ComPair: A Next Generation Medium Energy Gamma-ray Telescope Prototype

A future medium-energy gamma-ray (MeV) mission will address many questions posed in the recent Astro2020 Decadal survey in both the New Messengers and New Physics and the Cosmic Ecosystems themes. Gamma-ray observations were critical to understanding the underlying physical phenomena driving extremely energetic sources, and discoveries are only expected to grow in the new era of advanced multimessenger observatories. The Compton Pair (ComPair) telescope project was funded through the APRA program in 2015 (PI: McEnery) and 2021 (PI: Kierans) to develop an MeV telescope prototype and fly it on a balloon platform. The team has designed and built an instrument that consists of 4 detector subsystems: a double-sided silicon strip detector (DSSD) Tracker, a Frisch-grid cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) Calorimeter, and a high-energy hodoscopic cesium iodide (CsI) Calorimeter (PI: Grove, PI: Woolf), all of which are surrounded by a plastic scintillator anti-coincidence detector (ACD). In the past 7 years, the team has also sought-out advancements for the detector designs. The next generation of ComPair will be upgraded to target a gamma-ray mission concept proposed in the 2021 MIDEX Announcement of Opportunity called the All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory eXplorer (AMEGO-X) (PI: Caputo). This concept implements developments in silicon detector technology enabled by the 2018 APRA, AstroPix (PI: Caputo), replacing the DSSD detectors with higher sensitivity, low-noise and lower-cost pixel detectors and descoping the CZT calorimeter. To reduce risk and address the technical readiness, the goals of ComPair will be to raise the TRL of a prototype AMEGO-X instrument to 6, including complicated I&T, novel carbon-fiber mechanical structure, and full AstroPix Tracker layer readout. Furthermore, ComPair will provide a test-bed for MeV mission software for improved event identification in the Compton/Pair regime developed through a 2017 APRA (PI: Zoglauer), and real-time transient localization of gamma-ray bursts in the Compton regime. The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)-led team has a strong heritage in designing and building gamma-ray telescopes; therefore, maintaining that capability is an important aspect of this program. In addition to TRL advancement, this proposed research provides valuable experience and necessary hands-on training to the early-career ComPair management, postdocs, graduate students, and early-career engineers at GSFC and Naval Research Laboratory (NRL).

The Astrophysics Research and Analysis program (APRA) supports suborbital and suborbital-class investigations, development of detectors and supporting technology, laboratory astrophysics, and limited ground-based observing. Basic research proposals in these areas are solicited for investigations that are relevant to NASA's programs in astronomy and astrophysics, including the entire range of photons, gravitational waves, and particle astrophysics. The emphasis of this solicitation is on technologies and investigations that advance NASA astrophysics missions and goals.

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