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E. Aprile, A. Curioni, K.-L. Giboni, M. Kobayashi (Columbia University, New York, NY), U. G. Oberlack (Rice University, Houston, TX), E. L. Chupp, P. P. Dunphy (University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH), S. Ventura (Universita di Padova / INFN, Padua, Italy), T. Doke, J. Kikuchi (Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan)
The balloon-borne LXeGRIT is the first prototype of a novel Compton telescope based on a high resolution 3-D imaging time projection chamber (TPC). The ionization detector, triggered by the fast Xe scintillation light, measures the three spatial coordinates and the energy deposited by each gamma-ray interaction in its active volume of 2800 cm3 of pure liquid Xenon. As a calorimeter, LXeGRIT is sensitive in the energy range 0.1 - 10 MeV. For gamma-ray imaging, LXeGRIT relies on events with multiple Compton interactions, after their scattering sequence has been correctly reconstructed. Results from experiments with laboratory sources as well as results from the most recent balloon flight experiment have established the response of the instrument as a Compton imager and spectrometer in one detector. We present these results and summarize the performance of LXeGRIT in flight, with respect to the measurement of the background rate and to the imaging of the Crab Nebula in the 1-3 MeV band.
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society,
35#2
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.