The primary goal of the FLAG SAG is to develop a coherent framework for comparing and assessing gamma-ray mission architectures. Within this framework, the SAG will:

1. Solicit and collect technical capabilities and their development status from the community, welcoming concepts at any stage of development, from ideas based on technologies at high readiness levels to concepts requiring substantial technology maturation.
2. Tabulate and harmonize technical capabilities descriptions, identifying for each:
   • The primary science goals and key science questions addressed;
   • Basic performance metrics (e.g., energy range, sensitivity, angular and energy resolution, field of view, timing capabilities, polarization sensitivity);
   • The anticipated mission scale (Probe, Flagship or other);
   • The current level of technology readiness, and the technology development efforts, including hardware and software, required to mature the concept into a viable mission proposal;
   • Additional considerations relevant for Decadal-level discussion.
3. Identify common themes, trends, complementarities, and overlaps among mission concepts, including similarities in science goals, measurement approaches, or enabling technologies, and suggest generalized concepts where appropriate in order to clearly define coherent, community-endorsed mission directions.

The scientific motivation for this effort is grounded in the community-defined priorities articulated by the Future Innovations in Gamma rays Science Analysis Group (FIG SAG), including but not limited to nuclear lines to study supernova explosions, pulsar timing arrays to study supermassive black hole mergers, blazar jets and gamma ray bursts to study particle acceleration, and place constraints on WIMP and ALP dark matter candidates. Other science drivers continue to emerge alongside observational and theoretical advances, including the capabilities of gamma-ray missions (such as polarization and high-resolution spectroscopy), to reveal the properties of relativistic plasma processes in extreme environments. Mission concepts considered by the FLAG SAG are expected to connect to these science drivers and to clearly articulate the scientific advances enabled by their proposed capabilities.

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SAG Chairs