A Sharper View of the GeV Sky: High-Resolution Gamma-Ray Astronomy with a Balloon-Borne Nuclear Emulsion Telescope with Hiroki Rokujo
Gamma-ray astronomy in the sub-GeV/GeV band has been revolutionized by Fermi-LAT, but its angular resolution remains a fundamental limitation for studying complex regions such as the Galactic Center and for resolving fine structures around gamma-ray sources. The GRAINE project is developing a balloon-borne gamma-ray telescope based on nuclear emulsion, providing an angular resolution about an order of magnitude better than Fermi-LAT.
I will introduce the unique detector concept of GRAINE and present results from our 2023 balloon flight in Australia, including high-resolution observations of the Vela pulsar and the Galactic Center region. I will discuss how current and future high-resolution observations can probe the origin and spatial structure of gamma-ray emission in the Galactic Center, including the Galactic Center GeV excess.
Finally, I will present our plans for the 2028 balloon flight and the longer-term development of a large-area telescope for long-duration balloon observations. In particular, I will discuss a new hybrid concept combining nuclear emulsion with electronic tracking and anticoincidence detectors to overcome the timing limitations of emulsion and enable future long-duration observations.
Please note that this is a special astrophysics seminar on a Thursday, instead of Friday!
Sponsored by the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences