Gamma-Ray Burst Physics with GLAST

Abstract

The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) is an international space mission that will study the cosmos in the energy range 10 keV-300 GeV, the upper end of which is one of the last poorly observed region of the celestial electromagnetic spectrum. The ancestor of the GLAST/LAT was the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) detector, which flew onboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO). The amount of information and the step forward that the high energy astrophysics made thanks to its 9 years of observations are impressive. Nevertheless, EGRET uncovered the tip of the iceberg, raising many questions, and it is in the light of EGRET's results that the great potential of the next generation gamma-ray telescope can be appreciated. GLAST will have an imaging gamma-ray telescope, the Large Area Telescope (LAT) vastly more capable than instruments own previously, as well as a secondary instrument, the GLAST Bursts Monitor, or GBM, to augment the study of gamma-ray bursts. Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) science is one of the most exciting challenges for the GLAST mission, exploring the high energy emission of one of the most intense phenomena in the sky, shading light on various problems: from the acceleration of particles tomore » the emission processes, to more exotic physics like Quantum Gravity effect. In this paper we report the work done so far in the simulation development as well as the study of the LAT sensitivity to GRB.« less