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OUTLINE

• Overview
• Instruments
• Scientific Objectives

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AGILE MISSION

• Prepared by ASI with the participants INFNIASF.
• Sensitive in the range 30 Mev-50 Gev 15-45keV.
• Having a large FOV covering ?1/5 of the entire
  sky at energies above 30Mev.(?3 sr)
• Based on the state-of-the-art technology of solid
  state Silicon detectors and associated
  electronics developed in Italian Lab.
• ?120kg (the total satellite mass is ?350kg)
• Primary scientific goals include the study of
• -AGN
• -GRBs
• -Galactic sources
• -Unidentified Gamma-ray sources
• -Diffuse Gamma-ray emission
• -High-precision timing studies
• -Quantum Gravity testing

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• AGILE was succesfully launched on April 23,
  2007 at 1000 GMT in an equatorial orbit with an
  altitude of 550 km and inclination of ? 0-6
  deg.by the Indian PSLV rocket from the
  Shriarikota ISRO base (Chennai-Madras), India.

• AGILE Launch
• PSLV-C6

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• Fig7The AGILE operations and Ground Segment.

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AGILE MISSION
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INSTRUMENTS

• Fig1LEFTThe AGILE integrated satellite in its
  final configuration.
• RIGHTHard X-ray imager,the gamma-ray
  Tracker, and the Calorimeter.

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The AGILE payload is made of three detectors
combined into one integrated instrument with
broad-band detection and imaging capabilities.
The Anticoincidence and Data Handling systems
complete instrument.

• 1.The Gama-Ray Imaging Detector (GRID)
• 2.The Hard X-ray Imager (Super-AGILE)
• 3.The Mini-Calorimeter (MC)

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The Gamma-Ray Imaging Detector GRID

• Sensitive in the range 30Mev-50Gev
• Consisting of
• - A Silicon-Tungsten Tracker
• - A Cesium Iodide Calorimeter
• - The Anticoincidence System
• Characterised by the smallest ever obtained
  deadtime ? 200µs
• Source location accuracy ?15
• FOV ?2.5 sr

Fig2Engineering model of the AGILE instrument.
The GRID is made of 12 silicon-tungsten planes
and the Mini Calorimeter positioned at the bottom
of the instrument.
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THE SILICON-TRACKERST
Fig4The Silicon-Tracker
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• Providing the ?-ray imager is based on photon
  conversion into electron-positron pairs.
• Consisting of a total of 12 trays
• The fundamental Silicon detector unit is a tile
  of area 9.5x9.5 cm2 ,microstrip pitch equal to
  121 µm,and thickness 410 µm(Fig5).
• The adopted floating readout strip system has
  a total of 384 readout channels and three readout
  TAA1 chips per Si-tile.

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• Fig5Schematic layout of the fundamental 9.5x9.5
  cm2 unit(tile) of the AGILE SI-Tracker.

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• Fig6Left and right panelsan example of two
  environmental ?-ray events produced by
  cosmic-rays and detected by the AGILE-GRID during
  the integrated satellite scientific acquisiiton
  runs with the whole ST trigger logic
  implemented.(May 2006)

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• Fig6 (Tracking perf.)Schematic rep.and typical
  results of beamtests carried out at CERN. The
  right panel shows the results of the AGILE
  beamtest carried out in August,2000 at the CERN
  T11 beamline.(East Hall,CERN PS)

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MINI CALORIMETERMC

• Operating in the burst mode is the 3rd AGILE
  detector.
• The energy range for this non-imaging detector is
  25keV-200MeV.
• Made of 30 Thallium activated Cesium Iodide
  (CsI(Tl)) bars arranged in two planes,for a total
  radiation length 1.5 X 0. The signal from each
  CsI bar is collected by two photodiodes placed at
  both ends.
• deadtime ?5 µs
• The main goals are
• obtaining additional information on the energy
  deposited in the CsI bars.
• detecting GRBs and other impulsive events with
  spectral and intensity information in the range
  0.3-100MeV

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THE ANTICOINCIDENCE SYSTEM AC

• Aimed at both charged particle background
  rejection and preliminary direction
  reconstruction for triggered photons.
• Completely surrounding with AGILE detectors.
• Each lateral face segmented in three plastic
  scintillator layers connected with
  photomultipliers placed at the bottom.

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• The operating principle of GRID is based on
• the conversion of ?-ray photons in
• electron-positron pairs by thin tungsten
• sheets and tracking the pairs, in
• energy and directions, by microstrip
• silicon detectors,thus reconstructing
• the kinematic of the impinging
• photon (Feroci,M. et al.2007)

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2. The Hard X-Ray ImagerSuper-AGILE
Fig7Super-AGILE
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2. The Hard X-Ray ImagerSuper-AGILE

• Sensitive in the 15-45keV
• Made of properly arranged four square
  detectors(19x19cm2)
• of readout channels is 6.144
• Scientific goals
• i)photon-by-photon detection and imaging
• -in 10-40keV,
• -with a FOV of ?1 sr,
• -good angular resolution 2arcmin,
• ii)simultaneous X-ray and ?-ray spectral studies
  of high energy sources
• iii)excellent timing ?4 µs
• iv)burst trigger for the GRID and MC
• v)burst alert and quick on-board positioning
  capability for transient and GRBs
• first detected GRB...

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AGILEs SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES

• AGN
• -wide FOV survey.
• -quick reaction to transients.
• -SA monitoring in the hard X-ray band.
• -correlative obs. in the radio,optical,X-ray,
  TeV
• GRB
• -expected detection rate above 50 MeV5-10
  event/year
• -broad-band spectral information
• -SA imaging(1-2 for intense GRBs)
• -search for sub-milisecond GRB pulses

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• PULSARS
• -high-resolution timing of known ?-ray pulsars,
• -period searches for Galactic unidentified
  sources,
• -milisecond pulsars.
• UNIDENTIFIED SOURCES
• -deep exposure,variability studies,
• -refined positions,search for counterparts,
• -serach for new transients and quicklook alert
• SUPERNOVA REMNANTS
• -search and precise imaging with deep exposures
• -monitoring of plerions in SNRs
• -?-ray /TeV studies

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• BINARY SYSTEMS
• -neutron star binaries,
• -black-hole systemsmicroquasars
• -interacting binaries,
• -SA monitoring and simultaneous detection.
• DIFFUSE EMISSION
• -deep exposure and precise mapping mapping of
  Galactic emission,
• -study of cosmic-ray origin and propagation
• GALAXIES
• -deep pointings at the SMC and LMC
• -testing dark matter model(by deep exposures of
  Andromeda)
• -deep exposures of cluster of galaxies

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• SOLAR FLARES
• -Si-tracker ratemeter transient detection(?
  100keV),
• -MC detection in the range 25keV-200MeV,
• FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICS
• -quantum gravity tests for sub-ms GRB pulses,
• -high-precision pulsar timing and QG effects,
• -MACHO emission from our and nearby galaxies.

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• Fig8Density map (in counts s-1 sr-1) of
  gamma-rays above 30 MeV (in polar coordinates
  where the radial distance provides the zenithal
  angle ? ,  and the polar angle corresponds to the
  azimuthal angle) detected by the AGILE instrument
  in the IABG facility. Despite the strong angular
  dependence of the gamma-ray background -
  intensity proportional to  a function between
  cos3 (?)  and cos4 (?) - AGILE is capable of
  detecting gamma-rays with large incidence angles
  up to 50-60 degrees. This is the largest field of
  view (FOV) ever achieved by a space gamma-ray
  instrument

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REFERENCES

• 1.Science with AGILE,2004
• http//agile.asdc.asi.it/a-science-27.pdf
• 2. The AGILE mission and its scientific
  instruments ,Tavani,M. Et al, 2006SPIE.6266E.2T
• 3. Gamma-ray Astrophysics with the Space AGILE
  Detector,Pittori,C.Tavani,M.the AGILE
  Team,2006ChJAS.6a.373P
• 4.ASI Data Center
• http//agile.rm.iasf.cnr.it/

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FINE