Gamma-Ray Burst Polarimetry with the COMCUBE-S CubeSat Swarm -- Design and Performance Simulations

Abstract

COMCUBE-S (COMCUBE-S (Compton Telescope CubeSat Swarm) is a proposed mission aimed at understanding the radiation mechanisms of ultra-relativistic jets from Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). It consists of a swarm of 16U CubeSats carrying a state-of-the-art Compton polarimeter and a bismuth germanium oxide (BGO) spectrometer to perform timing, spectroscopic and polarimetric measurements of the prompt emission from GRBs. The mission is currently in a feasibility study phase (Phase A) with the European Space Agency to prepare an in-orbit demonstration. Here, we present the simulation work used to optimise the design and operational concept of the microsatellite constellation, as well as estimate the mission performance in terms of GRB detection rate and polarimetry. We used the MEGAlib software to simulate the response function of the gamma-ray instruments, together with a detailed model for the background particle and radiation fluxes in low-Earth orbit. We also developed a synthetic GRB population model to best estimate the detection rate. These simulations show that COMCUBE-S will detect about 2 GRBs per day, which is significantly higher than that of all past and current GRB missions. Furthermore, simulated performance for linear polarisation measurements shows that COMCUBE-S will be able to uniquely distinguish between competing models of the GRB prompt emission, thereby shedding new light on some of the most fundamental aspects of GRB physics.

arXiv comment16 pages, 6 figures, proceedings of the conference Advances in Space AstroParticle Physics (2025), submitted to (MDPI) Particles for publication in the Special Issue "Advances in Space AstroParticle Physics: Frontier Technologies for Particle Measurements in Space, 2025 Edition", Editors: Matteo Duranti and Valerio Vagelli

References in corpus (27)

• The Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• The Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor
• The Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts and Relativistic Jets
• GRB Formation Rates inferred from the Spectral Peak Energy - Luminosity Relation
• The Fourth Fermi-GBM Gamma-Ray Burst Catalog: A Decade of Data
• Analyzing the Data from X-ray Polarimeters with Stokes Parameters
• The THESEUS space mission concept: science case, design and expected performances
• Statistical Properties of Gamma-Ray Burst Polarization
• The Fermi GBM Gamma-Ray Burst Spectral Catalog: 10 Years of Data
• Short GRBs at the dawn of the gravitational wave era
• Probing the Cosmic Gamma-Ray Burst Rate with Trigger Simulations of the Swift Burst Alert Telescope
• Measuring cosmological parameters with Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Background for a gamma-ray satellite on a low-Earth orbit
• High Energy Polarimetry of Prompt GRB Emission
• HERMES: An ultra-wide band X and gamma-ray transient monitor on board a nano-satellite constellation
• Bayesian analysis of polarization measurements
• The COMPTEL instrumental line background
• Observations of a GX 301-2 Apastron Flare with the X-Calibur Hard X-Ray Polarimeter Supported by NICER, the Swift XRT and BAT, and Fermi GBM
• Radiation damage assessment of SensL SiPMs
• Space applications of GAGG:Ce scintillators: a study of afterglow emission by proton irradiation
• The development of ground-based Gamma-ray astronomy: a historical overview of the pioneering experiments
• Radiation Damage Study of SensL J-Series Silicon Photomultipliers Using 101.4 MeV Protons
• Point and Interval Estimation on the Degree and the Angle of Polarization. A Bayesian approach
• In-orbit Radiation Damage Characterization of SiPMs in the GRID-02 CubeSat Detector
• Science prospects for SPHiNX - a small satellite GRB polarimetry mission
• Pitfalls of statistics-limited X-ray polarization analysis
• Pre-flight Background Estimates for COSI

Cited by in corpus (1)

• In-flight calibration of the INTEGRAL/IBIS Compton mode: Application to the Crab Nebula polarization