Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (ISAS)(JAXA)
Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (ISAS)(JAXA)
Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (ISAS)(JAXA)
Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
出版者
宇宙航空研究開発機構
出版者(英)
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
雑誌名
宇宙航空研究開発機構研究開発報告: 大気球研究報告
雑誌名(英)
JAXA Research and Development Report
巻
JAXA-RR-09-007
発行年
2010-03-31
抄録(英)
We developed the Electron-Tracking Compton Camera (ETCC) with reconstructing the track of a recoil electron in Compton process for both sub-MeV and MeV gamma rays to explore MeV gamma-ray astronomy in space. By adding the direction of a recoil electron to Compton reconstruction method, the direction of the incident gamma ray is determined for each individual photon. Also, an angle between the recoil electron and scattered gamma ray is powerful for the kinematical background-rejection. Since MeV gamma-ray astronomy has suffered from huge background so far, this new method is expected to increase the sensitivity. In the simulation, a 50 cm cubic ETCC would provide about 10 times better sensitivity than that of COMPTEL for one year observation in space. As a first step, we observed diffuse cosmic and atmospheric gamma rays at balloon altitudes with an ETCC consisting of the 10 cm cubic Time Projection Chamber (micro-TPC) and the GSO crystal pixel arrays surrounding the micro-TPC (SMILE-I). This instrument was launched on 1st September, 2006 from the Sanriku Balloon Center, and we successfully carried out about 3-hour observation time at an altitude of 32-35 km, and consequently obtained the both gamma-ray spectra between 0.1 and 1 MeV. In addition, this result indicates that the expected detection sensitivity of a future SMILE experiment between 150 keV and 20 MeV would provide a ten times better sensitivity than those of other missions at around 1 MeV. For the next balloon-borne experiment, we are developing a larger ETCC for detecting sub-MeV gamma rays from celestial point sources such as Crab and Cygnus X-1 during a few hours observation.
内容記述
形態: カラー図版あり
著者人数: 17人
内容記述(英)
Physical characteristics: Original contains color illustrations