FORWARD

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. THE ROLE OF GAMMA-RAY ASTRONOMY

2. SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES

2.1 THE ORIGIN OF THE ELEMENTS

2.1.1 PROMPT EMISSION FROM SUPERNOVAE & NOVAE

2.1.2 GALACTIC NUCLEOSYNTHESIS

2.1.3 INTERSTELLAR PROCESSES

2.2 THE NATURE OF BLACK HOLES & NEUTRON STARS

2.2.1 BLACK HOLE SYSTEMS

2.2.2 ACCRETING NEUTRON STARS: X-RAY BURSTERS AND PULSARS

2.2.3 WHITE DWARFS

2.2.4 SPIN-DOWN PULSARS

2.3 EXTRAGALACTIC ASTROPHYSICS

2.3.1 SEYFERTS

2.3.2 BLAZARS

2.3.3 CLUSTERS

2.3.4 THE DIFFUSE GAMMA-RAY BACKGROUND

2.4 THE PUZZLE OF THE UNIDENTIFIED HIGH-ENERGY GAMMA-RAY SOURCES

2.5 THE GAMMA-RAY BURST ENIGMA

2.6 SOLAR GAMMA RAYS: EXCEPTIONAL PHOTONS FROM AN UNEXCEPTIONAL STAR

3. CURRENT PROGRAM

3.1 COMPTON GAMMA RAY OBSERVATORY

3.2 INTEGRAL

3.3 COMPLEMENTARY X-RAY MISSIONS

3.4 GAMMA-RAY BURST INSTRUMENTS

3.5 TeV TELESCOPES

3.6 LONG-DURATION BALLOON PROGRAM FOR HIGH-ENERGY ASTROPHYSICS

3.7 THEORY

4. FUTURE MISSIONS

4.1 INTERMEDIATE CLASS

4.1.1 HIGH-ENERGY

4.1.2 HARD X-RAY FOCUSING

4.1.3 NUCLEAR ASTROPHYSICS/MEDIUM ENERGY

4.2 MIDEX & SMEX

4.2.1 HARD X-RAY SURVEY

4.2.2 GAMMA-RAY BURSTS

4.2.3 SOLAR

4.3 SUBORBITAL PROGRAM

5. TECHNOLOGIES

5.1 IMAGING TECHNIQUES

5.1.1 MULTI LAYER MIRRORS

5.1.2 CODED APERTURE IMAGING

5.1.3 COMPTON SCATTER TELESCOPES

5.1.4 PAIR PRODUCTION TELESCOPES

5.1.5 ATMOSPHERIC CERENKOV TELESCOPES

5.2 DETECTOR TECHNOLOGIES

5.2.1 STRIP AND PIXEL DETECTORS

5.2.1.1 CdZnTe

5.2.1.2 GERMANIUM

5.2.1.3 SILICON STRIPS

5.2.1.4 GAS MICROSTRIPS

5.2.1.5 LIQUID XENON

5.2.2 VLSI/ASIC

5.3 COMPUTATIONAL CAPABILITIES

6. SUPPORTING PROGRAMS

6.1 DATA ANALYSIS

6.2 THEORY

6.3 GROUND-BASED

7. EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH

8. RECOMMENDED PROGRAM

8.1 FUTURE MISSIONS

8.1.1 INTERMEDIATE MISSIONS

8.1.2 MIDEX AND SMEX MISSIONS

8.1.3 HETE

8.2 CURRENT AND APPROVED MISSIONS

8.3 SUPPORTING PROGRAMS

8.3.1 TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND BALLOON PROGRAM

8.3.2 DATA ANALYSIS AND THEORY

8.3.3 TeV ASTRONOMY

8.4 NEW TECHNOLOGIES

APPENDIX 1: ACRONYM LIST

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS