The Science Case for a Southern Wide Field of View Detector

EAS arrays are survey instruments able to monitor continuously all the overhead sky. Their sensitivity in the sub-TeV/TeV energy domain cannot compete with that of Cherenkov telescopes, but the wide field of view (about 2 sr) is ideal to complement directional detectors by performing unbiased sky surveys, by monitoring variable or flaring sources such as Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and to discover transients or explosive events (GRBs). Arrays are well suited to study extended sources, such as the Galactic diffuse emission, and to measure the spectra of Galactic sources at the highest energies (near or beyond 100 TeV). An EAS array is able to detect at the same time events induced by photons and charged cosmic rays, thus studying the connection between these two messengers of the non-thermal Universe. Therefore, these detectors are, by definition, multi-messenger instruments. All EAS arrays presently in operation or under installation are located in the Northern hemisphere. The scientific potential of a next-generation survey instrument in the Southern Hemisphere will be presented and briefly discussed.Comment: Plenary Talk, Roma International Conference on Astroparticle Physics - RICAP 2018, Sept. 2018, Rome (Italy

ARGO-YBJ: Status and Highlights

The ARGO-YBJ experiment is in stable data taking since November 2007 at the YangBaJing Cosmic Ray Laboratory (Tibet, P.R. China, 4300 m a.s.l., 606 g/cm$^2$). ARGO-YBJ is facing open problems in Cosmic Ray (CR) physics in different ways. The search for CR sources is carried out by the observation of TeV gamma-ray sources both galactic and extra-galactic. The CR spectrum, composition and anisotropy are measured in a wide energy range (TeV - PeV) thus overlapping for the first time direct measurements. In this paper we summarize the current status of the experiment and describe some of the scientific highlights since 2007.Comment: Invited contribution to the Workshop "Frontier Objects in Astrophysics and Particle Physics", Vulcano (Italy) 28 May - 2 June 201