The Cherenkov Telescope Array

Abstract

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is planned to be the next generation ground based observatory for very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray astronomy. Gamma-rays provide a powerful insight into the non-thermal universe and hopefully a unique probe for new physics. Imaging Cherenkov telescopes have already discovered more than 170 VHE gamma-ray emitters providing plentiful of valuable data and clearly demonstrating the power of this technique. In spite of the impressive results there are indications that the known sources represent only the tip of the iceberg. A major step in sensitivity is needed to increase the number of detected sources, observe short time-scale variability and improve morphological studies of extended sources. An extended energy coverage is advisable to observe far-away extragalactic objects and improve spectral analysis. CTA aims to increase the sensitivity by an order of magnitude compared to current facilities, to extend the accessible gamma-ray energies from a few tens of GeV to a hundred of TeV, and to improve on other parameters like angular and energy resolution. CTA will provide moreover a full sky-coverage by featuring an array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes in both hemispheres.This paper presents an overview of the technical design and summarize the current status of the project. CTA prospects for some key science topics like the origin of relativistic cosmic particles, the acceleration mechanisms in extreme environments such as neutron stars and black holes and searches for Dark Matter are discussed.

Search for the imprint of axion-like particles in the highest-energy photons of hard γ-ray blazars

“…Current Cherenkov telescopes, with energy ranges within the TeV range can reach higher masses in the parameter space and improve the limits derived in this work. The future Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) [67] can probe even higher masses. Hence, the combined likelihood analysis of many sources presented in this work can be extended to these instruments.…”

Dark Matter decay to neutrinos

“…For the galactic component, we conservatively include this as a constant factor by taking the average attenuation rate over a distance of 10 kpc. We will present limits from Fermi-LAT [55], HAWC [57], LHAASO [58], IceTop [59], KASCADE-Grande [60], CASA-MIA [61], EAS-MSU [62], and TA-SD [63] observations as well as a projected sensitivity for CTA [56]. For CTA, we consider the differential sensitivity from [82] and convert it to an upper limit on the total flux per decade of energy, which is defined as the minimum flux required to obtain a 5σ point source detection from CTA Southern array for a total observation time of 50 hours.…”

Glsch: Observation Scheduler for the Gloria Telescope Network

“…There is a huge interest in making astronomy closer to students and citizens in general (Castro-Tirado et al 2014;Gresham et al 2016); providing easy-to-use web tools to awake their interest. On the other hand, telescope networks focused on professional astronomers have also been developed (Bakos & Gaspar 2016;Bigongiari & Consortium 2016).…”