In this Astro2020 APC White Paper, we describe a Small Explorer (SMEX) mission concept called the Compton Spectrometer and Imager. COSI is a Compton telescope that covers the bandpass often referred to as the "MeV Gap" because it is the least explored region of the whole electromagnetic spectrum. COSI provides a significant improvement in sensitivity along with high-resolution spectroscopy, enabling studies of 511 keV electron-positron annihilation emission and measurements of several radioactive elements that trace the Galactic history of supernovae. COSI also measures polarization of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), accreting black holes, and pulsars as well as detecting and localizing multimessenger sources. In the following, we describe the COSI science, the instrument, and its capabilities. We highlight many Astro2020 science WPs that describe the COSI science in depth.
@article{arxiv.1908.04334,
title = {The Compton Spectrometer and Imager},
author = {John A. Tomsick and Andreas Zoglauer and Clio Sleator and Hadar Lazar and Jacqueline Beechert and Steven Boggs and Jarred Roberts and Thomas Siegert and Alex Lowell and Eric Wulf and Eric Grove and Bernard Phlips and Terri Brandt and Alan Smale and Carolyn Kierans and Eric Burns and Dieter Hartmann and Mark Leising and Marco Ajello and Chris Fryer and Mark Amman and Hsiang-Kuang Chang and Pierre Jean and Peter von Ballmoos},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1908.04334},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
11 pages, submitted to the Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics (Astro2020) as an Activities, Projects, or State of the Profession Consideration (APC) White Paper