Feasibility study of a Laue lens for hard x rays for space astronomy

We report on the feasibility study of a Laue lens for hard X-rays (> 60 keV) based on mosaic crystals, for astrophysical applications. In particular we discuss the scientific motivations, its functioning principle, the procedure followed to select the suitable crystal materials, the criteria adopted to establish crystal dimensions and their distribution on the lens in order to obtain the best lens focusing capabilities, and the criteria for optimizing the lens effective area in a given passband. We also discuss the effects of misalignments of the crystal tiles due to unavoidable mechanical errors in assembling the lens. A software was developed to face all these topics and to evaluate the expected lens performance.