MAX: Development of a Laue diffraction lens for nuclear astrophysics

The next generation of instrumentation for nuclear astrophysics will have to achieve an improvement in sensitivity by a factor of 10–100 over present technologies. With the focusing gamma-ray telescope MAX we take up this challenge and propose to combine the required sensitivity with high spectral and angular resolution, and the capability to measure the polarization of the photons. MAX is a space-borne crystal diffraction telescope, featuring a broad-band Laue lens optimized for the observation of compact sources in two wide energy bands of high astrophysical relevance. Gamma rays will be focused from the large collecting area of a crystal diffraction lens onto a very small detector volume. As a consequence, the signal to background ratio is greatly enhanced, leading to unprecedented sensitivities.