On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ∼ 1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40 − 8 + 8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 M ⊙ . An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ∼ 40 Mpc ) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One-Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ∼10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ∼ 9 and ∼ 16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC 4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta.

Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has had a major breakthrough with the impressive results obtained using systems of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has a huge potential in astrophysics, particle physics and cosmology. CTA is an international initiative to build the next generation instrument, with a factor of 5-10 improvement in sensitivity in the 100 GeV-10 TeV range and the extension to energies well below 100 GeV and above 100 TeV. CTA will consist of two arrays (one in the north, one in the south) for full sky coverage and will be operated as open observatory. The design of CTA is based on currently available technology. This document reports on the status and presents the major design concepts of CTA.

Previous detections of individual astrophysical sources of neutrinos are limited to the Sun and the supernova 1987A, whereas the origins of the diffuse flux of high-energy cosmic neutrinos remain unidentified. On 22 September 2017, we detected a high-energy neutrino, IceCube-170922A, with an energy of ~290 tera-electron volts. Its arrival direction was consistent with the location of a known γ-ray blazar, TXS 0506+056, observed to be in a flaring state. An extensive multiwavelength campaign followed, ranging from radio frequencies to γ-rays. These observations characterize the variability and energetics of the blazar and include the detection of TXS 0506+056 in very-high-energy γ-rays. This observation of a neutrino in spatial coincidence with a γ-ray-emitting blazar during an active phase suggests that blazars may be a source of high-energy neutrinos.

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The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a new observatory for very high-energy (VHE) gamma rays. CTA has ambitions science goals, for which it is necessary to achieve full-sky coverage, to improve the sensitivity by about an order of magnitude, to span about four decades of energy, from a few tens of GeV to above 100 TeV with enhanced angular and energy resolutions over existing VHE gamma-ray observatories. An international collaboration has formed with more than 1000 members from 27 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America. In 2010 the CTA Consortium completed a Design Study and started a three-year Preparatory Phase which leads to production readiness of CTA in 2014. In this paper we introduce the science goals and the concept of CTA, and provide an overview of the project. ?? 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

The Cherenkov Telescopes Array (CTA) is planned as the future instrument for very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray astronomy with a wide energy range of four orders of magnitude and an improvement in sensitivity compared to current instruments of about an order of magnitude. Monte Carlo simulations are a crucial tool in the design of CTA. The ultimate goal of these simulations is to find the most cost-effective solution for given physics goals and thus sensitivity goals or to find, for a given cost, the solution best suited for different types of targets with CTA. Apart from uncertain component cost estimates, the main problem in this procedure is the dependence on a huge number of configuration parameters, both in specifications of individual telescope types and in the array layout. This is addressed by simulation of a huge array intended as a superset of many different realistic array layouts, and also by simulation of array subsets for different telescope parameters. Different analysis methods - in use with current installations and extended (or developed specifically) for CTA - are applied to the simulated data sets for deriving the expected sensitivity of CTA. In this paper we describe the current status of this iterative approach to optimize the CTA design and layout. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Galactic cosmic rays reach energies of at least a few Peta-electronvolts (1 PeV =1015 electron volts)1 . This implies our Galaxy contains PeV accelerators (PeVatrons), but all proposed models of Galactic cosmic-ray accelerators encounter non-trivial difficulties at exactly these energies 2 . Tens of Galactic accelerators capable of accelerating particle to tens of TeV (1 TeV =10 12 electron volts) energies were inferred from recent gamma-ray observations 3 . None of the currently known accelerators, however, not even the handful of shell-type supernova remnants commonly believed to supply most Galactic cosmic rays, have shown the characteristic tracers of PeV particles: power-law spectra of gamma rays extending without a cutoff or a spectral break to tens of TeV 4 . Here we report deep gamma-ray observations with arcminute angular resolution of the Galactic Centre regions, which show the expected tracer of the presence of PeV particles within the central 10 parsec of the Galaxy. We argue that the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* is linked to this PeVatron. Sagittarius A* went through active phases in the past, as demonstrated by X-ray outbursts 5 and an outflow from the Galactic Center 6 . Although its current rate of particle acceleration is not sufficient to provide a substantial contribution to Galactic cosmic rays, Sagittarius A* could have plausibly been more active over the last 10 6−7 years, and therefore should be considered as a viable alternative to supernova remnants as a source of PeV Galactic cosmic rays.The large photon statistics accumulated over the last 10 years of observations with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), together with improvements in the methods of data analysis, allow for a deep study of the properties of the diffuse very-high-energy (VHE; more than 100 GeV) emission of the central molecular zone. This region surrounding the Galactic Centre contains predominantly molecular gas and extends (in projection) out to r∼250 pc at positive galactic longitudes and r∼150 pc at negative longitudes. The map of the central molecular zone as seen in VHE γ-rays (Fig. 1) shows a strong (although not linear; see below) correlation between the brightness distribution of VHE γ-rays and the locations of massive gas-rich complexes. This points towards a hadronic origin of the diffuse emission 7 , where the γ-rays result from the interactions of relativistic protons with the ambient gas. The second important mechanism of production of VHE γ-rays 3 is the inverse Compton scattering of electrons. However, the severe radiative losses suffered by multi-TeV electrons in the Galactic Centre region prevent them from propagating over scales comparable to the size of the central molecular zone, thus disfavouring a leptonic origin of the γ-rays (see discussion in Methods and Extended Data Figures 1 and 2). The location and the particle injection rate history of the cosmic-ray accelerator(s), responsible for the relativistic protons, determine the spatial distribution of these cosmic rays which...

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