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Abstract: The discovery of gravitational waves, high-energy neutrinos or the very-high-energy counterpart of gamma-ray bursts has revolutionized the high-energy and transient astrophysics community. The development of new instruments and analysis techniques will allow the discovery and/or follow-up of new transient sources. We describe the prospects for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), the next-generation ground-based gamma-ray observatory, for multi-messenger and transient astrophysics in the decade ahead. CTA will explore the most extreme environments via very-high-energy observations of compact objects, stellar collapse events, mergers and cosmic-ray accelerators.
Keywords: multi-messenger astrophysics, gravitational waves, very-high-energy (VHE) gamma rays, cosmic rays, VHE neutrinos, transient astrophysical phenomena, Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory
Published in RUNG: 13.01.2025; Views: 661; Downloads: 7
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Abstract: The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be able to perform unprecedented observations of the transient very high-energy sky. An on-line science alert generation (SAG) pipeline, with a required 30 second latency, will allow the discovery or follow-up of gamma ray bursts (GRBs) and flaring emission from active galactic nuclei, galactic compact objects and electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational waves or neutrino messengers. The CTA sensitivity for very short exposures does not only depend on the technological performance of the array (e.g. effective area, background discrimination efficiency). The algorithms to evaluate the significance of the detection also define the sensitivity, together with their computational efficiency in order to satisfy the SAG latency requirements. We explore the aperture photometry and likelihood analysis techniques, and the associated parameters (e.g. on-source to off-source exposure ratio, minimum number of required signal events), defining the CTA ability to detect a significant signal at short exposures. The resulting CTA differential flux sensitivity as a function of the observing time, obtained using the latest Monte Carlo simulations, is compared to the sensitivities of Fermi–LAT and current-generation IACTs obtained in the overlapping energy ranges.
Keywords: very-high-energy gamma rays, Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) Observatory, transient astrophysical sources, gamma-ray bursts, active galactic nuclei
Published in RUNG: 15.11.2024; Views: 938; Downloads: 10
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Abstract: Two of the Key Science Projects of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) consist in performing a deep survey of the Galactic and Extragalactic sky, providing an unbiased view of the Universe at energies above tens of GeV. To optimize the time spent to perform the Extragalactic survey, a so-called “divergent mode” of the CTA was proposed as an alternative observation strategy to the traditional parallel pointing in order to increase its instantaneous field of view. The search for transient VHE sources would also benefit from an extended field of view. In the divergent mode, each telescope points to a position in the sky that is slightly offset, in the outward direction, from the center of the field of view. In this contribution, we present the first performance estimation from full Monte Carlo simulation of possible CTA divergent mode setups.
Keywords: very-high-energy gamma rays, Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) Observatory, CTAO Key Science Projects (KSPs), galactic survey KSP, extragalactic survey KSP
Published in RUNG: 15.11.2024; Views: 926; Downloads: 6
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Abstract: The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation high-energy gamma-ray observatory. It will improve the sensitivity of current instruments up to an order of magnitude, while providing energy coverage for photons from 20 GeV to at least 300 TeV to reach high redshifts and extreme accelerators and will give access to the shortest time-scale phenomena. CTA is thus a uniquely powerful instrument for the exploration of the violent and variable universe. The ability to probe short timescales at the highest energies will allow CTA to explore the connection between accretion and ejection phenomena surrounding compact objects, investigate the processes occurring in relativistic outflows, and open up significant phase space for serendipitous discoveries. Aiming at playing a central role in the era of multi-messenger astrophysics, the CTA Transient program includes follow-up observations of a broad range of multi-wavelength and multi-messenger alerts, ranging from Galactic compact object binary systems to novel phenomena like Fast Radio Bursts. A promising case is that of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), where CTA will for the first time enable high-statistics measurements above ∼ 10 GeV, probing new spectral components and shedding light on the physical processes at work in these systems. Dedicated programs searching for very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray counterparts to gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos complete the CTA transients program. This contribution will introduce and outline the CTA Transients program. We will provide an overview of the various science topics and discuss the links to multi-messenger and multi-wavelength observations.
Keywords: very-high-energy (VHE) gamma rays, the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) Observatory, transient astrophysical phenomena, relativistic outflows, gamma-ray bursts
Published in RUNG: 12.11.2024; Views: 868; Downloads: 5
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Abstract: The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation ground-based observatory for γ-ray astronomy at energies above 30 GeV. Thanks to its unique capabilities, CTA observations will address a plethora of open questions in astrophysics, ranging from the origin of cosmic messengers to the exploration of the frontiers of physics. In this note, we present a comprehensive sensitivity study to assess the potential of CTA to measure the γ-ray absorption on the extragalactic background light (EBL), to constrain or detect intergalactic magnetic fields (IGMFs), and probe physics beyond the standard model such as axion-like particles (ALPs) and Lorentz invariance violation (LIV), which could modify the γ-ray spectra features expected from EBL absorption. Our results suggest that CTA will have unprecedented sensitivity to detect IGMF signatures and will probe so-far unexplored regions of the LIV and ALP parameter space. Furthermore, an indirect measurement of the EBL and of its evolution will be performed with unrivaled precision.
Keywords: very-high-energy gamma rays, the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) Observatory, extragalactic background light (EBL), intergalactic magnetic fields (IGMFs), axion-like particles (ALPs), Lorentz invariance violation (LIV)
Published in RUNG: 07.11.2024; Views: 825; Downloads: 5
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