The wide-aperture gamma-ray telescope TAIGA-HiSCORE in the Tunka Valley: Design, composition and commissioning

The new TAIGA-HiSCORE non-imaging Cherenkov array aims to detect air showers induced by gamma rays above 30 TeV and to study cosmic rays above 100 TeV. TAIGA-HiSCORE is made of integrating air Cherenkov detector stations with a wide field of view (0.6 sr), placed at a distance of about 100 m. They cover an area of initially ∼0.25 km$^2$ (prototype array), and of ∼5 km$^2$ at the final phase of the experiment. Each station includes 4 PMTs with 20 or 25 cm diameter, equipped with light guides shaped as Winstone cones. We describe the design, specifications of the read-out, DAQ and control and monitoring systems of the array. The present 28 detector stations of the TAIGA-HiSCORE engineering setup are in operation since September 2015

The TAIGA timing array HiSCORE - first results

Observations of gamma rays up to several 100 TeV are particularly important to spectrally resolve the cutoff regime of the long-sought Pevatrons, the cosmic-ray PeV accelerators. One component of the TAIGA hybrid detector is the TAIGA-HiSCORE timing array, which currently consists of 28 wide angle (0.6 sr) air Cherenkov timing stations distributed on an area of 0.25 km2. The HiSCORE concept is based on (non-imaging) air shower front sampling with Cherenkov light. First results are presented

Simulation of imaging air shower Cherenkov telescopes as part of the TAIGA Project

The Tunka Advanced International Gamma-ray and Cosmic ray Astrophysics (TAIGA) project aims at observation of cosmic rays beyond 100 TeV and gamma rays above 1 TeV via observation of the extensive air showers (EAS) caused in the atmosphere. Two common detection techniques are timing arrays and imaging air shower cherenkov telescopes (IACT). Timing arrays yield good directional and energy reconstruction, but provide only mediocre gamma-hadron-separation at their energy threshold. IACTs are good at separation, but since a stereoscopic view of a shower is needed for high reconstruction accuracy, it is difficult to achieve the large effective areas needed for ultra high energy observations. In this work we present the simulations performed to explore and optimize our IACT design and the first steps towards hybrid reconstruction

The TAIGA timing array HiSCORE - first results

Observations of gamma rays up to several 100 TeV are particularly important to spectrally resolve the cutoff regime of the long-sought Pevatrons, the cosmic-ray PeV accelerators. One component of the TAIGA hybrid detector is the TAIGA-HiSCORE timing array, which currently consists of 28 wide angle (0.6 sr) air Cherenkov timing stations distributed on an area of 0.25 km2. The HiSCORE concept is based on (non-imaging) air shower front sampling with Cherenkov light. First results are presented

The TAIGA experiment: from cosmic ray to gamma-ray astronomy in the Tunka valley

The physical motivations and advantages of the new gamma-observatory TAIGA (Tunka Advanced Instrument for cosmic ray physics and Gamma Astronomy) is presented. The TAIGA array is a complex, hybrid detector for ground-based gamma-ray astronomy for energies from a few TeV to several PeV as well as for cosmic ray studies from 100 TeV to several EeV. The TAIGA will include the wide angle Cherenkov array TAIGA-HiSCORE with ~5 km(2) area, a net of 16 I ACT telescopes (with FOV of about 10x10 degree), muon detectors with a total area of up to 2000-3000 m(2) and the radio array Tunka-Rex

The Tunka detector complex: from cosmic-ray to gamma-ray astronomy

TAIGA stands for “Tunka Advanced Instrument for cosmic ray physics and Gamma Astronomy” and is a project to build a complex, hybrid detector system for ground-based gamma- ray astronomy from a few TeV to several PeV, and for cosmic-ray studies from 100 TeV to 1 EeV. TAIGA will search for ”PeVatrons” (ultra-high energy gamma-ray sources) and measure the composition and spectrum of cosmic rays in the knee region (100 TeV - 10 PeV) with good energy resolution and high statistics. TAIGA will include Tunka-HiSCORE (an array of wide-angle air Cherenkov stations), an array of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes, an array of particle detectors, both on the surface and underground, and the TUNKA-133 air Cherenkov array

Connecting neutrino Astrophysics to Multi-TeV to PeV gamma-ray astronomy with TAIGA

Recent evidence for neutrinos in the PeV energy range from IceCube provides additional motivation for the search for the most energetic Galactic accelerators. Gamma-ray astronomy is a sound strategy to reach this goal, providing the energy range beyond 10\,TeV can be covered at a sufficient sensitivity level. The energy spectra of most known gamma-ray emitters only reach up to few 10s of TeV. The HEGRA IACT installation reported evidence for gamma-ray energies from the Crab Nebula as high as 80\,TeV. Uncovering their spectral shape up to few 100s of TeV could answer the question whether some of these objects are cosmic ray Pevatrons, i.e. Galactic PeV accelerators. Extending observations beyond this energy range requires very large effective detector areas, as planned by the TAIGA collaboration