The Advanced Gamma-Ray Imaging System (AGIS): Science Highlights
The Advanced Gamma-ray Imaging System (AGIS), a future gamma-ray telescope consisting of an array of {approx}50 atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes distributed over an area of {approx}1 km{sup 2}, will provide a powerful new tool for exploring the high-energy universe. The order-of-magnitude increase in sensitivity and improved angular resolution could provide the first detailed images of {gamma}-ray emission from other nearby galaxies or galaxy clusters. The large effective area will provide unprecedented sensitivity to short transients (such as flares from AGNs and GRBs) probing both intrinsic spectral variability (revealing the details of the acceleration mechanism and geometry) as well as constraining the high-energy dispersion in the velocity of light (probing the structure of spacetime and Lorentz invariance). A wide field of view ({approx}4 times that of current instruments) and excellent angular resolution (several times better than current instruments) will allow for an unprecedented survey of the Galactic plane, providing a deep unobscured survey of SNRs, X-ray binaries, pulsar-wind nebulae, molecular cloud complexes and other sources. The differential flux sensitivity of {approx}10{sup -13} erg cm{sup -2} sec{sup -1} will rival the most sensitive X-ray instruments for these extended Galactic sources. The excellent capabilities of AGIS at energies below 100 GeV will provide sensitivity to AGN and GRBs out to cosmological redshifts, increasing the number of AGNs detected at high energies from about 20 to more than 100, permitting population studies that will provide valuable insights into both a unified model for AGN and a detailed measurement of the effects of intergalactic absorption from the diffuse extragalactic background light. A new instrument with fast-slewing wide-field telescopes could provide detections of a number of long-duration GRBs providing important physical constraints from this new spectral component. The new array will also have excellent background rejection and very large effective area, providing the very high sensitivity needed to detect emission from dark matter annihilation in Galactic substructure or nearby Dwarf spheroidal galaxies.
- Research Organization:
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515
- OSTI ID:
- 1029917
- Report Number(s):
- SLAC-REPRINT-2011-077; APCPCS; TRN: US1105866
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1085, Issue 1; ISSN 0094-243X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
THE NUCLEAR SPECTROSCOPIC TELESCOPE ARRAY (NuSTAR) HIGH-ENERGY X-RAY MISSION
The Gamma-Ray Large-Area Space Telescope: An Astro-Particle Mission to Explore the High-Energy Gamma-Ray Sky
Related Subjects
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ABSORPTION
ACCELERATION
ANNIHILATION
CLOUDS
GALAXIES
GALAXY CLUSTERS
GEOMETRY
NEBULAE
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
RESOLUTION
SENSITIVITY
SPACE-TIME
TELESCOPES
TRANSIENTS
UNIFIED MODEL
UNIVERSE
VELOCITY
Instrumentation
ASTRO