The nuclear compton telescope (NCT): Scientific goals and expected sensitivity

被引：16

作者：

Chang, Hsiang-Kuang ^{[1
,2
]}

Boggs, Steven ^{[3
,4
]}

Chang, Yuan-Hann ^{[5
]}

机构：

[1] Natl Tsing Hua Univ, Dept Phys, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan

[2] Natl Tsing Hua Univ, Inst Astron, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan

[3] Univ Calif Berkeley, Dept Phys, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA

[4] Univ Calif Berkeley, Space Sci Lab, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA

[5] Natl Cent Univ, Dept Phys, Jhongli 32001, Taiwan

来源：

ADVANCES IN SPACE RESEARCH | 2007年 / 40卷 / 08期

基金：

美国国家航空航天局;

关键词：

gamma-ray telescopes; instrumentation;

D O I：

10.1016/j.asr.2007.07.012

中图分类号：

V [航空、航天];

学科分类号：

08 ; 0825 ;

摘要：

The Nuclear Compton Telescope (NCT) is a balloon-borne telescope designed to study astrophysical sources of gamma-ray emission with high spectral resolution, moderate angular resolution, and novel sensitivity to gamma-ray polarization. The heart of NCT is an array of cross-strip germanium detectors, each of 15-mm thickness and 5400mm(2) active area, with full 3D position resolution <2 mm(3). NCT will perform Compton imaging in the 0.2-10 MeV gamma-ray band. We are currently planning a 12-detector long duration balloon flight of the NCT instrument from Australia in December 2008. NCT is the prototype of a future satellite mission, which will have a coded mask on top of a larger detector array to carry out imaging in the 20-100 keV X-ray band. This paper describes the scientific goals, as well as the detector design, simulated performance and current status of the project. NCT is a joint effort of several institutions in the US and in Taiwan. (c) 2007 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

引用

页码：1281 / 1287

页数：7

共 47 条

[1] Three-dimensional position sensing and field shaping in orthogonal-strip germanium gamma-ray detectors [J].