8 pages, 14 figures, 36th International Cosmic Ray Conference - ICRC2019 July 24th - August 1st, 2019 Madison, Wisconsin, USA, Proceedings of Science: PoS(ICRC2019)280
Estimates of the composition of ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) can be inferred by recording the depth of air shower maximum, $X_{\mathrm{max}}$, for many showers and comparing the distributions to those predicted by Monte Carlo simulations. Traditionally, UHECR composition has relied upon comparison of the first and second moments of the $X_{\mathrm{max}}$ distributions to estimate the compatibility between data and simulations, but with the large UHECR datasets being built the current generation experiments better tests which compare full distributions can be employed. Such tests can be used to understand the accuracy with which UHECR composition can actually be understood at the current level of statistics and quantitatively measure the significance of agreement or disagreement with models in order to reject them. In this paper we present the most recent results of 10 years of Telescope Array hybrid $X_{\mathrm{max}}$ measurements which is found to agree with a predominantly light composition. In previously published results we have demonstrated the agreement of Telescope Array hybrid $X_{\mathrm{max}}$ data with single element models using systematic shifting of the data in order to ensure the shapes of the distributions are being compared. Here we present multi-component source models fit to hybrid $X_{\mathrm{max}}$ data and report on the relative fractions of those sources that best fit the data. Below $10^{19.1}$ eV TA hybrid data is found to be compatible with mixtures composed of predominantly light elements such as protons and helium.
List of contributions from the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) Consortium presented at the 36th International Cosmic Ray Conference, July 24 - August 1 2019, Madison, WI, EUA.
Telescope Array (TA) has completed analysis of nearly nine years of data measuring the atmospheric depth of air shower maximum ($X_{\textrm{max}}$) utilizing the TA surface detector array and the Black Rock Mesa and Long Ridge fluorescence detector stations. By using both the surface array and the fluorescence detector, the geometry and arrival time of air showers can be measured very precisely providing good resolution in determining $X_{\textrm{max}}$. $X_{\textrm{max}}$ is directly related to the air shower primary particle mass and is therefore important for understanding the composition o…
We present a technique to measure chemical composition and particle cross-section of ultra-high energy cosmic rays using radio data. We relate the geometry of the radio footprint on the ground to the depth of the extensive air shower maximum. We suggest to use the spectral information of the radio signal to improve the shower maximum reconstruction by minimum number of antennas on the ground.
We discuss the potential for the detection of dark matter and the characterization of its particle nature via the observation of dark matter subhalos. Specifically, we discuss the search for dark matter Galactic subhalos in the gamma-ray band with the Large Area Telescope on-board the Fermi gamma-ray Space Telescope, and the future generation of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, best represented by the planned Cherenkov Telescope Array.
The development and construction of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) opens up new opportunities for the study of very high energy (VHE, E>100 GeV) sources. As a part of CTA, the ASTRI project, led by INAF, has one of the main goals to develop one of the mini-arrays of CTA pre-production telescopes, proposed to be installed at the CTA southern site. Thanks to the innovative dual-mirror optical design of its small-sized telescopes, the ASTRI mini-array will be characterized by a large field of view, an excellent angular resolutioerrorn and a good sensitivity up to energies of several tens of …
Misaligned AGN (MAGNs), i.e., radio-loud AGNs with the jet not pointing directly towards us, represent a new class of GeV emitters revealed by the Fermi space telescope. Although they comprise only a small fraction of the high-energy sources, MAGNs are extremely interesting objects offering a different perspective to study high-energy processes with respect to blazars. The aim of this work is to evaluate the impact of the new-generation Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) on the MAGN class and propose possible observational strategies to optimize their detection.
Telescope Array (TA) has recently published results of nearly nine years of $X_{\mathrm{max}}$ observations providing its highest statistics measurement of ultra high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) mass composition to date for energies exceeding $10^{18.2}$ eV. This analysis measured agreement of observed data with results expected for four different single elements. Instead of relying only on the first and second moments of $X_{\mathrm{max}}$ distributions, we employ a morphological test of agreement between data and Monte Carlo to allow for systematic uncertainties in data and in current UHECR ha…
At the Pierre Auger Observatory and the Telescope Array, the measurements of depths of maximum of air-shower profiles, $X_\mathrm{max}$, are performed using direct observations of the longitudinal development of showers with the help of the fluorescence telescopes. Though the same detection technique is used at both installations, the straightforward comparison of the characteristics of the measured $X_\mathrm{max}$ distributions is not possible due to the different approaches to the analysis of the recorded events. In this work, the Auger-Telescope Array composition working group presents a t…
Our study exploits the Constant Intensity Cut principles applied simultaneously to muonic and electromagnetic detectors of cosmic rays. We use the fact that the ordering of events according to their signal sizes induced in different types of surface detectors provides information about the mass composition of primary cosmic-ray beam, with low sensitivity to details of hadronic interactions. Composition analysis at knee energies is performed using Monte Carlo simulations for extensive air showers having maxima located far away from a hypothetical observatory. Another type of a hypothetical obse…
We discuss the lateral distribution of charged particles in extensive air showers with energy above $10^{17}$ eV measured by surface scintillation detectors of Yakutsk EAS array. The analysis covers the data obtained during the period from 1977 to 2013. Experimental values are compared to theoretical predictions obtained with the use of CORSIKA code within frameworks of different hadron interaction models. The best agreement between theory and experiment is observed for QGSJet01 and QGSJet-II-04 models. A change in the cosmic ray mass composition towards proton is observed in the energy range …
The paper presents the results of the longitudinal development of extensive air showers (X$_{max}$) of ultra-high energies and mass composition of cosmic rays. The measurements of X$_{max}$ are based on data from observations of the Cherenkov radiation at the Yakutsk array for the period 1974-2014. The cascade curves of individual showers and the depth of maximum X$_{max}$ were reconstructed over the energy range 10$^{16}$-5.7$\cdot$10$^{19}$ eV. It is shown that the displacement rate of the parameter dX$_{max}$ / dE in the atmosphere is nonlinear and depends on the energy. Such a feature indi…
The composition in terms of nuclear species of the primary cosmic ray flux is largely uncertain in the knee region and above, where only indirect measurements are available. The predicted fluxes of high-energy leptons from cosmic ray air showers are influenced by this uncertainty. Different models have been proposed. Similarly, these uncertainties affect the measurement of lepton fluxes in very large volume neutrino telescopes. Uncertainties in the cosmic ray interaction processes, mainly deriving from the limited amount of experimental data covering the particle physics at play, could also pr…
The lateral distribution of muons with ~1.0x\sec(θ) GeV in extensive air showers within ~10^{17}-10^{19} eV energy region obtained during different observational periods from November 1987 to June 2013 has been analyzed. Experimental data have been compared to predictions of various hadron interaction models. The best agreement is observed with QGSJETII-04. Until 1996, the mass composition of cosmic rays with energy below 2x10^{18} eV was significantly lighter than in later periods.
The current generation of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs), including the H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS telescope arrays, have made substantial contributions to our knowledge about the structure and composition of the highly relativistic jets from Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). In this paper, we discuss some of the outstanding scientific questions and give a qualitative overview of AGN related science topics which will be explored with the next-generation Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). CTA is expected to further constrain the structure and make-up of jets, and thus, to constra…
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) Observatory will be the next-generation ground-based very-high-energy gamma-ray observatory, sensitive from 20 GeV up to 300 TeV. The Large-Sized Telescope prototype (LST-1), currently in the commissioning phase, was inaugurated in October 2018 on La Palma (Spain). It is the first of four LST telescopes for CTA, to be built in La Palma. In 2021, LST-1 performed observations of one of the Galactic PeVatron candidates, LHAASO J2108+5157, recently discovered by the LHAASO collaboration. We present results of our analysis of the LST-1 data, putting strong constr…
The results from the first three years observation in Telescope Array are reviewed. The energy spectrum, mass composition, and anisotropy in arrival directions of ultra-high energy cosmic rays are discussed. The energy spectrum of cosmic rays with energies above $10^{18}$ eV is determined using the data of the fluorescence detectors, surface detectors, and with a hybrid shower reconstruction technique using the both data. The ankle structure is clearly found at $10^{18.7}$ eV. The second bending point is also identified, at which the flux of cosmic rays begins to decrease and the spectral inde…
The current generation of Imaging Atmospheric telescopes (IACTs) has demonstrated the power of the technique in an energy range between ~100 GeV up to several tens of TeV. At the high-energy end, these instruments are limited by photon statistics. Future arrays of IACTs such as CTA or AGIS are planned to push into the energy range beyond 100 TeV. Scientifically, this region is very promising, providing a probe of particles up to the 'knee' in the cosmic ray spectrum and access to an unexplored region in the spectra of nearby extragalactic sources. We present first results from our simulation s…
The Cherenkov Telescope Array is expected to lead to the detection of many new supernova remnants in the TeV and multi-TeV range. In addition to the individual study of each SNR, the study of these objects as a population can help constraining the parameters describing the acceleration of particles and increasing our understanding of the mechanisms involved. We present Monte Carlo simulations of the population of Galactic SNRs emitting TeV gamma rays. We also discuss how the simulated population can be confronted with future observations to provide a novel test for the SNR hypothesis of cosmic…
We consider a hybrid array composed of scintillation and water Cherenkov detectors designed to measure the cosmic ray primary mass composition at energies of about 1 EeV. We have developed a simulation and reconstruction chain to study the theoretical performance of such an array. In this work we investigate the sensitivity of mass composition observables in relation to the geometry of the array. The detectors are arranged in a triangular grid with fixed 750 m spacing and the configuration of the scintillator detectors is optimized for mass composition sensitivity. We show that the performance…
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a future very high energy gamma-ray observatory. CTA will be comprised of small-,medium- and large-size telescopes covering an energy range from tens of GeV to hundreds of TeV and will surpass existing telescopes in sensitivity by an order of magnitude. The aim of our study is to find the optimal design for the medium-size telescopes (MSTs), which will determine the sensitivity in the key energy range between a few hundred GeV to about ten TeV. To study the effect of the telescope design parameters on the array performance, we simulated arrays of 61 MSTs …
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a future very high energy gamma-ray observatory. CTA will be comprised of small-, medium- and large-size telescopes covering an energy range from tens of GeV to hundreds of TeV and will surpass existing telescopes in sensitivity by an order of magnitude. The aim of our study is to find the optimal design for the medium-size telescopes (MSTs), which will determine the sensitivity in the key energy range between a few hundred GeV to about ten TeV. To study the effect of the telescope design parameters on the array performance, we simulated arrays of 61 MSTs…
It is anticipated that forthcoming, next generation, atmospheric Cherenkov telescope arrays will include a number of medium-sized telescopes that are constructed using a dual-mirror Schwarzschild-Couder configuration. These telescopes will sample a wide ($8^{\circ}$) field of view using a densely pixelated camera comprising over $10^{4}$ individual readout channels. A readout frequency congruent with the expected single-telescope trigger rates would result in substantial data rates. To ameliorate these data rates, a novel, hardware-level Distributed Intelligent Array Trigger (DIAT) is envision…
The Cherenkov Telescope Array is the main global project of ground-based gamma-ray astronomy for the coming decades. Performance will be significantly improved relative to present instruments, allowing a new insight into the high-energy Universe [1]. The nominal CTA southern array will include a sub-array of seventy 4 m telescopes spread over a few square kilometers to study the sky at extremely high energies, with the opening of a new window in the multi-TeV energy range. The Gamma-ray Cherenkov Telescope (GCT) is one of the proposed telescope designs for that sub-array. The GCT prototype rec…
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation observatory for very high energy gamma rays. The capability of the array to detect gamma-rays above 10 TeV is going to be achieved with a large number of Small Size Telescopes (SSTs) which will cover a large area. The subarray composed of SSTs has to compromise the number of telescopes (cost) and the large effective area. The separation between the telescopes has to be adjusted to achieve highest sensitivity with the smallest number of telescopes. On the other hand larger separation can worsen the energy threshold as well as the energy…
The galactic and extragalactic surveys are two of the main proposed legacy projects of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), providing an unbiased view of the Universe at energies above tens of GeV. Considering Cherenkov telescopes' limited field of view ($<10^\circ$), the time needed for those projects is large. The many telescopes of CTA will allow taking full advantage of new pointing modes in which telescopes point slightly offset from one another. This divergent pointing mode leads to an increase of the array field of view ($\sim 14^\circ$ or larger) with competitive performance compared t…
We present studies for optimizing the next generation of ground-based imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs). Results focus on mid-sized telescopes (MSTs) for CTA, detecting very high energy gamma rays in the energy range from a few hundred GeV to a few tens of TeV. We describe a novel, flexible detector Monte Carlo package, FAST (FAst Simulation for imaging air cherenkov Telescopes), that we use to simulate different array and telescope designs. The simulation is somewhat simplified to allow for efficient exploration over a large telescope design parameter space. We investigate a wi…
On October $10^{\rm th}$ 2018 started the commissioning of the first Large Size Telescope (LST) prototype at the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) northern site at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, Canary Island of La Palma (Spain). For a precise event energy reconstruction, an LST camera requires a uniform and constant calibration over a large dynamic range, up to $10^{4}$ photo-electrons (p.e.), for each camera photomultiplier tube (PMT). This paper describes the performance of the LST-1 camera calibration system (named CaliBox) in the first commissioning period and provides prelimi…
Identification of Cherenkov light generated by muons has been suggested as a promising way to dramatically improve the background rejection power of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope (IACT) arrays at high energies. However, muon identification remains a challenging task, for which efficient algorithms are still being developed. We present an approach in which, rather than identifying Cherenkov light from muons, we simply consider the presence of Cherenkov light other than the main shower image in IACTs with large mirror area. We show that in the case of the H.E.S.S. array of five telesco…
Contributions of the Fluorescence detector Array of Single-pixel Telescopes (FAST) to the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference, 12-20 July 2017, Busan, Korea
The small size telescopes (SSTs), spread over an area of several square km, dominate the CTA sensitivity in the photon energy range from a few TeV to over 100 TeV, enabling for the detailed exploration of the very high energy gamma-ray sky. The proposed telescopes are innovative designs providing a wide field of view. Two of them, the ASTRI (Astrophysics con Specchi a Tecnologia Replicante Italiana) and the GCT (Gamma-ray Cherenkov Telescope) telescopes, are based on dual mirror Schwarzschild-Couder optics, with primary mirror diameters of 4 m. The third, SST-1M, is a Davies-Cotton design with…
We present a method to reconstruct the longitudinal profile of electrons in showers using Cherenkov telescopes. We show how the Cherenkov light collected by an array of telescopes can be transformed into the number of electrons as a function of atmospheric depth. This method is validated using air shower and simplified telescope simulations. The reconstruction of the depth in which the shower has the maximum number of electrons ($\mathrm{X_{max}}$) opens the possibility of cosmic ray composition studies with Cherenkov telescopes in the energy range from 10 to 100 TeV. A resolution of less than…
In the framework of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), the GCT (Gamma-ray Cherenkov Telescope) team is building a dual-mirror telescope as one of the proposed prototypes for the CTA small size class of telescopes. The telescope is based on a Schwarzschild- Couder (SC) optical design, an innovative solution for ground-based Cherenkov astronomy, which allows a compact telescope structure, a lightweight large Field of View (FoV) camera and enables good angular resolution across the entire FoV. We review the different mechanical and optical components of the telescope. In order to characterise t…
The Telescope Array (TA) is the largest ultrahigh energy (UHE) cosmic ray observatory in the northern hemisphere TA is a hybrid experiment with a unique combination of fluorescence detectors and a stand-alone surface array of scintillation counters. We will present the spectrum measured by the surface array alone, along with those measured by the fluorescence detectors in monocular, hybrid, and stereo mode. The composition results from stereo TA data will be discussed. Our report will also include results from the search for correlations between the pointing directions of cosmic rays, seen by …
The Cherenkov Telescope Array is an observatory dedicated to very high energy gamma rays with unprecedented sensitivity between 20 GeV and 300 TeV to be installed on two sites: Canary Island La Palma and Paranal Chile. Three telescope sizes will be used to cover the entire energy range. Two different telescope designs have been proposed to cover the intermediate energy range from 150 GeV to 5 TeV. One of the proposals is based on the traditional single mirror Davies-Cotton design, with two different camera concepts with different detection and processing schemes are under test. Another innovat…
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next major ground-based observatory for gamma-ray astronomy. With CTA gamma-ray sources will be studied in the very-high energy gamma-ray range of a few tens of GeV to 100 TeV with up to ten times better sensitivity than available with current generation instruments. We discuss the proposed US contribution to CTA that comprises imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope with Schwarzschild-Couder (SC) optics. Key features of the SC telescope are a wide field of view of eight degrees, a finely pixelated camera with silicon photomultipliers as photon detect…
NectarCAM is a camera proposed for the medium-sized telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) which covers the core energy range of ~100 GeV to ~30 TeV. It has a modular design and is based on the NECTAr chip, at the heart of which is a GHz sampling Switched Capacitor Array and 12-bit Analog to Digital converter. The camera will be equipped with 265 7-photomultiplier modules, covering a field of view of 8 degrees. Each module includes photomultiplier bases, high voltage supply, pre-amplifier, trigger, readout and Ethernet transceiver. The recorded events last between a few nanoseconds …
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a planned gamma-ray observatory. CTA will incorporate about 100 imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) at a Southern site, and about 20 in the North. Previous IACT experiments have used up to five telescopes. Subsequently, the design of a graphical user interface (GUI) for the operator of CTA involves new challenges. We present a GUI prototype, the concept for which is being developed in collaboration with experts from the field of Human-Computer Interaction. The prototype is based on Web technology; it incorporates a Python web server, Web Sock…
The Large-Sized Telescope (LST) prototype of the future Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is located at the Northern site of CTA, on the Canary Island of La Palma. It is designed to provide optimal performance in the lowest part of the energy range covered by CTA, observing gamma rays down to energies of tens of GeV. The LST prototype started performing astronomical observations in November 2019 during the commissioning of the telescope and it has been taking data since then. In this contribution, we will present the tuning of the characteristics of the telescope in the Monte Carlo (MC) simulati…
An important aspect of the calibration of the Cherenkov Telescope Array is the pointing, which enables an exact alignment of each telescope and therefore allows to transform a position in the sky to a point in the plane of the Cherenkov camera and vice versa. The favoured approach for the pointing calibration of the medium size telescopes (MST) is the installation of an optical CCD-camera in the dish of the telescope that captures the position of the Cherenkov camera and of the stars in the night sky simultaneously during data taking. The adaption of this approach is presented in this proceedi…
The Gamma-ray Cherenkov Telescope (GCT) is one of the Small Size Telescopes (SSTs) proposed for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) aimed at the 1 TeV to 300 TeV energy range. GCT will be equipped with a Compact High-Energy Camera (CHEC) containing 2048 pixels of physical size about 6$\times$6~mm$^2$, leading to a field of view of over 8 degrees. Electronics based on custom TARGET ASICs and FPGAs sample incoming signals at a gigasample per second and provide a flexible triggering scheme. Waveforms for every pixel in every event are read out are on demand without loss at over 600 events per sec…
We present a sophisticated likelihood reconstruction algorithm for shower-image analysis of imaging Cherenkov telescopes. The reconstruction algorithm is based on the comparison of the camera pixel amplitudes with the predictions from a Monte Carlo based model. Shower parameters are determined by a maximisation of a likelihood function. Maximisation of the likelihood as a function of shower fit parameters is performed using a numerical non-linear optimisation technique. A related reconstruction technique has already been developed by the CAT and the H.E.S.S. experiments, and provides a more pr…
The presence of muons in air-showers initiated by cosmic ray protons and nuclei is well established as a powerful tool to separate such showers from those initiated by gamma rays. However, so far this approach has been fully exploited only for ground level particle detecting arrays. We explore the feasibility of using Cherenkov light from muons as a background rejection tool for imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope arrays at the highest energies. We adopt an analytical model of the Cherenkov light from individual muons to allow rapid simulation of a large number of showers in a hybrid mode.…
The Telescope Array (TA) is the largest experiment in the northern hemisphere studying ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. TA is a hybrid experiment, which means it has two detector systems: a surface detector and a fluorescence detector. In this paper we report on results from TA on the spectrum, composition, and anisotropy of cosmic rays. The spectrum measured by the TA surface detector, cosmic ray composition measured with the TA fluorescence detectors operating in stereoscopic mode, and a search for correlations between the pointing directions of cosmic rays, seen by the surface detector, and AG…
As TeV gamma-ray astronomy progresses into the era of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), there is a desire for the capacity to instantaneously follow up on transient phenomena and continuously monitor gamma-ray flux at energies above $10^{12}$ eV. To this end, a worldwide network of Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) is required to provide triggers for CTA observations and complementary continuous monitoring. An IACT array sited in Australia would contribute significant coverage of the Southern Hemisphere sky. Here, we investigate the suitability of a small IACT array and how different…
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation ground-based observatory for gamma-ray astronomy at very-high energies. It will be capable of detecting gamma rays in the energy range from 20 GeV to more than 300 TeV with unprecedented precision in energy and directional reconstruction. With more than 100 telescopes of three different types it will be located in the northern hemisphere at La Palma, Spain, and in the southern at Paranal, Chile. CTA will be one of the largest astronomical infrastructures in the world with open data access and it will address questions in astronomy, ast…
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will consist of two arrays of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) at the northern and southern hemispheres. CTA will feature IACTs with mirrors of three different sizes optimized to cover different energy ranges. The proposed sub-arrays of four Large Size Telescopes (LST) at CTA-North and CTA-South target the lowest energy range between around 20 GeV and 100 GeV. Thanks to their low weight of around 110 tons the LSTs can move by 180 deg in azimuth in 20 seconds for Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) follow-up. An LST has a tessellated parabolic mirror of 23 …
We introduce a new simulation and analysis paradigm for Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope (IACT) arrays, simulating the actual observation conditions as well as individual telescope configuration for each observation unit. Compared to existing frameworks, where simulations are usually generated using pre-defined settings, this run-wise simulation approach implies more realistic simulations and hence reduced systematic uncertainties. The computational effort of this dedicated simulation concept is notably independent of the amount of different observation configurations but just scales li…
In its initial deployment, the Non-Imaging CHErenkov Array (NICHE)will measure the flux and nuclear composition of cosmic rays from below 10^16 eV to 10^18 eV by using measurements of the amplitude and time-spread of the air-shower Cherenkov signal to achieve a robust event-by-event measurement of Xmax and energy. NICHE will have sufficient area and angular acceptance to have significant overlap with TA/TALE, within which NICHE is located, to allow for energy cross-calibration. In order to quantify NICHE's ability to measure the cosmic ray nuclear composition, 4-component composition models we…
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next-generation gamma-ray observatory with sensitivity in the energy range from 20 GeV to beyond 300 TeV. CTA is proposed to consist of two arrays of 40-100 imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, with one site located in each of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The evaluation process for the candidate sites for CTA is supported by detailed Monte Carlo simulations, which take different attributes like site altitude and geomagnetic field configuration into account. In this contribution we present the comparison of the sensitivity and performanc…
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, the Pierre Auger Observatory and the Telescope Array: Joint Contribution to the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2017)
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a major ground-based observatory proposed for gamma-ray astronomy. CTA is envisioned to consist of two large arrays of atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes for the study of sources of high-energy gamma rays in the energy range of a few tens of GeV to beyond 100 TeV. One array would be located in the southern hemisphere and one in the northern hemisphere. After a detailed search, we have identified two potential sites in the USA for the northern array. Both sites are located in northern Arizona. Here we describe the two sites and the deployment of instrumentat…
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next-generation atmospheric Cherenkov gamma-ray observatory. CTA will consist of two installations, one in the northern, and the other in the southern hemisphere, containing tens of telescopes of different sizes. The CTA performance requirements and the inherent complexity associated with the operation, control and monitoring of such a large distributed multi-telescope array leads to new challenges in the field of the gamma-ray astronomy. The ACTL (array control and data acquisition) system will consist of the hardware and software that is necessary t…
A wide field-of-view Cherenkov telescope has been working in the surroundings of the Yakutsk array experiment since 2012. Its main function is to measure the waveform of the Cherenkov radiation signal induced by extensive air showers of cosmic rays. Analysis of the dataset collected by telescope is intended for the reconstruction of the parameters of the development of the shower in addition to the main shower characteristics measured by the rest of the array detectors. In this paper, the observed duration of the Cherenkov radiation signal as a function of the shower core distance is used to e…
