ComPair-2: A Next Generation Medium Energy Gamma-ray Telescope Prototype
Abstract
Many questions posed in the Astro2020 Decadal survey in both the New Messengers and New Physics and the Cosmic Ecosystems science themes require a gamma-ray mission with capabilities exceeding those of existing (e.g. Fermi, Swift) and planned (e.g. COSI) observatories. ComPair, the Compton Pair telescope, is a prototype of such a next-generation gamma-ray mission. It had its inaugural balloon flight from Ft. Sumner, New Mexico in August 2023. To continue the goals of the ComPair project to develop technologies that will enable a future gamma-ray mission, the next generation of ComPair (ComPair-2) will be upgraded to increase the sensitivity and low-energy transient capabilities of the instrument. These advancements are enabled by AstroPix, a silicon monolithic active pixel sensor, in the tracker and custom dual-gain silicon photomultipliers and front-end electronics in the calorimeter. This effort builds on design work for the All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory eXplorer (AMEGO-X) concept that was submitted the 2021 MIDEX Announcement of Opportunity. Here we describe the ComPair-2 prototype design and integration and testing plans to advance the readiness level of these novel technologies.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2412.02562,
title = {ComPair-2: A Next Generation Medium Energy Gamma-ray Telescope Prototype},
author = {Regina Caputo and Carolyn Kierans and Nicholas Cannady and Abe Falcone and Yasushi Fukazawa and Manoj Jadhav and Matthew Kerr and Nicholas Kirschner and Kavic Kumar and Adrien Laviron and Richard Leys and Iker Liceaga-Indart and Julie McEnery and Jessica Metcalfe and Zachary Metzler and Nathan Miller and John Mitchell and Lucas Parker and Ivan Peric and Jeremy Perkins and Bernard Phlips and Judith Racusin and Makoto Sasaki and Kenneth N. Segal and Daniel Shy and Amanda L. Steinhebel and Nicolas Striebig and Yusuke Suda and Hiroyasu Tajima and Janeth Valverde and Daniel P. Violette and Richard Woolf and Andreas Zoglauer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.02562},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
11 pages, 7 figures, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation 2004 conference proceedings