The Compton Spectrometer and Imager

Abstract

In this Astro2020 APC White Paper, we describe a Small Explorer (SMEX) mission concept called the Compton Spectrometer and Imager. COSI is a Compton telescope that covers the bandpass often referred to as the "MeV Gap" because it is the least explored region of the whole electromagnetic spectrum. COSI provides a significant improvement in sensitivity along with high-resolution spectroscopy, enabling studies of 511 keV electron-positron annihilation emission and measurements of several radioactive elements that trace the Galactic history of supernovae. COSI also measures polarization of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), accreting black holes, and pulsars as well as detecting and localizing multimessenger sources. In the following, we describe the COSI science, the instrument, and its capabilities. We highlight many Astro2020 science WPs that describe the COSI science in depth.

11 pages, submitted to the Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics (Astro2020) as an Activities, Projects, or State of the Profession Consideration (APC) White Paper

References in corpus (4)

• GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
• An Ordinary Short Gamma-Ray Burst with Extraordinary Implications: Fermi-GBM Detection of GRB 170817A
• Event reconstruction in high resolution Compton telescopes
• On the morphology of the electron-positron annihilation emission as seen by SPI/INTEGRAL

Cited by in corpus (21)

• XL-Calibur -- a second-generation balloon-borne hard X-ray polarimetry mission
• The Blazar sequence and its Physical Understanding
• The Positron Puzzle
• Calibrations of the Compton Spectrometer and Imager
• Introducing the MeVCube concept: a CubeSat for MeV observations
• Dark Matter prospects with COSI: ALPs, PBHs and sub-GeV Dark Matter
• Vertical position of the Sun with $\gamma$-rays
• Measurement of Galactic ${}^{26}$Al with the Compton Spectrometer and Imager
• Nucleosynthesis constraints through $\gamma$-ray line measurements from classical novae
• The Morphology of Exciting Dark Matter and the Galactic 511 keV Signal
• Sub-GeV Dark Matter Annihilation: Limits from Milky Way observations with INTEGRAL
• Reconstruction of multiple Compton scattering events in MeV gamma-ray Compton telescopes towards GRAMS: the physics-based probabilistic model
• Event reconstruction of Compton telescopes using a multi-task neural network
• X-ray studies of the pulsar PSR J1420-6048 and its TeV pulsar wind nebula in the Kookaburra region
• Evolution of radioactive elements in the LMC: predictions for future gamma-ray surveys
• Characterizing and correcting electron and hole trapping in germanium cross-strip detectors
• Real-time Likelihood Methods for Improved Gamma-ray Transient Detection and Localization
• Evaluation of the performance of a CdZnTe-based soft $\gamma$-ray detector for CubeSat payloads
• Synthesis of radioactive elements in novae and supernovae and their use as a diagnostic tool
• COCOA: a compact Compton camera for astrophysical observation of MeV-scale gamma rays
• Study of ${}^{26}\mathrm{Al}$ in the COSI 2016 superpressure balloon flight