GALI a New Concept for Directional Detection of GRBs

We developed a new method to detect the direction of Γ-ray bursts (GRBs). The concept is based on mutual shielding of numerous randomly distributed small scintillators.The relative photon counts on each scintillator are sensitive to the direction of the incoming burst. In a sense, this is similar to a coded mask, only the detecting scintillators mask each other in 3D. The size of the detector system, which we call GALI (GAmma ray burst Localizing Instrument) is scalable, so can be easily implemented on a small satellite. The talk will present experiments and simulations of the new concept, as well as hardware we are building to send to the International Space Station.