Focusing Telescopes in Nuclear Astrophysics

About this book

This volume is the first of its kind on focusing gamma-ray telescopes. Forty-eight refereed papers provide a comprehensive overview of the scientific potential and technical challenges of this nascent tool for nuclear astrophysics. The book features articles dealing with pivotal technologies such as grazing incident mirrors, multilayer coatings, Laue- and Fresnel-lenses - and even an optic using the curvature of space-time.

The volume also presents an overview of detectors matching the ambitious objectives of gamma ray optics, and facilities for operating such systems on the ground and in space. The extraordinary scientific potential of focusing gamma-ray telescopes for the study of the most powerful sources and the most violent events in the Universe is emphasized in a series of introductory articles.

Reprinted from Experimental Astronomy, Vol. 20, Nos.1-3.

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Biography

Peter von Ballmoos est ne en 1956 a Zurich. Apres des etudes de physique a l'Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Zurich, un doctorat a l'Universite Technique de Munich, et des post-docs outre Atlantique, il a ete elu professeur d'astrophysique a l'Universite de Toulouse en 1991. Au sein du Centre d'Etudes Spatiales des Rayonnements de Toulouse, il mene des recherches en astrophysique nucleaire - en particulier l'instrumentation, l'observation et l'interpretation des raies gamma nucleaires. L'observation des raies gamma nucleaires est une des cles aux questions fondamentales sur la structure et l'evolution de l'Univers, et particulierement sur les cycles de vie de la matiere et du comportement de la matiere dans des conditions extremes. Peter von Ballmoos est co-responsable du projet Spectrometre INTEGRAL de l'ESA et responsable des projets "lentille gamma" du CNES (CLAIRE, MAX).