The OLVE-HERO Calorimeter Prototype Tests at Heavy Ion Beams of CERN SPS

A project of the OLVE-HERO space detector is proposed for CR measurement in the range of 1012–1016 eV and will include a large ionization-neutron 3D calorimeter with a high granularity and geometric factor of ~16 m2 sr. The main OLVE-HERO detector is expecte to be image calorimeter of a boron loaded plastic scintillator with a tungsten absorber. Such a calorimeter allows to measure an additional neutron signal which will improve the energy resolution of the detector. More importantly, the rejection power between electromagnetic and nuclear CR components will be increased by factor 30–50 in the whole energy range. The boron loaded scintillator detector prototype was designed and tested at the H8 beam test area at CERN SPS during Pb ion run in 2016 and Xe ion run in 2017. The results of the beam tests and the corresponding Monte-Carlo simulation are presented.