The soft MeV gamma-ray sky, from a few hundred keV up to several MeV, is one of the least explored regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The most promising technology to access this energy range is a telescope that uses Compton scattering to detect the gamma rays. Going from the measured data to all-sky images ready for scientific interpretation, however, requires a well-understood detector setup and a multi-step data-analysis pipeline. We have developed these capabilities for the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI). Starting with a deep understanding of the many intricacies of the Compton measurement process and the Compton data space, we developed the tools to perform simulations that match well with instrument calibrations and to reconstruct the gamma-ray path in the detector. Together with our work to create an adequate model of the measured background while in flight, we are able to perform spectral and polarization analysis, and create images of the gamma-ray sky. This will enable future telescopes to achieve a deeper understanding of the astrophysical processes that shape the gamma-ray sky from the sites of star formation (26-Al map), to the history of core-collapse supernovae (e.g. 60-Fe map) and the distributions of positron annihilation (511-keV map) in our Galaxy.
@article{arxiv.2102.13158,
title = {COSI: From Calibrations and Observations to All-sky Images},
author = {Andreas Zoglauer and Thomas Siegert and Alexander Lowell and Brent Mochizuki and Carolyn Kierans and Clio Sleator and Dieter H. Hartmann and Hadar Lazar and Hannah Gulick and Jacqueline Beechert and Jarred M. Roberts and John A. Tomsick and Mark D. Leising and Nicholas Pellegrini and Steven E. Boggs and Terri J. Brandt},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2102.13158},
year = {2021}
}