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Register a new userLocating TeV Gamma-Ray Sources with Sub-Arcminute Precision: the Pointing Calibration of the HEGRA System of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes
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Stereoscopic viewing of TeV gamma-ray air showers with systems of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) allows to reconstruct the origin of individual primary particles with an accuracy of 0.1 degree or better. The shower impact point can be determined within 15 meters. To actually achieve this resolution, the pointing of the telescopes of an IACT system needs to be controlled with high precision. For the HEGRA IACT system, a procedure to calibrate telescope pointing was established, using bright stars distributed over the sky as references. On the basis of these measurements, one determines parameters of a correction function which is valid for the complete hemisphere. After correction a pointing accuracy of 0.01 degree is achieved.
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The stereoscopic imaging atmospheric Cherenkov technique, developed in the 1980s and 1990s, is now used by a number of existing and planned gamma-ray observatories around the world. It provides the most sensitive view of the very high energy gamma-ray sky (above 30 GeV), coupled with relatively good angular and spectral resolution over a wide field-of-view. This Chapter summarizes the details of the technique, including descriptions of the telescope optical systems and cameras, as well as the most common approaches to data analysis and gamma-ray reconstruction.
The MAGIC telescope is an imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope, designed to observe very high energy gamma-rays while achieving a low energy threshold. One of the key science goals is fast follow-up of the enigmatic and short lived gamma-ray bursts. The drive system for the telescope has to meet two basic demands: (1) During normal observations, the 72-ton telescope has to be positioned accurately, and has to track a given sky position with high precision at a typical rotational speed in the order of one revolution per day. (2) For successfully observing GRB prompt emission and afterglows, it has to be powerful enough to position to an arbitrary point on the sky within a few ten seconds and commence normal tracking immediately thereafter. To meet these requirements, the implementation and realization of the drive system relies strongly on standard industry components to ensure robustness and reliability. In this paper, we describe the mechanical setup, the drive control and the calibration of the pointing, as well as present measurements of the accuracy of the system. We show that the drive system is mechanically able to operate the motors with an accuracy even better than the feedback values from the axes. In the context of future projects, envisaging telescope arrays comprising about 100 individual instruments, the robustness and scalability of the concept is emphasized.
A search for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) above 20 TeV within the field of view (1 sr) of the HEGRA AIROBICC Cherenkov array (29N, 18W, 2200 m a.s.l.) has been performed using data taken between March 1992 and March 1993. The search is based on an all-sky survey using four time scales, 10 seconds, 1 minute, 4 minutes and 1 hour. No evidence for TeV-emission has been found for the data sample. Flux upper limits are given. A special analysis has been performed for GRBs detected by BATSE and WATCH. Two partially and two fully contained GRBs in our field of view (FOV) were studied. For GRB 920925c which was fully contained in our FOV, the most significant excess has a probability of 7.7 10**-8 (corresponding to 5.4 sigmas) of being caused by a background fluctuation. Correcting this probability with the appropriate trial factor, yields a 99.7% confidence level for this excess to be related to the GRB (corresponding to 2.7 sigmas). This result is discussed within the framework of the WATCH detection.
A detection of Gamma-rays from Mkn 421 at energies above 1 TeV is reported, based on observations made in December 1994 - May 1995 with the first two HEGRA Cherenkov telescopes. >From the image analysis, 111 excess gamma candidates are obtained from the 26 h Telescope #1 (CT1) dataset (significance 4.0 sigma) and 218 from the 41 h Telescope #2 (CT2) dataset (significance 4.2 sigma) at zenith angles theta < 25 degrees. The combined significance is approx. 5.8 sigma. This is the second detection of Mkn 421 at TeV energies. The average excess rate is 4.3 +- 1.0 h^-1 for CT1 and 5.4 +- 1.3 h^-1 for CT2. Comparison with our contemporary observations of the Crab Nebula indicates that Mkn 421 has a steeper spectrum than the Crab Nebula above 1 TeV. Under the assumption that the spectrum of Mkn 421 follows a power law, we obtain a differential spectral index of 3.6 +- 1.0 and an integral flux above 1 TeV of 8 (+-2)_(Stat) (+6-3)_(Syst) x 10^-12 cm^-2 s^-1 from a comparison with Monte Carlo data. This flux is smaller than the Crab Nebula flux by a factor of 2.0 +- 0.8.
Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy experienced a major boost with the advent of the present generation of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) in the past decade. Photons of energies >~ 0.1 TeV are a very useful tool in the study of several fundamental physics topics, which have become an important part of the research program of all major IACTs. A review of some recent results in the field is presented.
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