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.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2510.24549,
title = {Gamma-Ray Burst Polarimetry with the COMCUBE-S CubeSat Swarm -- Design and Performance Simulations},
author = {Nathan Franel and Vincent Tatischeff and David Murphy and Alexey Ulyanov and Caimin McKenna and Lorraine Hanlon and Prerna Baranwal and Christophe Beigbeder and Arnaud Claret and Ion Cojocari and Nicolas de Séréville and Nicolas Dosme and Eric Doumayrou and Mariya Georgieva and Clarisse Hamadache and Sally Hankache and Jimmy Jeglot and Mózsi Kiss and Beng-Yun Ky and Vincent Lafage and Philippe Laurent and Christine Le Galliard and Joseph Mangan and Aline Meuris and Mark Pearce and Jean Peyré and Arjun Poitaya and Diana Renaud and Arnaud Saussac and Varun Varun and Matias Vecchio and Colin Wade},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.24549},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
16 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