98 research outputs found
Expected performance of the ASTRI-SST-2M telescope prototype
ASTRI (Astrofisica con Specchi a Tecnologia Replicante Italiana) is an
Italian flagship project pursued by INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica)
strictly linked to the development of the Cherenkov Telescope Array, CTA.
Primary goal of the ASTRI program is the design and production of an end-to-end
prototype of a Small Size Telescope for the CTA sub-array devoted to the
highest gamma-ray energy region. The prototype, named ASTRI SST-2M, will be
tested on field in Italy during 2014. This telescope will be the first
Cherenkov telescope adopting the double reflection layout in a
Schwarzschild-Couder configuration with a tessellated primary mirror and a
monolithic secondary mirror. The collected light will be focused on a compact
and light-weight camera based on silicon photo-multipliers covering a 9.6 deg
full field of view. Detailed Monte Carlo simulations have been performed to
estimate the performance of the planned telescope. The results regarding its
energy threshold, sensitivity and angular resolution are shown and discussed.Comment: In Proceedings of the 33rd International Cosmic Ray Conference
(ICRC2013), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). All CTA contributions at arXiv:1307.223
Mirror production for the Cherenkov telescopes of the ASTRI Mini-Array and of the MST project for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next ground-based -ray
observatory in the TeV -ray spectral region operating with the Imaging
Atmospheric Cherenkov Technique. It is based on almost 70 telescopes of
different class diameters - LST, MST and SST of 23, 12, and 4 m, respectively -
to be installed in two sites in the two hemispheres (at La Palma, Canary
Islands, and near Paranal, Chile). Several thousands of reflecting mirror tiles
larger than 1 m will be produced for realizing the segmented primary
mirrors of a so large number of telescopes. Almost in parallel, the ASTRI
Mini-Array (MA) is being implemented in Tenerife (Canary Islands), composed of
nine 4 m diameter dual-mirror Cherenkov telescopes (very similar to the SSTs).
We completed the mirror production for all nine telescopes of the ASTRI MA and
two MST telescopes (400 segments in total) using the cold glass slumping
replication technology. The results related to the quality achieved with a so
large-scale production are presented, also discussing the adopted testing
methods and approaches. They will be very useful for the adoption and
optimization of the quality assurance process for the huge production (almost
3000 m of reflecting surface) of the MST and SST CTA telescopes
ASTRI Mini-Array core science at the Observatorio del Teide
The ASTRI (Astrofisica con Specchi a Tecnologia Replicante Italiana) Project led by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) is developing and will deploy at the Observatorio del Teide a mini-array (ASTRI Mini-Array) composed of nine telescopes similar to the small-size dual-mirror Schwarzschild-Couder telescope (ASTRI-Horn) currently operating on the slopes of Mt. Etna in Sicily. The ASTRI Mini-Array will surpass the current Cherenkov telescope array differential sensitivity above a few tera-electronvolt (TeV), extending the energy band well above hundreds of TeV. This will allow us to explore a new window of the electromagnetic spectrum, by convolving the sensitivity performance with excellent angular and energy resolution figures. In this paper we describe the Core Science that we will address during the first four years of operation, providing examples of the breakthrough results that we will obtain when dealing with current open questions, such as the acceleration of cosmic rays, cosmology and fundamental physics and the new window, for the TeV energy band, of the time-domain astrophysics
The Software Architecture and development approach for the ASTRI Mini-Array gamma-ray air-Cherenkov experiment at the Observatorio del Teide
The ASTRI Mini-Array is an international collaboration led by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and devoted to the imaging of atmospheric Cherenkov light for very-high gamma-ray astronomy. The project is deploying an array of 9 telescopes sensitive above 1 TeV. In this contribution, we present the architecture of the software that covers the entire life cycle of the observatory, from scheduling to remote operations and data dissemination. The high-speed networking connection available between the observatory site, at the Canary Islands, and the Data Center in Rome allows for ready data availability for stereo triggering and data processing
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