0000000000785850
AUTHOR
O Limousin
The LOFT mission concept: a status update
The Large Observatory For x-ray Timing (LOFT) is a mission concept which was proposed to ESA as M3 and M4 candidate in the framework of the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program. Thanks to the unprecedented combination of effective area and spectral resolution of its main instrument and the uniquely large field of view of its wide field monitor, LOFT will be able to study the behaviour of matter in extreme conditions such as the strong gravitational field in the innermost regions close to black holes and neutron stars and the supra-nuclear densities in the interiors of neutron stars. The science payload is based on a Large Area Detector (LAD, >8m2 effective area, 2-30 keV, 240 eV spectral resolut…
A 3D CZT hard x-ray polarimeter for a balloon borne payload
Currently, it is widely recognised that a measurement of the polarization status of cosmic sources high energy emission is a key observational parameter to understand the active production mechanism and its geometry. Therefore new instrumentation operating in this energy range should be optimized also for this type of measurement. In this framework, we present the concept of a small high-performance spectrometer designed for polarimetry between 100 and 500 keV suitable as a stratospheric balloon-borne payload dedicated to perform an accurate and reliable measurement of the polarization status of the Crab pulsar, i.e. the polarization level and direction. The detector with 3D spatial resolut…