Gamma-ray burst detection with the AGILE mini-calorimeter

Marisaldi, M.; Labanti, C.; Fuschino, F.; Galli, M.; Argan, A.; Barbiellini, G.; Basset, M.; Boffelli, F.; Bulgarelli, A.; Caraveo, P. A.; Cattaneo, P. W.; Chen, Andrew; Cocco, V.; Costa, E.; D’Ammando, F.; Monte, E. Del; Paris, G. De; Cocco, G. Di; Persio, Giuseppe Di; Donnarumma, I.; Evangelista, Y.; Feroci, M.; Ferrari, A.; Fiorini, M.; Foggetta, L.; Froysland, T.; Frutti, M.; Gianotti, F.; Giuliani, A.; Lapshov, I.; Lazzarotto, F.; Liello, F.; Lipari, P.; Longo, F.; Mastropietro, M.; Mattaini, E.; Mauri, A.; Mauri, F.; Mereghetti, S.; Morelli, E.; Morselli, A.; Pacciani, L.; Perotti, F.; Picozza, P.; Porrovecchio, G.; Prest, M.; Pucella, G.; Rapisarda, M.; Rappoldi, A.; Rossi, E.; Rubini, A.; Soffitta, P.; Tavani, M.; Traci, A.; Trifoglio, M.; Trois, A.; Vallazza, E.; Vercellone, S.; Vittorini, V.; Zambra, A.; Zanello, D.; Pittori, C.; Verrecchia, F.; Cutini, S.; Gasparrini, D.; Preger, B.; Santolamazza, P.; Giommi, P.; Antonelli, L. A.; Colafrancesco, S.; Salotti, L.

doi:10.1051/0004-6361:200810562

Cited by 25 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The SuperAGILE capabilities in terms of rapid and accurate localizations of GRBs have been well demonstrated with the discovery of its first GRB, 070724B ) and this continues with a rate of about 1 GRB per 1-2 months. Instead, MCAL detects approximately 1 GRB per week, as described in Marisaldi et al (2008). Here we present the observation of the first GRB for which a positive detection has been obtained by the GRID.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 75%

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AGILE detection of delayed gamma-ray emission from GRB 080514B

Giuliani

Mereghetti

Fornari

et al. 2008

A&A

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GRB 080514B is the first gamma ray burst (GRB), since the time of EGRET, for which individual photons of energy above several tens of MeV have been detected with a pair-conversion tracker telescope. This burst was discovered with the Italian AGILE gamma-ray satellite. The GRB was localized by a cooperation between AGILE and the interplanetary network (IPN). The gamma-ray imager (GRID) estimate of the position, obtained before the SuperAGILE-IPN localization, is found to be consistent with the burst position. The hard X-ray emission observed by SuperAGILE lasted about 7 s, while there is evidence that the emission above 30 MeV extends for a longer duration (at least 13 s). Similar behavior has been seen from a few other GRBs observed with EGRET. However, during the brightest phases, the latter measurements were affected by instrumental dead time effects, resulting in only lower limits to the burst intensity. Thanks to the small dead time of the AGILE/GRID we could assess that in the case of GRB 080514B the gamma-ray to X-ray flux ratio changes significantly between the prompt and extended emission phase.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…The observed fluence is also in good agreement with the Suzaku/WAM results, while it is about 60% that obtained by Konus-Wind. The MCAL GRB detection capabilities and a discussion on the preliminary in-flight calibration is reported in Marisaldi et al (2008).…”

Section: Mcal Detectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

AGILE detection of delayed gamma-ray emission from GRB 080514B

Giuliani

Mereghetti

Fornari

et al. 2008

A&A

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“…SuperAGILE (Feroci et al 2007) operates in the 20−60 keV energy band, with a field of view of about 1 sr. The Mini-Calorimeter (MCAL) (Labanti et al 2009) is an all-sky monitor sensitive to photons in the 350 keV−100 MeV energy range (Marisaldi et al 2008).…”

Section: The Grb Samplementioning

confidence: 99%

Upper limits on the high-energy emission from gamma-ray bursts observed by AGILE-GRID

Longo

Moretti

Nava

et al. 2012

A&A

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Context. The detection and the characterization of the high energy emission component from individual gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is one of the key science objectives of the currently operating gamma-ray satellite AGILE, launched in April 2007. In its first two years of operation AGILE detected three GRBs with photons of energy larger than 30 MeV. One more GRB was detected in AGILE third operation year, while operating in spinning mode. Aims. For the 64 other GRBs localized during the period July 2007 to October 2009 in the field of view of the AGILE Gamma-Ray Imaging Detector (GRID), but not detected by this instrument, we estimate the count and flux upper limits on the GRB high energy emission in the AGILE-GRID energy band (30 MeV−3 GeV). Methods. To calculate the count upper limits, we adopted a Bayesian approach. The flux upper limits are derived using several assumptions on the high-energy spectral behavior. For 28 GRBs with available prompt spectral information, a flux upper limit and the comparison with the expected flux estimated from spectral extrapolation of the Band spectrum to the 30 MeV−3 GeV band are provided. Moreover, upper limits on the flux under the assumption of an extra power law component dominating the 30 MeV−3 GeV band are calculated for all GRBs and considering four different values for the spectral photon index. Finally, we performed a likelihood upper limit on the possible delayed emission up to 1 h after the GRB. Results. The estimated flux upper limits range between 1 × 10 −4 and ∼2 × 10 −2 photons cm −2 s −1 and generally lie above the flux estimated from the extrapolation of the prompt emission in the 30 MeV−3 GeV band. A notable case is GRB 080721, where the AGILE-GRID upper limit suggests a steeper spectral index or the presence of a cut-off in the high energy part of the Band prompt spectrum. The four GRBs detected by AGILE-GRID show high-energy (30 MeV−3 GeV) to low-energy (1 keV−10 MeV) fluence ratios similar to those estimated in this paper for the 64 GRBs without GRID detection, favoring the possibility that AGILE-GRID detected only high-fluence, hard GRBs. From the flux upper limits derived in this work we put some constraint on high-energy radiation from the afterglow emission and from synchrotron self Compton emission in internal shocks.

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“…For those events with a public localization available the GRB name is reported too. A report on the first year of GRB detection with MCAL can be found in reference [23].…”

Section: Gamma-ray Burst Detectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Mini-Calorimeter on-board AGILE: 18 months in orbit

Marisaldi

Labanti

Fuschino

et al. 2008

2008 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record

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AGILE, the Italian space mission dedicated to gamma-ray and hard-X astrophysics, was succesfully launched on 23 April 2007 and is currently fully operative. AGILE is placed in an equatorial Low-Earth Orbit, at 550 Ian altitude with 2.46 degrees inclination. The Mini-Calorimeter (MCAL) on-board AGILE is a scintillation detector made of 30 CsI(TI) bars with photodiode readout at both ends, arranged in two orthogonal layers, for a total amount of 20 kg of active material, an on-axis geometrical area of 1400 cm 2 and a thickness of 1.5 radiation lengths. MCAL can work both as a slave of the AGILE Silicon tracker and as an independent detector for gamma-ray burst (GRB) detection in the 300 keV -200 MeV energy range. H a trigger is issued by a dedicated onboard logic, data are dowloaded in photon-by-photon mode with a time resolution of 2J-Ls allowing complete spectral and timing analysis of the event, limited by counting statistics only. Moreover, 11 band energy spectra with 1 second time resolution (scientific ratemeters) are continuously integrated on-board and sent to telemetry for background monitoring. MCAL is currently one of the three detectors in space with microsecond timing accuracy in the MeV range, with a detection rate of 1 GRB/week. The performance of the instrument after 18 months of in orbit operations will be discussed, as weD as the scientific results achieved.

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Gamma-ray burst detection with the AGILE mini-calorimeter

Cited by 25 publications

References 20 publications

AGILE detection of delayed gamma-ray emission from GRB 080514B

AGILE detection of delayed gamma-ray emission from GRB 080514B

Upper limits on the high-energy emission from gamma-ray bursts observed by AGILE-GRID

The Mini-Calorimeter on-board AGILE: 18 months in orbit

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