54 research outputs found
An Overview of The VERITAS Prototype Telescope And Camera
VERITAS (the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) is the
next generation ground-based gamma-ray observatory that is being built in
southern Arizona by a collaboration of ten institutions in Canada, Ireland, the
U.K. and the U.S.A. VERITAS is designed to operate in the range from 50 GeV to
50 TeV with optimal sensitivity near 200 GeV; it will effectively overlap with
the next generation of space-based gamma-ray telescopes. The first phase of
VERITAS, consisting of four telescopes of 12 m aperture, will be operational by
the time of the GLAST launch in 2007. Eventually the array will be expanded to
include the full array of seven telescopes on a filled hexagonal grid of side
80 m. A prototype VERITAS telescope with a reduced number of mirrors and signal
channels has been built. Its design and performance is described here. The
prototype is scheduled to be upgraded to a full 499 pixel camera with 350
mirrors during the autumn of 2004.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, Proceedings of the Conference "The
Multiwavelength Approach to Unidentified Sources", to appear in the journal
Astrophysics and Space Scienc
On the application of differences in intrinsic fluctuations of Cherenkov light images for separation of air showers
The sensitivity of ground-based imaging atmospheric Cherenkov gamma-ray
observatories depends critically on the primary particle identification methods
which are used to retain photon-initiated events and suppress the spurious
background produced by cosmic rays. We suggest a new discrimination technique
which utilizes differences in the fluctuations of the light intensity in the
images of showers initiated by photons and those initiated by protons or
heavier nuclei. The database of simulated events for the proposed VERITAS
observatory has been used to evaluate the efficiency of the new technique.
Analysis has been performed for both a single VERITAS imaging telescope, and a
system of these telescopes. We demonstrate that a discrimination efficiency of
> 1.5 - 2.0 can be achieved in addition to traditional background rejection
methods based on image shape parameters.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publucation in Astropart. Phy
Gamma-ray Absorption and the distance to Cyg X-3
If the effect of gamma ray absorption by photon-photon pair production is taken into account, the gamma ray luminosity of Cygnus X-3 above 1015 eV is significantly increased. This would have the effect of favoring the minimum distance (11.4 kpc) to the source
Extragalactic Sources of TeV Gamma Rays: A Summary
The development of techniques whereby gamma rays of energy 100 GeV and above
can be studied from the ground, using indirect, but sensitive, techniques has
opened up a new area of high energy photon astronomy. The most exciting result
that has come from these is the detection of highly variable fluxes of TeV
gamma rays from the relativistic jets in nearby AGN. The recent detection of
signals from a starburst galaxy and from a radio galaxy opens the possibility
that the extragalactic emission of TeV gamma rays is a ubiquitous phenomenon.
Here we attempt to summarize the properties of the sources detected so far.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, New Astronomy Reviews; Summary Talk at the "2nd
VERITAS Symposium on TeV Astrohysics of Extragalactic Sources", April 24-26,
200
A high resolution imaging detector for TeV gamma-ray astronomy
Details are presented of an atmospheric Cherenkov telescope for use in very high energy gamma-ray astronomy which consists of a cluster of 109 close-packed photomultiplier tubes at the focus of a 10 meter optical reflector. The images of the Cherenkov flashes generated both by gamma-ray and charged cosmic-ray events are digitized and recorded. Subsequent off-line analysis of the images improves the significance of the signal to noise ratio by a factor of 10 compared with non-imaging techniques
Gamma-ray emission expected from Kepler's SNR
Nonlinear kinetic theory of cosmic ray (CR) acceleration in supernova
remnants (SNRs) is used to investigate the properties of Kepler's SNR and, in
particular, to predict the gamma-ray spectrum expected from this SNR.
Observations of the nonthermal radio and X-ray emission spectra as well as
theoretical constraints for the total supernova (SN) explosion energy E_sn are
used to constrain the astronomical and particle acceleration parameters of the
system. Under the assumption that Kepler's SN is a type Ia SN we determine for
any given explosion energy E_sn and source distance d the mass density of the
ambient interstellar medium (ISM) from a fit to the observed SNR size and
expansion speed. This makes it possible to make predictions for the expected
gamma-ray flux. Exploring the expected distance range we find that for a
typical explosion energy E_sn=10^51 erg the expected energy flux of TeV
gamma-rays varies from 2x10^{-11} to 10^{-13} erg/(cm^2 s) when the distance
changes from d=3.4 kpc to 7 kpc. In all cases the gamma-ray emission is
dominated by \pi^0-decay gamma-rays due to nuclear CRs. Therefore Kepler's SNR
represents a very promising target for instruments like H.E.S.S., CANGAROO and
GLAST. A non-detection of gamma-rays would mean that the actual source distance
is larger than 7 kpc.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysics, minor typos correcte
A first EGRET-UNID-related agenda for the next-generation Cherenkov telescopes
The next generation of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) will
open the regime between approx. 30 GeV and 200 GeV to ground-based gamma
observations with unprecedented point source sensitivity and source location
accuracy. I examine the prospects of observing the unidentified objects (UNIDs)
of the Third EGRET Catalog using the IACT observatories currently under
construction by the CANGAROO, HESS, MAGIC and VERITAS collaborations. Assuming
a modest spectral steepening similar to that observed in the inverse Compton
component of the Crab Nebula spectrum and taking into account the sensitivity
of the instruments and its zenith angle dependence, a detailed list of 78
observable objects is derived which is then further constrained to 38 prime
candidates. The characteristics of this agenda are discussed.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Carraminana, Reimer &
Thompson (eds.) Proc. "The nature of unidentified high-energy gamma-ray
sources (Tonantzintla, Mexico, October 2000)", Kluwer Academi
Search for Primordial Black Holes with SGARFACE
The Short GAmma Ray Front Air Cherenkov Experiment (SGARFACE) uses the
Whipple 10 m telescope to search for bursts of rays. SGARFACE is
sensitive to bursts with duration from a few ns to 20 s and with
-ray energy above 100 MeV. SGARFACE began operating in March 2003 and
has collected 2.2 million events during an exposure time of 2267 hours. A
search for bursts of rays from explosions of primordial black holes
(PBH) was carried out. A Hagedorn-type PBH explosion is predicted to be visible
within 60 pc of Earth. Background events were caused by cosmic rays and by
atmospheric phenomena and their rejection was accomplished to a large extent
using the time-resolved images. No unambiguous detection of bursts of
rays could be made as the remaining background events mimic the expected shape
and time development of bursts. Upper limits on the PBH explosion rate were
derived from the SGARFACE data and are compared to previous and future
experiments. We note that a future array of large wide-field air-Cherenkov
telescopes equipped with a SGARFACE-like trigger would be able to operate
background-free with a 20 to 30 times higher sensitivity for PBH explosions.Comment: 18 pages, 30 figures, accepted by Astroparticle Physics, corrected
author list and Section 2.
High-Energy Cosmology: gamma rays and neutrinos from beyond the galaxy
Our knowledge of the high-energy universe is undergoing a period of rapid
change as new astronomical detectors of high-energy radiation start to operate
at their design sensitivities. Now is a boomtime for high-energy astrophysics,
with new discoveries from Swift and HESS, results from MAGIC and VERITAS
starting to be reported, the upcoming launches of the gamma-ray space
telescopes GLAST and AGILE, and anticipated data releases from IceCube and
Auger. A formalism for calculating statistical properties of cosmological
gamma-ray sources is presented. Application is made to model calculations of
the statistical distributions of gamma-ray and neutrino emission from (i)
beamed sources, specifically, long-duration GRBs, blazars, and extagalactic
microquasars, and (ii) unbeamed sources, including normal galaxies, starburst
galaxies and clusters. Expressions for the integrated intensities of faint
beamed and unbeamed high-energy radiation sources are also derived. A toy model
for the background intensity of radiation from dark-matter annihilation taking
place in the early universe is constructed. Estimates for the gamma-ray fluxes
of local group galaxies, starburst, and infrared luminous galaxies are briefly
reviewed. Because the brightest extragalactic gamma-ray sources are flaring
sources, and these are the best targets for sources of PeV -- EeV neutrinos and
ultra-high energy cosmic rays, rapidly slewing all-sky telescopes like MAGIC
and an all-sky gamma-ray observatory beyond Milagro will be crucial for optimal
science return in the multi-messenger age.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figs, accepted for publication in the Barcelona
Conference on Multimessenger Astronomy; corrected eq. 27, revised Fig. 3,
added 2 ref
Correlated variability of Mkn 421 at X-ray and TeV wavelengths on timescales of hours
Mkn 421 was observed for about two days with BeppoSAX, prior to and partly
overlapping the start of a 1 week continuous exposure with ASCA in April 1998,
as part of a world-wide multiwavelength campaign. A pronounced, well defined,
flare observed in X-rays was also observed simultaneously at TeV energies by
the Whipple Observatory's 10 m gamma-ray telescope. These data provide the
first evidence that the X-ray and TeV intensities are well correlated on
time-scales of hours.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, presented at the VERITAS Workshop on the TeV
Astrophysics of Extragalactic Object
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