Issue |
A&A
Volume 376, Number 3, September IV 2001
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 1126 - 1134 | |
Section | Numerical methods and codes | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20011058 | |
Published online | 15 September 2001 |
Performance characteristics of high resolution Compton telescopes
1
Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720 USA
2
Centre d'Étude Spatiale des Rayonnements, UPS-CNRS, Toulouse, France e-mail: Pierre.Jean@cesr.fr
Corresponding author: S. E. Boggs, boggs@ssl.berkeley.edu
Received:
23
April
2001
Accepted:
17
July
2001
To build upon the goals of the upcoming INTEGRAL mission, the next generation soft γ-ray (0.2-20 MeV) observatory will require improved sensitivity to continuum and nuclear line emission, while maintaining high spectroscopy to resolve Doppler shifts and broadenings. We present the simulated performance of two germanium Compton telescope (GCT) designs in high Earth orbit conditions. The goal of this work is both to determine realistic sensitivities for the GCTs, as well as determine the geometry which best takes advantage of the spectral, imaging, and stopping power of germanium detectors. We find that a novel Compact design optimizes the sensitivity to both nuclear line and continuum sources, with an effective factor of 2.0 improvement over a Classical design. The Compact GCT would provide an order of magnitude improvement in sensitivity over INTEGRAL.
Key words: gamma rays: observations / telescopes / techniques: spectroscopic / techniques: image processing / instrumentation: detectors
© ESO, 2001
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.