Extensive Air Showers with Cherenkov Telescopes: cosmic rays and gamma-ray astronomy

by Dr Alison Mitchell (University of Zurich)

Monday 21 Oct 2019, 11:15 → 12:00 Europe/Zurich

BSP 626 (EPFL)

Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) use the Cherenkov radiation produced by Extensive Air Showers (EAS) within the atmosphere to study gamma-rays and cosmic rays. In this talk, I will present a detailed study of HESS J1825-137, a bright gamma-ray source, in the context of our current understanding of energetic pulsar environments. In particular, I will show how gamma-rays are a powerful probe to determine particle type, energy and transport mechanisms within powerful natural particle accelerators, such as pulsar wind nebulae. 

In addition to leptonic EAS generated by gamma-rays, IACTs also detect Cherenkov light from cosmic-ray initiated hadronic EAS. Muons produced within hadronic EAS are easily identifiable and used for calibration of IACTs. I will present the potential of IACTs to measure properties of muons within TeV EAS, including parameters of interest to current hadronic interaction models. An outlook to the future Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be given.

EPFLseminartalk_AM21Oct19.pdf

EPFLseminartalk_AM21Oct19.pptx