffuse emission and the spectra of cosmic-ray electrons + positrons and nuclei, thanks to excellent energy and angular resolutions.

Time measurements in detecting particles from radioactive radiation sources are one of the main types of measurements in many branches of science and engineering: nuclear physics, space researches, nuclear medicine. The developed precise time stamp generator DWDC (Discriminator With Digital Correction) with a dead time of 25 ns is intended for applications in basic research of matter. It is planned to modernize the acquisition system of the T0 starting trigger detector using the DWDC module (ALICE experiment).

A discriminator with digital correction (DWDC) with a dead time of 25 ns or less and a time resolution of 50 ps or better is intended for upgrading the data acquisition system of the T0 start trigger detector (ALICE—A Large Ion Collider Experiment on the Large Hadron Collider).

An algorithm for synchronizing operation of the T0 start detector (ALICE experiment on the Large Hadron Collider) with an accelerator, a data reading system, and a laser detector testing system is described. The main functions and arrangement of the GRPG electronic module inserted additionally into the electronic support structure of the detector for shaping control signals are considered in detail.

A fast electronic system of the T0 start trigger detector for the ALICE experiment has been developed, assembled, and adjusted using a pulsed laser. The system is composed of 24 independent detection channels for secondary particles (this number corresponds to the number of individual Cherenkov counters in the detector); common modules, which generate the signal of the event detection time with an error of <50 ps, the trigger of the interaction vertex position with an error of ∼2 cm, and triggers of two independent levels of the event multiplicity in the range of 1–150 minimum ionizing particles (MIP); and several auxiliary modules. A total of 109 channels are used in the time-to-digital converters to record time, amplitude, and auxiliary data. The time resolution of the detector for single MIP is 38 ps.

Measurements of the pulse heights in the T0 start trigger detector of the ALICE experiment are necessary both for time-amplitude offline correction of start signal T0 used in the time-of-flight TOF detector and for monitoring the state of the Cherenkov counters in the detector. A high amplitude resolution is not required for these tasks; what is needed is fast encoding and interfacing with the data readout system in which only time channels are available. Therefore, amplitudes are measured in the detector by pulse-height-to-time conversion using two independent methods, one of which involves quasi-logarithmic charge-to-time converter (QTC) and the other employs two—leading-edge (LED) and constant-fraction (CFD)—timing discriminators. The main characteristics of both methods and results of calibrations of the appropriate devices using a pulsed laser are presented.

The design and special features of the main units of high-speed electronics for the trigger subsystem of the T0 detector of the ALICE experiment are considered. Its characteristic time resolution is 50 ps. The dead time does not exceed 25 ns.