scholarly journals Cherenkov Telescope Ring - An Idea for World Wide Monitoring of the VHE Sky

2019 ◽  
Vol 207 ◽  
pp. 03002
Author(s):  
Tim Ruhe ◽  
Dominik Elsässer ◽  
Wolfgang Rhode ◽  
Maximilian Nöthe ◽  
Kai Brügge

With very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray astronomy becoming a mature branch of observational astrophysics, and the multi-messenger sky being opened up by neutrino observatories and gravitational wave detectors, we here propose to set up a ring of imaging air Cherenkov telescopes – the Cherenkov Telescope Ring (CTR). The aim of this proposed project would be to facilitate continuous monitoring of sources on the VHE- and multi-messenger sky with minimal time delays and with high sensitivity. Development time and construction cost could be kept comparatively low by both including existing facilities into the monitoring effort, and by relying on substantial previous expertise gained in the community on the road towards the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). This way, the Ring could prove to be a highly efficient facility greatly enhancing the science prospects for future ground-based high-energy astrophysics.

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (S342) ◽  
pp. 158-166
Author(s):  
Eleonora Torresi

AbstractThanks to the Fermi λ-ray satellite and the current Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes, radio galaxies have arisen as a new class of high- and very-high energy emitters. The favourable orientation of their jets makes radio galaxies extremely relevant in addressing important issues such as: (i) revealing the jet structure complexity; (ii) localising the emitting region(s) of high- and very-high energy radiation; (iii) understanding the physical processes producing these photons. In this review the main results on the λ-ray emission studies of radio galaxies from the MeV to TeV regimes will be presented, and the impact of future Cherenkov Telescope Array observations will be discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1548 (1) ◽  
pp. 012036
Author(s):  
L Di Venere ◽  
G Giavitto ◽  
F Giordano ◽  
R López-Coto ◽  
R Pillera

Abstract The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be the next major observatory for Very High Energy gamma-ray astronomy. Its optical throughput calibration relies on muon Cherenkov rings. This work is aimed at developing a fast and efficient muon tagger at the camera level for the CTA telescopes. A novel technique to tag muons using the capabilities of silicon photomultiplier Compact High-Energy Camera CHEC-S, one of the design options for the camera of the small size telescopes, has been developed, studying and comparing different algorithms such as circle fitting with the Taubin method, machine learning using a neural network and simple pixel counting. Their performance in terms of efficiency and computation speed was investigated using simulations with varying levels of night sky background light. The application of the best performing method to the large size telescope camera has also been studied, to improve the speed of the muon preselection.


2021 ◽  
Vol 923 (2) ◽  
pp. 241
Author(s):  
C. B. Adams ◽  
W. Benbow ◽  
A. Brill ◽  
J. H. Buckley ◽  
M. Capasso ◽  
...  

Abstract The results of gamma-ray observations of the binary system HESS J0632 + 057 collected during 450 hr over 15 yr, between 2004 and 2019, are presented. Data taken with the atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS at energies above 350 GeV were used together with observations at X-ray energies obtained with Swift-XRT, Chandra, XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, and Suzaku. Some of these observations were accompanied by measurements of the Hα emission line. A significant detection of the modulation of the very high-energy gamma-ray fluxes with a period of 316.7 ± 4.4 days is reported, consistent with the period of 317.3 ± 0.7 days obtained with a refined analysis of X-ray data. The analysis of data from four orbital cycles with dense observational coverage reveals short-timescale variability, with flux-decay timescales of less than 20 days at very high energies. Flux variations observed over a timescale of several years indicate orbit-to-orbit variability. The analysis confirms the previously reported correlation of X-ray and gamma-ray emission from the system at very high significance, but cannot find any correlation of optical Hα parameters with fluxes at X-ray or gamma-ray energies in simultaneous observations. The key finding is that the emission of HESS J0632 + 057 in the X-ray and gamma-ray energy bands is highly variable on different timescales. The ratio of gamma-ray to X-ray flux shows the equality or even dominance of the gamma-ray energy range. This wealth of new data is interpreted taking into account the insufficient knowledge of the ephemeris of the system, and discussed in the context of results reported on other gamma-ray binary systems.


2019 ◽  
Vol 214 ◽  
pp. 05041 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luisa Arrabito ◽  
Konrad Bernlöhr ◽  
Johan Bregeon ◽  
Gernot Maier ◽  
Philippe Langlois ◽  
...  

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), currently under construction, is the next-generation instrument in the field of very high energy gamma-ray astronomy. The first data are expected by the end of 2018, while the scientific operations will start in 2022 for a duration of about 30 years. In order to characterize the instrument response to the Cherenkov light emitted when cosmic ray showers develop in the atmosphere, detailed Monte Carlo simulations will be regularly performed in parallel to CTA operation. The estimated CPU time associated to these simulations is very high, of the order of 200 millions HS06 hours per year. Reducing the CPU time devoted to simulations would allow either to reduce infrastructure cost or to better cover the large phase space. In this paper, we focus on the main computing step (70% of the whole CPU time) implemented in the CORSIKA program, and specifically on the mod-ule responsible for the propagation of Cherenkov photons in the atmosphere. We present our preliminary studies about different options of code optimization, with a particular focus on vectorization facilities (SIMD instructions). Our proposals take care, as automatically as possible, of the hardware portability constraints introduced by the grid computing environment that hosts these simulations. Performance evaluation in terms of running-time and accuracy is provided.


2017 ◽  
Vol 471 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Cristofari ◽  
S. Gabici ◽  
T. B. Humensky ◽  
M. Santander ◽  
R. Terrier ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 492 (1) ◽  
pp. 708-718 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Mestre ◽  
E de Oña Wilhelmi ◽  
R Zanin ◽  
D F Torres ◽  
L Tibaldo

ABSTRACT The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be the next generation instrument for the very high energy gamma-ray astrophysics domain. With its enhanced sensitivity in comparison with the current facilities, CTA is expected to shed light on a varied population of sources. In particular, we will achieve a deeper knowledge of the Crab nebula and pulsar, which are the best characterized pulsar wind nebula and rotation powered pulsar, respectively. We aim at studying the capabilities of CTA regarding these objects through simulations, using the main tools currently in development for the CTA future data analysis: gammapy and ctools. We conclude that, even using conservative Instrument Response Functions, CTA will be able to resolve many uncertainties regarding the spectrum and morphology of the pulsar and its nebula. The large energy range covered by CTA will allow us to disentangle the nebula spectral shape among different hypotheses, corresponding to different underlying emitting mechanisms. In addition, resolving internal structures (smaller than ∼0.02° in size) in the nebula and unveiling their location, would provide crucial information about the propagation of particles in the magnetized medium. We used a theoretical asymmetric model to characterize the morphology of the nebula and we showed that if predictions of such morphology exist, for instance as a result of hydrodynamical or magneto-hydrodynamical simulations, it can be directly compared with CTA results. We also tested the capability of CTA to detect periodic radiation from the Crab pulsar obtaining a precise measurement of different light curves shapes.


2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (28) ◽  
pp. 1230030 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANK M. RIEGER ◽  
FELIX AHARONIAN

Recent high-sensitivity observation of the nearby radio galaxy M87 has provided important insights into the central engine that drives the large-scale outflows seen in radio, optical and X-rays. This review summarizes the observational status achieved in the high energy (HE < 100 GeV) and very high energy (VHE > 100 GeV) gamma-ray domains, and discusses the theoretical progress in understanding the physical origin of this emission and its relation to the activity of the central black hole.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (S324) ◽  
pp. 70-73
Author(s):  
Alessio Berti ◽  

AbstractGamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are the most violent explosions in the Universe, releasing a huge amount of energy in few seconds. While our understanding of the prompt and the afterglow phases has increased with Swift and Fermi, we have very few information about their High Energy (HE, E ≲ 100) emission components. This requires a ground-based experiment able to perform fast follow-up with enough sensitivity above ~ 50 GeV. The MAGIC (Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov) telescopes have been designed to perform fast follow-up on GRBs thanks to fast slewing movement and low energy threshold (~ 50 GeV). Since the beginning of the operations, MAGIC followed-up 89 GRBs in good observational conditions. In this contribution the MAGIC GRBs follow-up campaign and the results which could be obtained by detecting HE and Very High Energy (VHE, E ≳ 100 GeV) γ-rays from GRBs will be reviewed.


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