Compton-Pair Production Space Telescope (ComPair) for MeV Gamma-ray Astronomy
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Date
2015-09-18
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Citation of Original Publication
A. A. Moiseev and M. Ajello and J. H. Buckley and R. Caputo and E. C. Ferrara and D. H. Hartmann and E. Hays and J. E. McEnery and J. W. Mitchell and R. Ojha and J. S. Perkins and J. L. Racusin and A. W. Smith and D. J. Thompson,2015,Compton-Pair Production Space Telescope (ComPair) for MeV Gamma-ray Astronomy,https://arxiv.org/abs/1508.07349
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This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law
Public Domain Mark 1.0
This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law
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Abstract
The gamma-ray energy range from a few hundred keV to a few hundred MeV has remained largely unexplored, mainly due to the challenging nature of the measurements, since the pi- oneering, but limited, observations by COMPTEL on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (1991-2000). This energy range is a transition region between thermal and nonthermal processes, and accurate measurements are critical for answering a broad range of astrophysical questions. We are developing a MIDEX-scale wide-aperture discovery mission, ComPair (Compton-Pair Production Space Telescope), to investigate the energy range from 200 keV to > 500 MeV with high energy and angular resolution and with sensitivity approaching a factor of 20-50 better than COMPTEL. This instrument will be equally capable to detect both Compton-scattering events at lower energy and pair-production events at higher energy. ComPair will build on the her- itage of successful space missions including Fermi LAT, AGILE, AMS and PAMELA, and will utilize well-developed space-qualified detector technologies including Si-strip and CdZnTe-strip detectors, heavy inorganic scintillators, and plastic scintillators.