This paper summarizes the development of a successful project, LAUE, supported by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and devoted to the development of long foca length (up to 100 - m) Laue lenses for hard X-/soft gamma- ray astronomy (80-600 keV). The apparatus is ready and the assembling of a prototype lens petal is ongoing. The great achievement of this project is the use of bent crystals. From measurements obtained on single crystals and from simulations, we have estimated the expected Point Spread Function and thus the sensitivity of a lens made of petals. The expected sensitivity is a few ×10-8 photons cm-2 s-1 keV-1). We discuss a number of open astrophysical questions that can settled with such an instrument aboard a free-flying satellite. © 2013 SPIE.
Scientific prospects in soft gamma-ray astronomy enabled by the LAUE project
Filippo Frontera;Enrico Virgilli;Vineeth Valsan;Vincenzo Liccardo;Vincenzo Guidi;Natalia Auricchio;Ruben Farinelli;Cristiano Guidorzi;Piero Rosati;
2013
Abstract
This paper summarizes the development of a successful project, LAUE, supported by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and devoted to the development of long foca length (up to 100 - m) Laue lenses for hard X-/soft gamma- ray astronomy (80-600 keV). The apparatus is ready and the assembling of a prototype lens petal is ongoing. The great achievement of this project is the use of bent crystals. From measurements obtained on single crystals and from simulations, we have estimated the expected Point Spread Function and thus the sensitivity of a lens made of petals. The expected sensitivity is a few ×10-8 photons cm-2 s-1 keV-1). We discuss a number of open astrophysical questions that can settled with such an instrument aboard a free-flying satellite. © 2013 SPIE.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
