Search for Very Short Bursts with the AGILE Mini-Calorimeter

Journal Article · Mon May 25 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3155937· OSTI ID:21304967

Marisaldi, M; Labanti, C; Fuschino, F; Trifoglio, M ^[1]; Galli, M ^[2]; Argan, A ^[3]; Barbiellini, G; Longo, F; Moretti, E ^[4]; Boffelli, F; Cattaneo, P W; Rappoldi, A ^[5]; Bulgarelli, A; Di Cocco, G; Gianotti, F ^[6]; Caraveo, P; Chen, A; Fornari, F; Giuliani, A; Mereghetti, S ^[7]

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1. INAF-IASF Bologna, Via Gobetti 101, I-40129 Bologna (Italy)
2. ENEA, Via Martiri di Monte Sole 4, I-40129 Bologna (Italy)
3. INAF-IASF Roma, Via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Roma (Italy)
4. Dipartimento di Fisica Universita di Trieste and INFN Trieste, via A. Valerio 2, I-34127 Trieste (Italy)
5. INFN Pavia, via Bassi 6, I-27100 Pavia (Italy)
6. INAF-IASF Bologna, Via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna (Italy)
7. INAF-IASF Milano, Via Bassini 15, I-20133 Milano (Italy)

In this paper the results of the first months of burst search on very short time scales with the Mini-Calorimeter (MCAL) on-board the AGILE mission are presented. MCAL is equipped with a flexible on-board trigger logic for autonomous GRB detection. In addition to standard trigger time windows, MCAL has been equipped with trigger capabilities on 16 ms, 1 ms and sub-millisecond time windows. Since June 2008 burst search on these short time scales has been enabled, resulting in an average rate of 4 triggers/orbit, compliant with telemetry budget. An on-ground rejection strategy is applied, allowing more sophisticated selection criteria than those allowed by the on-board trigger logic. Triggers due to instrumental effects or geophysical phenomena can be spotted due to their photon-by-photon pattern; what remains after this cleaning is an almost unexplored territory and could shed light on the origin of very short bursts. The trigger criteria, as well as the on-ground rejection strategy and the properties of the selected events will be described and discussed.

• OSTI ID: 21304967
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1133, Issue 1; Conference: 6. Huntsville symposium on gamma-ray burst, Huntsville, AL (United States), 20-23 Oct 2008; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3155937; (c) 2009 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
COSMIC GAMMA BURSTS
COSMIC GAMMA SOURCES
COSMIC PHOTONS
GAMMA ASTRONOMY
GAMMA DETECTION
ORBITS
SCINTILLATION COUNTERS
SCINTILLATIONS
SHOWER COUNTERS
TELEMETRY