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arXiv · 2208.04990

The All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory eXplorer (AMEGO-X) Mission Concept

Abstract

The All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory eXplorer (AMEGO-X) is designed to identify and characterize gamma rays from extreme explosions and accelerators. The main science themes include: supermassive black holes and their connections to neutrinos and cosmic rays; binary neutron star mergers and the relativistic jets they produce; cosmic ray particle acceleration sources including Galactic supernovae; and continuous monitoring of other astrophysical events and sources over the full sky in this important energy range. AMEGO-X will probe the medium energy gamma-ray band using a single instrument with sensitivity up to an order of magnitude greater than previous telescopes in the energy range 100 keV to 1 GeV that can be only realized in space. During its three-year baseline mission, AMEGO-X will observe nearly the entire sky every two orbits, building up a sensitive all-sky map of gamma-ray sources and emission. AMEGO-X was submitted in the recent 2021 NASA MIDEX Announcement of Opportunity.

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Regina Caputo, Marco Ajello, Carolyn Kierans, Jeremy Perkins, Judith Racusin, Luca Baldini, Matthew Barring, Elisabetta Bissaldi, Eric Burns, Nicolas Cannady, Eric Charles, Rui Curado da Silva, Ke Fang, Henrike Fleischhack, Chris Fryer, Yasushi Fukazawa, J. Eric Grove, Dieter Hartmann, Eric Howell, Manoj Jadhav, Christopher Karwin, Daniel Kocevski, Naoko Kurahashi, Luca Latronico, Tiffany Lewis, Richard Leys, Amy Lien, Lea Marcotulli, Israel Martinez-Castellanos, Mario Nicola Mazziotta, Julie McEnery, Jessica Metcalfe, Kohta Murase, Michela Negro, Lucas Parker, Bernard Phlips, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Soebur Razzaque, Peter Shawhan, Yong Sheng, Tom Shutt, Daniel Shy, Clio Sleator, Amanda Steinhebel, Nicolas Striebig, Yusuke Suda, Donggeun Tak, Hiroyasu Tajima, Janeth Valverde, Tonia Venters, Zorawar Wadiasingh, Richard Woolf, Eric Wulf, Haocheng Zhang, Andreas Zoglauer. 2022-08-09. The All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory eXplorer (AMEGO-X) Mission Concept. https://doi.org/10.1117/1.jatis.8.4.044003

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