8–10 Apr 2013
University of Liverpool
Europe/London timezone

Future prospects for measuring the extragalactic background light and probing for axion signatures

10 Apr 2013, 08:45
12m
Central Teaching Hub (University of Liverpool)

Central Teaching Hub

University of Liverpool

Parallel Track 1 Track 1

Speaker

Mr Jonathan Harris (Durham University)

Description

At TeV photon energies the universe has a high optical depth due to the presence of extragalactic background light (EBL) photons from stars and star-formation which provide a target for pair production. Measuring the amount of absorption in the gamma-ray spectrum from a relatively distant object such as an active galactic nucleus (AGN) reveals information about the level of the EBL, which in turn provides information about star formation history. We examine how sensitive next generation ground-based gamma-ray telescopes such as the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be to different EBL models which have been proposed. We also consider the prospects of such telescopes detecting axion signatures- a decrease in the level of absorption predicted by extensions to the standard model.

Primary author

Mr Jonathan Harris (Durham University)

Co-author

Prof. Paula Chadwick (Durham University)

Presentation materials