11. The Cherenkov Telescope Array. Science Goals and Current StatusRene A. Ong, Christopher Eckner, Gašper Kukec Mezek, Samo Stanič, Serguei Vorobiov, Lili Yang, Gabrijela Zaharijas, Danilo Zavrtanik, Marko Zavrtanik, Lukas Zehrer, 2019, published scientific conference contribution (invited lecture) Abstract: The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the major ground-based gamma-ray observatory planned for the next decade and beyond. Consisting of two large atmospheric Cherenkov telescope arrays (one in the southern hemisphere and one in the northern
hemisphere), CTA will have superior angular resolution, a much wider energy range, and
approximately an order of magnitude improvement in sensitivity, as compared to existing instruments. The CTA science programme will be rich and diverse, covering cosmic particle acceleration, the astrophysics of extreme environments, and physics frontiers beyond the Standard Model. This paper outlines the science goals for CTA and covers the current status of the project. Keywords: very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy, Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), cosmic particle acceleration, astrophysics of extreme environments, physics beyond the Standard Model Published in RUNG: 11.10.2023; Views: 1559; Downloads: 10 Full text (3,28 MB) This document has many files! More... |
12. Southern African Large Telescope Spectroscopy of BL Lacs for the CTA projectEli Kasai, Saptashwa Bhattacharyya, Barbara MARČUN, Judit Pérez Romero, Samo Stanič, Veronika Vodeb, Serguei Vorobiov, Gabrijela Zaharijas, Marko Zavrtanik, Danilo Zavrtanik, Miha Živec, 2021, published scientific conference contribution Abstract: n the last two decades, very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy has reached maturity: over 200 sources have been detected, both Galactic and extragalactic, by ground-based experiments. At present, Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) make up about 40% of the more than 200 sources detected at very high energies with ground-based telescopes, the majority of which are blazars, i.e. their jets are closely aligned with the line of sight to Earth and three quarters of which are classified as high-frequency peaked BL Lac objects. One challenge to studies of the cosmological evolution of BL Lacs is the difficulty of obtaining redshifts from their nearly featureless, continuum-dominated spectra. It is expected that a significant fraction of the AGN to be detected with the future Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) observatory will have no spectroscopic redshifts, compromising the reliability of BL Lac population studies, particularly of their cosmic evolution. We started an effort in 2019 to measure the redshifts of a large fraction of the AGN that are likely to be detected with CTA, using the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT). In this contribution, we present two results from an on-going SALT program focused on the determination of BL Lac object redshifts that will be relevant for the CTA observatory. Keywords: Cherenkov Telescope Array, very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy, Active Galactic Nuclei, high-frequency peaked BL Lacs, Southern African Large Telescope Published in RUNG: 18.09.2023; Views: 1918; Downloads: 7 Full text (972,63 KB) This document has many files! More... |
13. The Cherenkov Telescope Array transient and multi-messenger programAlessandro Carosi, Saptashwa Bhattacharyya, Barbara MARČUN, Judit Pérez Romero, Samo Stanič, Veronika Vodeb, Serguei Vorobiov, Gabrijela Zaharijas, Marko Zavrtanik, Danilo Zavrtanik, Miha Živec, 2021, published scientific conference contribution Abstract: The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a next generation ground-based very-high-energy gamma-ray observatory that will allow for observations in the >10 GeV range with unprece-dented photon statistics and sensitivity. This will enable the investigation of the yet-marginally explored physics of short-time-scale transient events. CTA will thus become an invaluable instru-ment for the study of the physics of the most extreme and violent objects and their interactions with the surrounding environment. The CTA Transient program includes follow-up observations of a wide range of multi-wavelength and multi-messenger alerts, ranging from compact galactic binary systems to extragalactic events such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), core-collapse supernovae and bright AGN flares. In recent years, the first firm detection of GRBs by current Cherenkov telescope collaborations, the proven connection between gravitational waves and short GRBs, as well as the possible neutrino-blazar association with TXS 0506+056 have shown the importance of coordinated follow-up observations triggered by these di˙erent cosmic signals in the framework of the birth of multi-messenger astrophysics. In the next years, CTA will play a major role in these types of observations by taking advantage of its fast slewing (especially for the CTA Large Size Telescopes), large e˙ective area and good sensitivity, opening new opportunities for time-domain astrophysics in an energy range not a˙ected by selective absorption processes typical of other wavelengths. In this contribution we highlight the common approach adopted by the CTA Tran-sients physics working group to perform the study of transient sources in the very-high-energy regime. Keywords: Cherenkov Telescope Array, very-high-energy gamma-rays, CTA Transient program, multi-wavelength astronomy, multi-messenger astronomy Published in RUNG: 18.09.2023; Views: 1683; Downloads: 7 Full text (1,63 MB) This document has many files! More... |
14. Detection methods for the Cherenkov Telescope Array at very-short exposure timesAmbra Di Piano, Saptashwa Bhattacharyya, Barbara MARČUN, Judit Pérez Romero, Samo Stanič, Veronika Vodeb, Serguei Vorobiov, Gabrijela Zaharijas, Marko Zavrtanik, Danilo Zavrtanik, Miha Živec, 2021, published scientific conference contribution Abstract: The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be the next generation ground-based observatory for very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray astronomy, with the deployment of tens of highly sensitive and fast-reacting Cherenkov telescopes. It will cover a wide energy range (20 GeV - 300 TeV) with unprecedented sensitivity. To maximize the scientific return, the observatory will be provided with an online software system that will perform the first analysis of scientific data in real-time. This study investigates the precision and accuracy of available science tools and analysis techniques for the short-term detection of gamma-ray sources, in terms of sky localization, detection significance and, if significant detection is achieved, a first estimation of the integral photon flux. The scope is to evaluate the feasibility of the algorithms’ implementation in the real-time analysis of CTA. In this contribution we present a general overview of the methods and some of the results for the test case of the short-term detection of a gamma-ray burst afterglow, as the VHE counterpart of a gravitational wave event. Keywords: very-high-energy gamma-rays, Cherenkov Telescope Array, gamma-ray astronomy Published in RUNG: 18.09.2023; Views: 1408; Downloads: 7 Full text (1,08 MB) This document has many files! More... |
15. GRB minimum variability timescale with Insight-HXMT and Swift : implications for progenitor models, dissipation physics, and GRB classificationsA. E. Camisasca, Cristiano Guidorzi, Lorenzo Amati, F. Frontera, X. Y. Song, S. Xiao, S. L. Xiong, S. N. Zhang, Raffaella Margutti, Andreja Gomboc, 2023, original scientific article Keywords: astronomy, gamma ray burst, variability Published in RUNG: 24.03.2023; Views: 2132; Downloads: 21 Full text (3,64 MB) This document has many files! More... |
16. Sensitivity of CTA to gamma-ray emission from the Perseus galaxy clusterJudit Pérez Romero, published scientific conference contribution Abstract: In these proceedings we summarize the current status of the study of the sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) to detect diffuse gamma-ray emission from the Perseus galaxy cluster. Gamma-ray emission is expected in galaxy clusters both from interactions of cosmic rays (CR) with the intra-cluster medium, or as a product of annihilation or decay of dark matter
(DM) particles in case they are weakly interactive massive particles (WIMPs). The observation of Perseus constitutes one of the Key Science Projects to be carried out by the CTA Consortium. In this contribution, we focus on the DM-induced component of the flux. OurDMmodelling includes the substructures we expect in the main halo which will boost the annihilation signal significantly. We adopt an ON/OFF observation strategy and simulate the expected gamma-ray signals. Finally we compute the expected CTA sensitivity using a likelihood maximization analysis including the most recent CTA instrument response functions. In absence of signal, we show that CTA will allow us to provide stringent and competitive constraints on TeV DM, especially for the case of
DM decay. Keywords: dark matter, gamma-ray astronomy, galaxy clusters, cosmic rays and astroparticles Published in RUNG: 27.01.2023; Views: 1916; Downloads: 18 Link to full text This document has many files! More... |
17. Spatial extension of dark subhalos as seen by Fermi-LAT and the implications for WIMP constraintsJavier Coronado-Blázquez, Miguel Sánchez-Conde, Judit Pérez Romero, Alejandra Aguirre-Santaella, 2022, original scientific article Abstract: Spatial extension has been hailed as a “smoking gun” in the gamma-ray search of dark galactic subhalos, which would appear as unidentified sources for gamma-ray telescopes. In this work, we study the sensitivity of the Fermi-LAT to extended subhalos using simulated data based on a realistic sky model. We simulate spatial templates for a set of representative subhalos, whose parameters were derived from our previous work with N-body cosmological simulation data. We find that detecting an extended subhalo and finding an unequivocal signal of angular extension requires, respectively, a flux 2 to 10 times larger than in the case of a pointlike source. By studying a large grid of models, where parameters such as the WIMP mass, annihilation channel, or subhalo model are varied significantly, we obtain the response of the LAT as a function of the product of annihilation cross-section times the J-factor. Indeed, we show that spatial extension can be used as an additional “filter” to reject subhalos candidates among the pool of unidentified LAT sources, as well as a smoking gun for positive identification. For instance, typical angular extensions of a few tenths of a degree are expected for the considered scenarios. Finally, we also study the impact of the obtained LAT sensitivity to such extended subhalos on the achievable dark matter constraints, which are a few times less constraining than comparable point-source limits. Keywords: dark matter, cosmic rays and astroparticles, gamma-ray astronomy, particle astrophysics, particle dark matter Published in RUNG: 26.01.2023; Views: 2603; Downloads: 0 This document has many files! More... |
18. Dark matter search in dwarf irregular galaxies with the Fermi Large Area TelescopeViviana Gammaldi, Judit Pérez Romero, Javier Coronado-Blázquez, Mattia di Mauro, Ekaterina Karukes, Miguel Sánchez-Conde, Paolo Salucci, 2021, original scientific article Abstract: We analyze 11 years of Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) data corresponding to the sky regions of seven dwarf irregular (dIrr) galaxies. DIrrs are dark matter (DM)-dominated systems, proposed as interesting targets for the indirect search of DM with gamma rays. The galaxies represent interesting cases with a strong disagreement between the density profiles (core versus cusp) inferred from observations and numerical simulations. In this work, we addressed the problem by considering two different DM profiles, based on both the fit to the rotation curve (in this case, a Burkert cored profile) and results from N-body cosmological simulations (i.e., Navarro-Frenk-White cuspy profile). We also include halo substructure in our analysis, which is expected to boost the DM signal by a factor of 10 in halos such as those of dIrrs. For each DM model and dIrr, we create a spatial template of the expected DM-induced gamma-ray signal to be used in the analysis of Fermi-LAT data. No significant emission is detected from any of the targets in our sample. Thus, we compute upper limits on the DM annihilation cross section versus mass parameter space.
Among the seven dIrrs, we find IC10 and NGC6822 to yield the most stringent individual constraints, independently of the adopted DM profile. We also produce combined DM limits for all objects in the sample, which turn out to be dominated by IC10 for all DM models and annihilation channels, i.e., b¯b, τ+τ−, and W+W−. The strongest constraints are obtained for b¯b and are at the level of <σv>∼7×10−26 cm3 s−1 at mχ ∼ 6 GeV. Though these limits are a factor of ∼3 higher than the thermal relic cross section at low weakly interacting massive particles masses, they are independent from and complementary to those obtained by means of other targets. Keywords: Dark matter, gamma-ray astronomy, galaxies, astronomical masses and mass distributions Published in RUNG: 26.01.2023; Views: 1743; Downloads: 0 This document has many files! More... |
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