Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

Improving the Scientific Potential of Pass 8: Status and Plans for a future Pass 8 Release

M. Wood
W. B. Atwood, L. Baldini, P. Bruel, R. Caputo, C. Sgro

Abstract:

The first Pass 8 release in June 2015 was a major milestone in the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) mission that demonstrated significant gains in the performance and overall scientific capabilities of the LAT instrument. Work is now ongoing within the LAT team to update and refine several aspects of the Pass 8 data and models with the goal of further improving upon the gains made with the first Pass 8 release. These enhancements will enable users to fully exploit the new capabilities of the LAT instrument provided by Pass 8 especially as they pertain to analyses at very low (< 100 MeV) and very high (> 100 GeV) energies. Among the planned developments are a new dedicated Calorimeter-Only event class that will enhance the LAT acceptance at very high energies, new IRFs with in-flight corrections that will reduce systematic uncertainties in the instrument response, and more accurate models for the residual Earth Limb, cosmic-ray contamination, and Galactic diffuse emission that will enable analyses extending to the lowest energies. In this talk I will give a broad overview of the on-going Pass 8 development and provide some context for what the Community might expect in the next Pass 8 public release.