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........ published in NEWSLETTER # 55

THE GAMMA RAY SKY WITH COMPTON GRO AND SIGMA
by Dr. M.G. Signore, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris (France)

This volume (NATO ASI SERIES C461) consists of invited lectures and seminars presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute "The Gamma Ray Sky with Compton GRO and SIGMA" which was held at the Centre de Physique Theorique of Les Houches, France in January and February 1995.

In April 1991, NASA launched the Compton GammaRay Observatory (GRO) satellite which covers six decades of energy from 15 keV to 30 GeV. The french gamma ray telescope SIGMA, on board the soviet satellite GRANAT, has been imaging the sky from 35 keV to 1.3 MeV since December 1989. The aim of the Advanced Study Institute was to present the experiments, the first results and the astrophysical implications of these two space missions as well as those of other ground-based telescopes in the TeVrange, four years after the GRANAT launch and nearly three years after the Compton GRO launch. In the present book, astrophysicists and particle physicists, both experimentalists and theoriticians, review the achievements, problems and prospects in the gamma ray field. The main topics covered are: galactic and extragalactic gamma ray sources and backgrounds, the Galactic Center, gamma ray spectroscopy and gamma ray bursts. Ultimately, this volume may contribute to answer some fundamental questions such as: what are gamma ray bursts? Are active galaxies powered by black holes? Is there a true cosmological gamma ray background? What is taking place at the Center of the Galaxy? What is the nature of galactic dark matter? This volume is suitable for both graduate students and researchers in the gamma ray field.
Reference books: C134, C163, C195, C199, C262, C445, C450, C458, C461

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