Compton Imaging of MeV Gamma-Rays with the Liquid Xenon Gamma-Ray Imaging Telescope (LXeGRIT)

Understand

The Liquid Xenon Gamma-Ray Imaging Telescope (LXeGRIT) is the first realization of a liquid xenon time projection chamber for Compton imaging of MeV gamma-ray sources in astrophysics.

• By measuring the energy deposit and the three spatial coordinates of individual gamma-ray scattering points, the location of the source in the sky is inferred with Compton kinematics reconstruction.
• The angular resolution is determined by the detector's energy and spatial resolutions, as well as by the separation in space between the first and second scattering.
• The imaging response of LXeGRIT was established with gamma-rays from radioactive sources, during calibration and integration at the Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, prior to the 2000 balloon flight mission.