a t e l i e r
23 mars 2004, 10 - 17 h
IAP Paris
la mission MAX
minutes
The MAX mission, with a Laue lens, is going into a promising new proposal round thanks to a recent announcement of opportunity of the French Space Agency CNES, calling for payloads that use formation flying spacecrafts ... The time is certainly appropriate for a MAX proposal - in 2003 we were able to prove the principle of our lens as a powerful tool for nuclear astrophysics : CLAIRE's stratospheric flight in 2001 was the first observation of an astrophysical source with a gamma-ray lens. Associated with a long distance test on the ground, the results validate the theoretical models and demonstrate the feasibility of the Laue lens. 

In order to discuss the science case of MAX and iterate its present draft design for the upcoming CNES proposal, an informal MAX meeting was organized during the INTEGRAL workshop in Munich.  

More than 80 scientists attended the meeting of February 18 at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. After a very short introduction on MAX, its potential for nuclear astrophysics, and the context of CNES' formation flying AO, a lively discussion was held on the following issues : 

- are the presenet energy bands (460-520 keV and 800-900 keV) relevant ? 
- are there other lines that need to be accessible,  
- which observations would benefit from the measurement of polarisation ? 
- what is the sensitivity level which is REALLY needed ? 
- how important is energy resolution ?  
- are there other studies which could benefit from the capabilities MAX ? 
- what is the cross-fertilization with other instruments ?  
- do we need low-energy capability to accompany or follow up lens detections ? 
 
 
 

mise à jour : février 2004
questions et commentaires :Peter von Ballmoos