e-ASTROGAM : towards a new space mission for gamma-ray astronomy

The mission concept e-ASTROGAM was recently submitted to the European Space Agency on behalf of a large collaboration of about 350 scientists. The proposed space telescope is design to cover a wide spectral band (200 keV to 3 GeV) with a sensitivity in the MeV range about 100 times better than the gamma-ray instruments currently in operation on board the INTEGRAL satellite. It also features a groundbreaking capability for measuring gamma-ray polarization. In this talk, I will first give an overview of the scientific objectives targeted by this proposal, and then present the mission concept, the operating principle of the gamma-ray telescope and the possible French contributions to the development of the payload.