First GRB detections with the AGILE Minicalorimeter
- INAF-IASF Bologna, Via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna (Italy)
- ENEA, Via Martiri di Monte Sole 4, 40129 Bologna (Italy)
- INAF-IASF Roma, Via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Roma (Italy)
The Minicalorimeter (MCAL) onboard the AGILE satellite is a 1400 cm{sup 2} scintillation detector sensitive in the energy range 0.3-200 MeV. MCAL works both as a slave of the AGILE Silicon Tracker and as an autonomous detector for transient events (BURST mode). A dedicated onboard Burst Search logic scans BURST mode data in search of count rate increase. Peculiar characteristics of the detector are the high energy spectral coverage and a timing resolution of about 2 microseconds. Even if a trigger is not issued, BURST mode data are used to build a broad band energy spectrum (scientific ratemeters) organized in 11 bands for each of the two MCAL detection planes, with a time resolution of 1 second. After the first engineering commissioning phase, following the AGILE launch on 23rd April 2007, between 22nd June and 5th November 2007 eighteen GRBs were detected offline in the scientific ratemeters data, with a detection rate of about one per week. In this paper the capabilities of the detector will be described and an overview of the first detected GRBs will be given.
- OSTI ID:
- 21137214
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1000, Issue 1; Conference: Santa Fe conference on gamma-ray bursts 2007, Santa Fe, NM (United States), 5-9 Nov 2007; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2943524; (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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