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Everybody thought that it was impossible,
except an idiot who didn’t know that
- and who did it.
Marcel Pagnol, 1895-1974
Gamma-Ray Lens : Nuclear astrophysics addresses a wide range of fundamental astrophysical questions such as the life cycles of matter and the behavior of matter under extreme conditions. In order to take full advantage of this potential, the next generation of instrumentation for this domain will have to achieve a vast improvement in sensitivity over present technologies. With the development of a gamma-ray lens we have taken up this challenge: gamma-rays are focused from the large collecting area of a crystal diffraction lens onto a very small detector volume. As a consequence, the background noise is extremely low, making possible unprecedented sensitivities.
Until recently, focusing of gamma-radiation was regarded as an impracticable task. Today, gamma-ray lenses have become feasible and present promising perspectives for future instrumentation.
MAX - mission study
Gamma-Wave ’05 workshop
CLAIRE - first light !
lens principles
GRI - proposal for CV07
Peter von Ballmoos, 11/2011
