Simulations of a thin sampling calorimeter with GEANT/FLUKA

The Advanced Cosmic-ray Composition Experiment for the Space Station (ACCESS) will investigate the origin, composition and acceleration mechanism of cosmic rays by measuring the elemental composition of the cosmic rays up to 10(15) eV. These measurements will be made with a thin ionization calorimeter and a transition radiation detector. This paper reports studies of a thin sampling calorimeter concept for the ACCESS thin ionization calorimeter. For the past year, a Monte Carlo simulation study of a thin sampling calorimeter (TSC) design has been conducted to predict the detector performance and to design the system for achieving the ACCESS scientific objectives. Simulation results show that the detector energy resolution function resembles a Gaussian distribution and the energy resolution of TSC is about 40%. In addition, simulations of the detector's response to an assumed broken power law cosmic ray spectrum in the region where the 'knee' of the cosmic ray spectrum is believed to occur have been conducted and clearly show that a thin sampling calorimeter can provide sufficiently accurate estimates of the spectral parameters to meet the science requirements of ACCESS. (C), 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.