Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008aipc.1085..902b&link_type=abstract
HIGH ENERGY GAMMA-RAY ASTRONOMY: Proceedings of the 4th International Meeting on High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy. AIP Conferenc
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
5
X- And Gamma-Ray Telescopes And Instrumentation, Gamma-Ray, Galactic Nuclei, Circumnuclear Matter, And Bulges
Scientific paper
The Advanced Gamma-ray Imaging System (AGIS), a future gamma-ray telescope consisting of an array of ~50 atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes distributed over an area of ~1 km2, will provide a powerful new tool for exploring the high-energy universe. The order-of-magnitude increase in sensitivity and improved angular resolution could provide the first detailed images of γ-ray emission from other nearby galaxies or galaxy clusters. The large effective area will provide unprecedented sensitivity to short transients (such as flares from AGNs and GRBs) probing both intrinsic spectral variability (revealing the details of the acceleration mechanism and geometry) as well as constraining the high-energy dispersion in the velocity of light (probing the structure of spacetime and Lorentz invariance). A wide field of view (~4 times that of current instruments) and excellent angular resolution (several times better than current instruments) will allow for an unprecedented survey of the Galactic plane, providing a deep unobscured survey of SNRs, X-ray binaries, pulsar-wind nebulae, molecular cloud complexes and other sources. The differential flux sensitivity of ~10-13 erg cm-2 sec-1 will rival the most sensitive X-ray instruments for these extended Galactic sources. The excellent capabilities of AGIS at energies below 100 GeV will provide sensitivity to AGN and GRBs out to cosmological redshifts, increasing the number of AGNs detected at high energies from about 20 to more than 100, permitting population studies that will provide valuable insights into both a unified model for AGN and a detailed measurement of the effects of intergalactic absorption from the diffuse extragalactic background light. A new instrument with fast-slewing wide-field telescopes could provide detections of a number of long-duration GRBs providing important physical constraints from this new spectral component. The new array will also have excellent background rejection and very large effective area, providing the very high sensitivity needed to detect emission from dark matter annihilation in Galactic substructure or nearby Dwarf spheroidal galaxies.
Buckley Jeremiah
Coppi Paolo
Digel Seth
Funk Stefan
Krawczynski Henric
No associations
LandOfFree
The Advanced Gamma-ray Imaging System (AGIS)-Science Highlights does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with The Advanced Gamma-ray Imaging System (AGIS)-Science Highlights, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Advanced Gamma-ray Imaging System (AGIS)-Science Highlights will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1101455