The 511-CAM Mission: A Pointed 511 keV Gamma-Ray Telescope with a Focal Plane Detector Made of Stacked Transition Edge Sensor Microcalorimeter Arrays

The 511 keV gamma-ray emission from the galactic center region may fully or partially originate from the annihilation of positrons from dark matter particles with electrons from the interstellar medium. Alternatively, the positrons could be created by astrophysical sources, involving exclusively sta...

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Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Shirazi, Farzane, Md Arman Hossen, Becker, Daniel, Schmidt, Daniel, Swetz, Daniel, Bennett, Douglas, Braun, Dana, Gau, Ephraim, Kislat, Fabian, Gard, Johnathon, Mates, John, Weber, Joel, Nicole Rodriguez Cavero, Chun, Sohee, Lisalda, Lindsey, West, Andrew, Bhupal Dev, Ferrer, Francesc, Bose, Richard, Ullom, Joel, Krawczynski, Henric
Format Paper Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 12.09.2023
Subjects
Dark matter
Energy resolution
Focal plane
Gamma emission
Gamma ray telescopes
Geometrical optics
Interstellar matter
Physics - High Energy Physics - Experiment
Physics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Plasmas (physics)
Point sources
Positrons
Sensor arrays
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Summary:The 511 keV gamma-ray emission from the galactic center region may fully or partially originate from the annihilation of positrons from dark matter particles with electrons from the interstellar medium. Alternatively, the positrons could be created by astrophysical sources, involving exclusively standard model physics. We describe here a new concept for a 511 keV mission called 511-CAM (511 keV gamma-ray CAmera using Micro-calorimeters) that combines focusing gamma-ray optics with a stack of Transition Edge Sensor (TES) microcalorimeter arrays in the focal plane. The 511-CAM detector assembly has a projected 511 keV energy resolution of 390 eV Full Width Half Maximum (FWHM) or better, and improves by a factor of at least 11 on the performance of state-of-the-art Ge-based Compton telescopes. Combining this unprecedented energy resolution with sub-arcmin angular resolutions afforded by Laue lens or channeling optics could make substantial contributions to identifying the origin of the 511 keV emission by discovering and characterizing point sources and measuring line-of-sight velocities of the emitting plasmas.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.2206.14652