CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 4,198Astrophysics and Cosmic PhenomenaParticle Detector Development and PerformanceRadiation Detection and Scintillator Technologies

THE LARGE AREA TELESCOPE ON THE FERMI GAMMA-RAY SPACE TELESCOPE MISSION

Open access
Atwood, W. B., Abdo, A. A., Ackermann, M., Althouse, W., Anderson, B., Axelsson, M., Baldini, L., Ballet, J. +232 more·2009·The Astrophysical Journal
DOI 10.1088/0004-637x/697/2/1071
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

The Large Area Telescope ( Fermi /LAT, hereafter LAT), the primary instrument on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope ( Fermi ) mission, is an imaging, wide field-of-view (FoV), high-energy γ-ray telescope, covering the energy range from below 20 MeV to more than 300 GeV. The LAT was built by an international collaboration with contributions from space agencies, high-energy particle physics institutes, and universities in France, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and the United States. This paper describes the LAT, its preflight expected performance, and summarizes the key science objectives that will be addressed. On-orbit performance will be presented in detail in a subsequent paper. The LAT is a pair-conversion telescope with a precision tracker and calorimeter, each consisting of a 4 × 4 array of 16 modules, a segmented anticoincidence detector that covers the tracker array, and a programmable trigger and data acquisition system. Each tracker module has a vertical stack of 18 ( x , y ) tracking planes, including two layers ( x and y ) of single-sided silicon strip detectors and high- Z converter material (tungsten) per tray. Every calorimeter module has 96 CsI(Tl) crystals, arranged in an eight-layer hodoscopic configuration with a total depth of 8.6 radiation lengths, giving both longitudinal and transverse information about the energy deposition pattern. The calorimeter's depth and segmentation enable the high-energy reach of the LAT and contribute significantly to background rejection. The aspect ratio of the tracker (height/width) is 0.4, allowing a large FoV (2.4 sr) and ensuring that most pair-conversion showers initiated in the tracker will pass into the calorimeter for energy measurement. Data obtained with the LAT are intended to (1) permit rapid notification of high-energy γ-ray bursts and transients and facilitate monitoring of variable sources, (2) yield an extensive catalog of several thousand high-energy sources obtained from an all-sky survey, (3) measure spectra from 20 MeV to more than 50 GeV for several hundred sources, (4) localize point sources to 0.3–2 arcmin, (5) map and obtain spectra of extended sources such as SNRs, molecular clouds, and nearby galaxies, (6) measure the diffuse isotropic γ-ray background up to TeV energies, and (7) explore the discovery space for dark matter.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1088/0004-637x/697/2/1071

Cites

201 of 201 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 10

  1. Baldini, L., et al. 2007, in AIP Conf. Proc. 921, Proc. of 1 st GLAST Symp., ed.
  2. Baughman, B. M., Atwood, W. B., Johnson, R. P., Porter, T. A., & Ziegler, M. 2007, in Proc. 30th Int. Cosmic Ray Conf., in press (arXiv:0706.0503) · arXiv
  3. Caraveo, P. A., & Reimer, O. 2007, in AIP Conf. Proc. 921, Proc. of 1st GLAST Symp., ed. S. Ritz, P. Michelson, & C. Meegan (New York: AIP), 289
  4. Hartman, R. C., et al. 1999, ApJS, 123, 79 · DOI
  5. Moskalenko, I. V., & Strong, A. W. 2005, in AIP Conf. Proc. 801, Proc. Int. Conf. on Astrophysical Sources of High Energy Particles and Radiation, ed.
  6. Petry, D. 2005, in AIP Conf. Proc. 745, High Energy Gamma Ray Astronomy: 2nd Int. Symp., ed. F. A. Aharonian, H. J. Völk, & D. Horns (New York: AIP), 709
  7. Primack, J. R., Somerville, R. S., Bullock, J. S., & Devriendt, J. E. G. 2001, in AIP Conf. Proc. 558, High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy, ed. F. A. Aharonian & H. J. Völk (New York: AIP), 463
  8. Thompson, D. J. 2001, in AIP Conf. Proc. 558, Proc. of High-Energy Gamma- ray Astronomy Symposium, ed. F. A. Aharonian & H. J. Völk (New York: AIP), 103
  9. Voronov, S. A., et al. 1991, Cosmic Research (English Translation), 29(4), 567
  10. Willis, T. D. 1996, Ph.D. thesis, Stanford Univ.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Atwood, W. B., Abdo, A. A., Ackermann, M., Althouse, W., Anderson, B., Axelsson, M., Baldini, L., Ballet, J., Band, D. L., Barbiellini, G., Bartelt, J., Bastieri, D., Baughman, B. M., Bechtol, K., Bédérède, D., Bellardi, F., Bellazzini, R., Berenji, B., Bignami, G. F., Bisello, D., Bissaldi, E., Blandford, R. D., Bloom, E. D., Bogart, J. R., Bonamente, E., Bonnell, J., Borgland, A. W., Bouvier, A., Bregeon, J., Brez, A., Brigida, M., Bruel, P., Burnett, T. H., Busetto, G., Caliandro, G. A., Cameron, R. A., Caraveo, P. A., Carius, S., Carlson, P., Casandjian, J. M., Cavazzuti, E., Ceccanti, M., Cecchi, C., Charles, E., Chekhtman, A., Cheung, C. C., Chiang, J., Chipaux, R., Cillis, A. N., Ciprini, S., Claus, R., Cohen-Tanugi, J., Condamoor, S., Conrad, J., Corbet, R., Corucci, L., Costamante, L., Cutini, S., Davis, D. S., Decotigny, D., DeKlotz, M., Dermer, C. D., de Angelis, A., Digel, S. W., do Couto e Silva, E., Drell, P. S., Dubois, R., Dumora, D., Edmonds, Y., Fabiani, D., Farnier, C., Favuzzi, C., Flath, D. L., Fleury, P., Focke, W. B., Funk, S., Fusco, P., Gargano, F., Gasparrini, D., Gehrels, N., Gentit, F.-X., Germani, S., Giebels, B., Giglietto, N., Giommi, P., Giordano, F., Glanzman, T., Godfrey, G., Grenier, I. A., Grondin, M.-H., Grove, J. E., Guillemot, L., Guiriec, S., Haller, G., Harding, A. K., Hart, P. A., Hays, E., Healey, S. E., Hirayama, M., Hjalmarsdotter, L., Horn, R., Hughes, R. E., Jóhannesson, G., Johansson, G., Johnson, A. S., Johnson, R. P., Johnson, T. J., Johnson, W. N., Kamae, T., Katagiri, H., Kataoka, J., Kavelaars, A., Kawai, N., Kelly, H., Kerr, M., Klamra, W., Knödlseder, J., Kocian, M. L., Komin, N., Kuehn, F., Kuss, M., Landriu, D., Latronico, L., Lee, B., Lee, S.-H., Lemoine-Goumard, M., Lionetto, A. M., Longo, F., Loparco, F., Lott, B., Lovellette, M. N., Lubrano, P., Madejski, G. M., Makeev, A., Marangelli, B., Massai, M. M., Mazziotta, M. N., McEnery, J. E., Menon, N., Meurer, C., Michelson, P. F., Minuti, M., Mirizzi, N., Mitthumsiri, W., Mizuno, T., Moiseev, A. A., Monte, C., Monzani, M. E., Moretti, E., Morselli, A., Moskalenko, I. V., Murgia, S., Nakamori, T., Nishino, S., Nolan, P. L., Norris, J. P., Nuss, E., Ohno, M., Ohsugi, T., Omodei, N., Orlando, E., Ormes, J. F., Paccagnella, A., Paneque, D., Panetta, J. H., Parent, D., Pearce, M., Pepe, M., Perazzo, A., Pesce-Rollins, M., Picozza, P., Pieri, L., Pinchera, M., Piron, F., Porter, T. A., Poupard, L., Rainò, S., Rando, R., Rapposelli, E., Razzano, M., Reimer, A., Reimer, O., Reposeur, T., Reyes, L. C., Ritz, S., Rochester, L. S., Rodriguez, A. Y., Romani, R. W., Roth, M., Russell, J. J., Ryde, F., Sabatini, S., Sadrozinski, H. F.-W., Sanchez, D., Sander, A., Sapozhnikov, L., Parkinson, P. M. S., Scargle, J. D., Schalk, T. L., Scolieri, G., Sgrò, C., Share, G. H., Shaw, M., Shimokawabe, T., Shrader, C., Sierpowska-Bartosik, A., Siskind, E. J., Smith, D. A., Smith, P. D., Spandre, G., Spinelli, P., Starck, J.-L., Stephens, T. E., Strickman, M. S., Strong, A. W., Suson, D. J., Tajima, H., Takahashi, H., Takahashi, T., Tanaka, T., Tenze, A., Tether, S., Thayer, J. B., Thayer, J. G., Thompson, D. J., Tibaldo, L., Tibolla, O., Torres, D. F., Tosti, G., Tramacere, A., Turri, M., Usher, T. L., Vilchez, N., Vitale, V., Wang, P., Watters, K., Winer, B. L., Wood, K. S., Ylinen, T., & Ziegler, M.
Affiliations
  • University of California, Santa Cruz (US)
  • United States Naval Research Laboratory (US)
  • SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US)
  • AlbaNova (SE)
  • Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Pisa (IT)
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
  • Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
  • University of Trieste (IT)
  • University of Padua (IT)
  • The Ohio State University (US)
  • Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR)
  • Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori di Pavia (IT)
  • Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (DE)
  • University of Perugia (IT)
  • Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari (IT)
  • University of Washington (US)
  • Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica di Milano (IT)
  • Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (IT)
  • Stockholm University (SE)
  • Stellar Solutions (United States) (US)
  • Hiroshima University (JP)
  • Tokyo Institute of Technology (JP)
  • University of Rome Tor Vergata (IT)
  • University of Denver (US)
  • Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (JP)
  • Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Padova (IT)
  • University of Chicago (US)
  • Institute of Space Sciences (ES)
  • Ames Research Center (US)
  • Purdue University Northwest (US)
  • Heidelberg University (DE)
  • Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ES)
ORCID
Venue
The Astrophysical Journal
Publisher
American Astronomical Society
Published
2009-05-08
Volume
697
Issue
2
Pages
1071-1102
ISSN
  • 0004-637X (ISSN-L)
  • 1538-4357
DOI
10.1088/0004-637x/697/2/1071
OpenAlex
W2167277890
Cited by
4,198
References
201
Citations by year
2026: 172 · 2025: 240 · 2024: 237 · 2023: 281 · 2022: 222 · 2021: 270 · 2020: 274 · 2019: 260 · 2018: 218 · 2017: 256 · 2016: 307 · 2015: 223 · 2014: 220 · 2013: 244 · 2012: 266
FWCI
138.58
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • The Astrophysical Journal (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • University of North Texas Digital Library (University of North Texas) (submittedVersion)
  • HAL (submittedVersion)
  • Institutional Research Information System (University of Udine) (submittedVersion)
  • CINECA IRIS Institutial research information system (University of Pisa) (submittedVersion)
  • ArTS Archivio della ricerca di Trieste (University of Trieste https://www.units.it/) (submittedVersion)
  • Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (submittedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion)
  • eSpace (Curtin University) (submittedVersion)
  • Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) (submittedVersion)
  • Oskar-Bordeaux (Universite de Bordeaux) (submittedVersion)
  • OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
  • MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
  • JAXA Repository (JAXA) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • CINECA IRIS Institutional Research Information System (University of Bari Aldo Moro) (submittedVersion)
  • Tokyo Tech Research Repository (Tokyo Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
  • Padua Research Archive (University of Padova) (submittedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University)
Funders
  • U.S. Department of Energy
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  • Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
  • Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
  • Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
  • Vetenskapsrådet
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
  • Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica
  • High Energy Accelerator Research Organization
  • Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
  • Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
  • Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Nuclear and High Energy Physics › Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Nuclear and High Energy Physics › Particle Detector Development and Performance
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Radiation › Radiation Detection and Scintillator Technologies
Keywords
Large Area Telescope, Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, silicon strip tracker, CsI(Tl) calorimeter, high-energy gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts, all-sky survey, diffuse gamma-ray background, dark matter, cosmic ray sources

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review