Development of a telescope for medium-energy gamma-ray astronomy

Stanley D. Hunter; Peter F. Bloser; Michael P. Dion; Georgia A. DeNolfo; Jason Legere; Mark L. McConnell; Suzanne F. Nowicki; James M. Ryan; Seunghee Son; Floyd W. Stecker

doi:10.1117/12.925216

25 September 2012 Development of a telescope for medium-energy gamma-ray astronomy

Stanley D. Hunter, Peter F. Bloser, Michael P. Dion, Georgia A. DeNolfo, Jason Legere, Mark L. McConnell, Suzanne F. Nowicki, James M. Ryan, Seunghee Son, Floyd W. Stecker

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8443, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray; 84430F (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.925216
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2012, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract

The Advanced Energetic Pair Telescope (AdEPT) is being developed at GSFC as a future NASA MIDEX mission to explore the medium-energy (5–200 MeV) gamma-ray range. The enabling technology for AdEPT is the Three- Dimensional Track Imager (3-DTI), a gaseous time projection chamber. The high spatial resolution 3-D electron tracking of 3-DTI enables AdEPT to achieve high angular resolution gamma-ray imaging via pair production and triplet production (pair production on electrons) in the medium-energy range. The low density and high spatial resolution of 3-DTI allows the electron positron track directions to be measured before they are dominated by Coulomb scattering. Further, the significant reduction of Coulomb scattering allows AdEPT to be the first medium-energy gamma-ray telescope to have high gamma-ray polarization sensitivity. We review the science goals that can be addressed with a medium-energy pair telescope, how these goals drive the telescope design, and the realization of this design with AdEPT. The AdEPT telescope for a future MIDEX mission is envisioned as a 8 m³ active volume filled with argon at 2 atm. The design and performance of the 3-DTI detectors for the AdEPT telescope are described as well as the outstanding instrument challenges that need to be met for the AdEPT mission.

Citation Download Citation

Stanley D. Hunter, Peter F. Bloser, Michael P. Dion, Georgia A. DeNolfo, Jason Legere, Mark L. McConnell, Suzanne F. Nowicki, James M. Ryan, Seunghee Son, and Floyd W. Stecker "Development of a telescope for medium-energy gamma-ray astronomy", Proc. SPIE 8443, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 84430F (25 September 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.925216

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