Exploring the Hard X-/soft gamma-ray Continuum Spectra with Laue Lenses
The history of X-ray astronomy has shown that any advancement in our knowledge of the X-ray sky is strictly related to an increase in instrument sensitivity. At energies above 60 keV, there are interesting prospects for greatly improving the limiting sensitivity of the current generation of direct v...
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
07.07.2005
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The history of X-ray astronomy has shown that any advancement in our
knowledge of the X-ray sky is strictly related to an increase in instrument
sensitivity. At energies above 60 keV, there are interesting prospects for
greatly improving the limiting sensitivity of the current generation of direct
viewing telescopes (with or without coded masks), offered by the use of Laue
lenses. We will discuss below the development status of a Hard X-Ray focusing
Telescope (HAXTEL) based on Laue lenses with a broad bandpass (from 60 to 600
keV) for the study of the X-ray continuum of celestial sources. We show two
examplesof multi-lens configurations with expected sensitivity orders of
magnitude better ($\sim 1 \times 10^{-8}$ photons cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ keV$^{-1}$
at 200 keV) than that achieved so far. With this unprecedented sensitivity,
very exciting astrophysical prospects are opened. |
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DOI: | 10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0507175 |