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A Gamma-ray Radiation detection for ISS-TAO with Directional Capabilities

Alon Osovizky (Nuclear Research Center of the Negev, Israel)

ISS-TAO is a mission selected for a concept study by NASA, for the International Space Station (ISS) in order to observe transient high-energy astrophysical sources. It is composed of an X-ray Wide-Field Imager (WFI), and a multi-directional Gamma-ray Transient Monitor (GTM).
ISS-TAO's main science goal is to detect electromagnetic (EM) counterparts to gravitational waves (GW) detected by GW observatories, such as the Laser Interferometer GW Observatory (LIGO). Observations of simultaneous GW and EM counterparts will address fundamental questions on the nature of coalescing neutron stars and black holes as astrophysical GW sources. An EM detection will also increase LIGO’s sensitivity to detecting these events above the GW background.
This talk will describe the directional capabilities of the GTM detector for direction the WFI. The concept of the GTM detector consists of a compact configuration of segmented detector, which will allow a fair angular resolution of a few hundred square degrees, which will facilitate a prompt follow up. Each of the GTM segments consists of a crystal scintillator, a photo-multiplier tube (PMT), followed by analog and digital electronics designed to reconstruct the energy of each incoming photon, and to yield the light-curve and spectrum of any gamma-ray transient. A central CPU then calculates the ratio of the signal of each one of the segments and deduced the transient position relative to the GTM.

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