AGILE

Home page of the Experiment: http://www.roma2.infn.it/infn/agile/

The AGILE scientific payload is based on the state-of-the-art technology of solid state silicon detectors. The instrument is very light (~100 kg) and effective in detecting and monitoring gamma-ray sources within a large field of view ( ~1/5 of the whole sky). The baseline AGILE detector is sensitive in the energy range 30 MeV-50 GeV and is characterized by the smallest ever obtained deadtime for gamma-ray detection ( ~100 µs) and by a trigger based on the silicon detectors. The scientific instrument consists of a silicon-tungsten tracker, a Cesium iodide mini-calorimeter, an anticoincidence system made of segmented plastic scintillators, a X ray imaging detector based on an ultra light coded mask system, fast readout electronics and processing units. The baseline instrument is designed to achieve an optimal angular resolution (source location accuracy 5'’-20'’for intense sources), an unprecedently large field-of-view ( >=2 sr), and a sensitivity comparable to that of EGRET for on axis (and substantially better for off-axis) point sources.

AGILE will perform a large number of tasks: monitoring active galactic nuclei, detecting gamma-ray bursts with high efficiency, mapping the diffuse Galactic and extragalactic emission, studying pulsed gamma-ray emission from radiopulsars, monitoring the many unidentified sources and contributing to their unveiling, detecting energetic solar flares. Today, it is clear that successful investigations of gamma-ray sources rely on coordinated space and ground-based observations. The AGILE scientific program will be focussed on a prompt response to gamma-ray transients and alert for follow-up multiwavelength observations. AGILE will provide crucial information complementary to the many lower energy detectors that will be operational during the first decade of the new Millenium (INTEGRAL, XMM, AXAF, ASTRO-E, SPECTRUM-X, and others).

The AGILE mission is being planned as an Observatory with a scientific program of data analysis available to the Italian and international community on a competitive basis. Quicklook data analysis and fast communication of transientevents will be emphasized and implemented