PACT: a sensitive 100 keV-10 MeV all sky pairs and Compton telescope

PACT is a Pair And Compton Telescope that aims to make a sensitive survey of the gamma-ray sky between 100 keV and 100 MeV. It will be devoted to the detection of radioactivity lines from present and past supernova explosions, the observation of thousands of new blazars, and the study of polarized radiations from gamma-ray bursts, pulsars and accreting black holes. It will reach a sensitivity of one to two orders of magnitude lower than COMPTEL/CGRO (e.g. about 50 times lower for the broad-band, survey sensitivity at 1 MeV after 5 years). The concept of PACT will be proposed for the AstroMeV mission in the framework of the M4 ESA Call. It is based upon three main components: a silicon-based gamma-ray tracker, a crystal-based calorimeter (e.g. CeBr3:Sr), and an anticoincidence detector made of plastic scintillator panels. Prototypes of these detector planes are currently tested in the laboratories.