HERA-B Framework for Online Calibration and Alignment

This paper describes the architecture and implementation of the HERA-B framework for online calibration and alignment. At HERA-B the performance of all trigger levels, including the online reconstruction, strongly depends on using the appropriate calibration and alignment constants, which might change during data taking. A system to monitor, recompute and distribute those constants to online processes has been integrated in the data acquisition and trigger systems.Comment: Submitted to NIM A. 4 figures, 15 page

Discovery of the VHE gamma-ray source HESS J1641-463

A new TeV source, HESS J1641-463, has been serendipitously discovered in the Galactic plane by the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) at a significance level of 8.6 standard deviations. The observations of HESS J1641-463 were performed between 2004 and 2011 and the source has a moderate flux level of 1.7% of the Crab Nebula flux at E > 1 TeV. HESS J1641-463 has a rather hard photon index of 1.99 +- 0.13_stat +- 0.20_sys. HESS J1641-463 is positionally coincident with the radio supernova remnant SNR G338.5+0.1, but no clear X-ray counterpart has been found in archival Chandra observations of the region. Different possible VHE production scenarios will be discussed in this contribution.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, 2012 Fermi Symposium proceedings - eConf C12102

Multi-wavelength observations of the binary system PSR B1259-63/LS 2883 around the 2010-2011 periastron passage

We report on broad multi-wavelength observations of the 2010-2011 periastron passage of the gamma-ray loud binary system PSR B1259-63. High resolution interferometric radio observations establish extended radio emission trailing the position of the pulsar. Observations with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveal GeV gamma-ray flaring activity of the system, reaching the spin-down luminosity of the pulsar, around 30 days after periastron. There are no clear signatures of variability at radio, X-ray and TeV energies at the time of the GeV flare. Variability around periastron in the H$\alpha$ emission line, can be interpreted as the gravitational interaction between the pulsar and the circumstellar disk. The equivalent width of the H$\alpha$ grows from a few days before periastron until a few days later, and decreases again between 18 and 46 days after periastron. In near infrared we observe the similar decrease of the equivalent width of Br$\gamma$ line between the 40th and 117th day after the periastron. For the idealized disk, the variability of the H$\alpha$ line represents the variability of the mass and size of the disk. We discuss possible physical relations between the state of the disk and GeV emission under assumption that GeV flare is directly related to the decrease of the disk size.Comment: accepted to MNRA

Status and Plans for the Array Control and Data Acquisition System of the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next-generation atmospheric Cherenkov gamma-ray observatory. CTA will consist of two installations, one in the northern, and the other in the southern hemisphere, containing tens of telescopes of different sizes. The CTA performance requirements and the inherent complexity associated with the operation, control and monitoring of such a large distributed multi-telescope array leads to new challenges in the field of the gamma-ray astronomy. The ACTL (array control and data acquisition) system will consist of the hardware and software that is necessary to control and monitor the CTA arrays, as well as to time-stamp, read-out, filter and store -at aggregated rates of few GB/s- the scientific data. The ACTL system must be flexible enough to permit the simultaneous automatic operation of multiple sub-arrays of telescopes with a minimum personnel effort on site. One of the challenges of the system is to provide a reliable integration of the control of a large and heterogeneous set of devices. Moreover, the system is required to be ready to adapt the observation schedule, on timescales of a few tens of seconds, to account for changing environmental conditions or to prioritize incoming scientific alerts from time-critical transient phenomena such as gamma ray bursts. This contribution provides a summary of the main design choices and plans for building the ACTL system.Comment: In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands. All CTA contributions at arXiv:1508.0589

Multiscale Photon Based In Situ and Operando Spectroscopies in Time and Energy Landscapes

Following catalytic reactions, in situ and operando are now the focus of a number of dedicated experiments at light sources which have been developed to track the electronic and molecular structural dynamics of catalysts. The challenges for this goal are two fold first, the development of spectroscopic tools in the energy domain and time domain is required. The photocatalytic processes have early dynamics of tens of femtoseconds, while further reaction takes seconds, minutes, and even hours. Second, a combination of tools to probe processes not only in solids, but also in solutions and at interfaces, is now needed. In this special issue, we present recent developments at the synchrotron facility BESSY II using photon energy from the infrared and extreme ultraviolet up to the soft X ray regime for in situ and operando applications addressing these two major challenges. As this work is a result of contributions from several groups, each section will present the group s activities and related team members involve

Status of the array control and data acquisition system for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be the next-generation ground-based observatory using the atmospheric Cherenkov technique. The CTA instrument will allow researchers to explore the gamma-ray sky in the energy range from 20 GeV to 300 TeV. CTA will comprise two arrays of telescopes, one with about 100 telescopes in the Southern hemisphere and another smaller array of telescopes in the North. CTA poses novel challenges in the field of ground-based Cherenkov astronomy, due to the demands of operating an observatory composed of a large and distributed system with the needed robustness and reliability that characterize an observatory. The array control and data acquisition system of CTA (ACTL) provides the means to control, readout and monitor the telescopes and equipment of the CTA arrays. The ACTL system must be flexible and reliable enough to permit the simultaneous and automatic control of multiple sub-arrays of telescopes with a minimum effort of the personnel on-site. In addition, the system must be able to react to external factors such as changing weather conditions and loss of telescopes and, on short timescales, to incoming scientific alerts from time-critical transient phenomena. The ACTL system provides the means to time-stamp, readout, filter and store the scientific data at aggregated rates of a few GB/s. Monitoring information from tens of thousands of hardware elements need to be channeled to high performance database systems and will be used to identify potential problems in the instrumentation. This contribution provides an overview of the ACTL system and a status report of the ACTL project within CTA

Progress in Monte Carlo design and optimization of the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be an instrument covering a wide energy range in very-high-energy (VHE) gamma rays. CTA will include several types of telescopes, in order to optimize the performance over the whole energy range. Both large-scale Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of CTA super-sets (including many different possible CTA layouts as sub-sets) and smaller-scale simulations dedicated to individual aspects were carried out and are on-going. We summarize results of the prior round of large-scale simulations, show where the design has now evolved beyond the conservative assumptions of the prior round and present first results from the on-going new round of MC simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. In Proceedings of the 33rd International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2013), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). All CTA contributions at arXiv:1307.223

First detection of a VHE gamma-ray spectral maximum from a Cosmic source: H.E.S.S. discovery of the Vela X nebula

The Vela supernova remnant (SNR) is a complex region containing a number of sources of non-thermal radiation. The inner section of this SNR, within 2 degrees of the pulsar PSR B0833-45, has been observed by the H.E.S.S. gamma-ray atmospheric Cherenkov detector in 2004 and 2005. A strong signal is seen from an extended region to the south of the pulsar, within an integration region of radius 0.8 deg. around the position (RA = 08h 35m 00s, dec = -45 deg. 36' J2000.0). The excess coincides with a region of hard X-ray emission seen by the ROSAT and ASCA satellites. The observed energy spectrum of the source between 550 GeV and 65 TeV is well fit by a power law function with photon index = 1.45 +/- 0.09(stat) +/- 0.2(sys) and an exponential cutoff at an energy of 13.8 +/- 2.3(stat) +/- 4.1(sys) TeV. The integral flux above 1 TeV is (1.28 +/- 0.17 (stat) +/- 0.38(sys)) x 10^{-11} cm^{-2} s^{-1}. This result is the first clear measurement of a peak in the spectral energy distribution from a VHE gamma-ray source, likely related to inverse Compton emission. A fit of an Inverse Compton model to the H.E.S.S. spectral energy distribution gives a total energy in non-thermal electrons of ~2 x 10^{45} erg between 5 TeV and 100 TeV, assuming a distance of 290 parsec to the pulsar. The best fit electron power law index is 2.0, with a spectral break at 67 TeV.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics letter

A possible association of the new VHE gamma-ray source HESS J1825--137 with the pulsar wind nebula G18.0--0.7

We report on a possible association of the recently discovered very high-energy $\gamma$-ray source HESS J1825--137 with the pulsar wind nebula (commonly referred to as G 18.0--0.7) of the $2.1\times 10^{4}$ year old Vela-like pulsar PSR B1823--13. HESS J1825--137 was detected with a significance of 8.1 $\sigma$ in the Galactic Plane survey conducted with the H.E.S.S. instrument in 2004. The centroid position of HESS J1825--137 is offset by 11\arcmin south of the pulsar position. \emph{XMM-Newton} observations have revealed X-ray synchrotron emission of an asymmetric pulsar wind nebula extending to the south of the pulsar. We argue that the observed morphology and TeV spectral index suggest that HESS J1825--137 and G 18.0--0.7 may be associated: the lifetime of TeV emitting electrons is expected to be longer compared to the {\it XMM-Newton} X-ray emitting electrons, resulting in electrons from earlier epochs (when the spin-down power was larger) contributing to the present TeV flux. These electrons are expected to be synchrotron cooled, which explains the observed photon index of $\sim 2.4$, and the longer lifetime of TeV emitting electrons naturally explains why the TeV nebula is larger than the X-ray size. Finally, supernova remnant expansion into an inhomogeneous medium is expected to create reverse shocks interacting at different times with the pulsar wind nebula, resulting in the offset X-ray and TeV $\gamma$-ray morphology.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Astronomy and Astrophysics Letter