The nuclear compton telescope: A balloon-borne soft γ-ray spectrometer, polarimeter, and imager

Our collaboration has begun the design and development of a prototype high resolution Compton telescope utilizing 3-D imaging germanium detectors. The Nuclear Compton Telescope (NCT) is a balloon-borne soft gamma-ray (0.2-15 MeV) telescope designed to study astrophysical sources of nuclear line emission and polarization. NCT is a prototype design for the Advanced Compton Telescope, to study gamma-ray radiation with very high spectral resolution, moderate angular resolution, and high sensitivity. The instrument has a novel, ultra-compact design optimized for studying nuclear line emission in the critical 0.5-2 MeV range, and polarization in the 0.2-0.5 MeV range. We have proposed to develop and fly NCT on a conventional US balloon flight in Summer of 2004. This first flight will perform gamma-ray polarization measurements the Crab nebula, Crab pulsar, and Cyg X-1, and ²⁶Al emission from the Cygnus Region. This flight will critically test the novel instrument technologies and analysis techniques we have developed for high resolution Compton telescopes, and qualify the payload to begin a series of ~10-day long duration ballon flights from Alice Springs, Australia starting in Spring 2005. .