The upcoming balloon campaign of the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI)

Chiu, Jeng Jiann; Boggs, Steven E.; Chang, Hsiang-Kuang; Tomsick, John A.; Zoglauer, Andreas; Amman, M.; Chang, Y. H.; Chou, Yi; Jean, P.; Kierans, Carolyn; Lin, Chih-Hsun; Lowell, A.; Shang, Jie-Rou; Tseng, Chao‐Hsiung; Ballmoos, P. von; Yang, Chao Yao

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2014.11.099

Cited by 24 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 16 publications

(14 reference statements)

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“…Although instruments with up to 50 times better sensitivities have been demonstrated and proposed for new missions [14][15][16], establishing a new observational facility appears unfeasible within the next two decades or more, from budget demands and competing other missions. INTEGRAL, although launched for just a five-year mission in 2002, will be capable to operate well into the 2020 decade, with final de-orbit arranged for 2029.…”

Section: Cosmic Gamma-ray Line Telescopesmentioning

confidence: 99%

News from Cosmic Gamma-ray Line Observations

Diehl

2017

Proceedings of the 14th International Symposium on Nuclei in the Cosmos (NIC2016)

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The measurement of gamma rays at MeV energies from cosmic radioactivities is one of the key tools for nuclear astrophysics, in its study of nuclear reactions and how they shape objects such as massive stars and supernova explosions. Additionally, the unique gamma-ray signature from the annihilation of positrons falls into this same astronomical window, and positrons are often produced from radioactive beta decays. Nuclear gamma-ray telescopes face instrumental challenges from penetrating gamma rays and cosmic-ray induced backgrounds. But the astrophysical benefits of such efforts are underlined by the discoveries of nuclear gamma rays from the brightest of the expected sources. In recent years, both thermonuclear and core-collapse supernova radioactivity gamma rays have been measured in spectral detail, and complement conventional supernova observations with measurements of origins in deep supernova interiors, from the decay of 56 Ni, 56 Co, and 44 Ti. The diffuse afterglow in gamma rays of radioactivity from massive-star nucleosynthesis is analysed on the large (galactic) scale, with findings important for recycling of matter between successive stellar generations: From 26 Al gamma-ray line spectroscopy, interstellar cavities and superbubbles have been recognised in their importance for ejecta transport and recycling. Diffuse galactic emissions from radioactivity and positron-annihilation γ rays should be connected to nucleosynthesis sources: Recently new light has been shed on this connection, among others though different measurements of radioactive 60 Fe, and through spectroscopy of positron annihilation gamma rays from a flaring microquasar and from different parts of our Galaxy.

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Section: Cosmic Gamma-ray Line Telescopesmentioning

confidence: 99%

News from Cosmic Gamma-ray Line Observations

Diehl

2017

Proceedings of the 14th International Symposium on Nuclei in the Cosmos (NIC2016)

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“…The functionality of the high-voltage supplies and data acquisition electronics is currently being tested post-flight in Berkeley. More details about the 2016 flight and the COSI instrument are described in [14] and [3].…”

Section: Pos(icrc2017)796mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…COSI is a powerful observatory in soft gammaray regime with advanced capabilities beyond COMPTEL. The characteristics of COSI as well as a comparison between COSI and COMPTEL can be found in [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI)

Chiu¹,

Boggs²,

Kierans³

et al. 2017

Proceedings of 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference — PoS(ICRC2017)

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The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) is a balloon-borne, soft gamma-ray (0.2-5 MeV) telescope designed to study astrophysical sources of nuclear-line emission and gamma-ray polarization. The heart of COSI is a compact array of cross-strip germanium detectors (GeDs), providing excellent spectral resolution (0.3% at 662 keV) and the capability of tracking the photon scattering history with full 3D position resolution of less than 2 mm 3 for each interaction. With good efficiency, wide-field imaging, and polarization sensitivity, COSI is a powerful observatory in the medium gamma-ray regime. The most recent balloon flight of COSI was launched from Wanaka, New Zealand, in May 2016 on a Super Pressure Balloon floating for 46 days. During this flight, COSI discovered GRB 160530A and detected several sources, including the Crab, Cen A, Cyg X-1, and the 511-keV emission from the galactic center. Here we will present the characteristics and capabilities of this novel instrument and preliminary results from the 2016 flight. * Speaker. PoS(ICRC2017)796The COSI J.-L. Chiu

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“…Because γ-rays can interact with passive material as well as with the active detectors and shields, it is important to model all objects near the detectors, including but not limited to the cryostat shell, cryocooler, and preamplifiers. A detailed description of the instrument materials modeled is presented in [10]. The mass model is implemented in Geomega [11], a MEGAlib program, and is shown in Figure 4.…”

Section: Simulation Pipelinementioning

confidence: 99%

Benchmarking COSI's detector effects engine

Sleator¹,

Boggs²,

Chiu³

et al. 2017

Proceedings of 11th INTEGRAL Conference Gamma-Ray Astrophysics in Multi-Wavelength Perspective — PoS(INTEGRAL2016)

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The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) is a balloon-borne gamma-ray (0.2-5 MeV) telescope with inherent sensitivity to polarization. COSI's main goal is to study astrophysical sources such as γ-ray bursts, positron annihilation, Galactic nucleosynthesis, and compact objects. COSI employs a compact Compton telescope design utilizing 12 high-purity cross strip germanium detectors (size: 8 × 8 × 1.5 cm 3 , 2 mm strip pitch). We require well-benchmarked simulations to simulate the full instrument response used for data analysis, to optimize our analysis algorithms, and to better understand our instrument and the in-flight performance. In order to achieve a reasonable agreement, we have built a comprehensive mass model of the instrument and developed a detailed detector effects engine, which takes into account the individual performance of each strip as well as the characteristics of the overall detector system. We performed detailed Monte-Carlo simulations with Cosima/Geant4, applied the detector effects engine, and benchmarked the results with pre-flight calibrations using radioactive sources. After applying the detector effects engine, the simulations closely resemble the measurements, and the standard calibration, event reconstruction, and imaging pipeline used for measurements can also be applied to the simulations. In this manuscript, we will describe the detector effects engine, the benchmarking tests with calibrations, and the application to preliminary results from COSI's 46-day balloon flight in 2016.

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The upcoming balloon campaign of the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI)

Cited by 24 publications

References 16 publications

News from Cosmic Gamma-ray Line Observations

News from Cosmic Gamma-ray Line Observations

The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI)

Benchmarking COSI's detector effects engine

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