Very high energy gamma ray astrophysics. Technical progress report, May 1, 1991--April 30, 1992

Technical Report · Sat Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1992

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10122596· OSTI ID:10122596

Lamb, R. C.; Lewis, D. A.

The second reflector (project GRANITE) is on schedule. At present (January 1992) it and the 10 m reflector are obtaining stereoscopic views of gamma-ray air showers from the Crab Nebula which verify the expected performance of the twin reflector telescopes. With the additional improvements of the upgrade (a pending DOE proposal) the twin reflectors should reach a limiting intensity of 1% that of the Crab. The astonishing early results from the EGRET detector aboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory indicate that distant quasars (powered by supermassive black holes) are active at GeV energies. The Whipple instruments are poised to see if such behavior continues above 100 GeV, as well as perform sensitive observations of previously reported GeV (Geminga) and TeV (Hercules X-1, etc.) sources. In addition to observing sources and identifying their location in the sky to one arcminute, experiments are planned to search for WIMPS in the mass range 0.1 to 1 TeV, and to determine the abundance of anti-protons in the cosmic rays. The successful performance of the stereoscopic reflectors demonstrates the feasibility of the concept of arrays of Cherenkov receivers. Design studies for a much larger array (CASITA) are just beginning.

• Research Organization: Iowa State Univ. of Science and Technology, Ames, IA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-91ER40634
• OSTI ID: 10122596
• Report Number(s): DOE/ER/40634--1; ON: DE92007731
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

440104
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
661300
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ASTROPHYSICS
CHARGE-COUPLED DEVICES
COSMIC GAMMA SOURCES
COSMIC RAY DETECTION
CRAB NEBULA
DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEMS
GAMMA ASTRONOMY
GAMMA DETECTION
HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS INSTRUMENTATION
NEURAL NETWORKS
OTHER ASPECTS OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE
PROGRESS REPORT
TELESCOPES