Particle Astrophysics with HAWC

粒子天体物理学与 HAWC

• 批准号: 1308033
• 负责人: Jordan Goodman
• 金额: $ 140.7万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1308033&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Particle; Astrophysics; HAWC

The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-ray Observatory is a wide field-of-view, continuously operating, teraelectronvolt (TeV) gamma-ray telescope that will explore the origin of cosmic rays, study the acceleration of particles in extreme physical environments, and search for new TeV physics. When HAWC begins operations in August 2013 with 100 Water Cherenkov Detectors it will be the most sensitive wide-field detector in the TeV range, with an approximately five times increase in sensitivity over the previous generation of detectors. During the first year of operation, HAWC's sensitivity will steadily increase as the full 250 detectors are gradually brought online. HAWC will monitor the northern sky and make coincident observations with other observatories including VERITAS, HESS, Magic, IceCube and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope for multi-wavelength and multi-messenger studies of the high-energy sky. HAWC will observe Galactic sources in the TeV energy range, detect diffuse emission from regions of the Galactic plane, observe known TeV active galactic nuclei and the brightest known gigaelectronvolt (GeV) gamma-ray bursts, and with its significant increase in sensitivity it is poised to discover new high-energy phenomena in the Universe.The University of Maryland group has a significant leadership role in HAWC. This award will enable the University of Maryland group to continue work in the construction, operation and science of HAWC including reconstruction and simulation software, maintenance of the multi-Petabyte data archive, and science analysis.Broader Impacts: HAWC is an all-sky instrument that will serve as a TeV "finder" telescope for ground-based observatories, and it can be used to extend measurements of satellite-discovered sources to TeV energies. HAWC will build on the strong outreach record of Milagro to bring this exciting field of research to students and the general public. Since HAWC is a joint Mexican-American project, it presents an opportunity to attract Hispanic-American students to science and astroparticle physics.

高空水切伦科夫（HAWC）伽马射线天文台是一个宽视场、连续运行的太电子伏（TeV）伽马射线望远镜，将探索宇宙射线的起源，研究极端物理环境中粒子的加速，并搜索新的 TeV 物理。 当 HAWC 于 2013 年 8 月开始运行时，配备 100 个水切伦科夫探测器，它将成为 TeV 范围内最灵敏的宽视场探测器，其灵敏度比上一代探测器提高了大约五倍。 在运行的第一年，随着全部 250 个探测器逐步上线，HAWC 的灵敏度将稳步提高。 HAWC 将监测北方天空，并与 VERITAS、HESS、Magic、IceCube 和费米伽马射线太空望远镜等其他天文台进行同步观测，对高能天空进行多波长和多信使研究。 HAWC 将观测 TeV 能量范围内的银河源，探测银河平面区域的漫射发射，观测已知的 TeV 活动星系核和已知最亮的吉电子伏 (GeV) 伽马射线爆发，并且随着灵敏度的显着提高，它已准备就绪发现宇宙中新的高能现象。马里兰大学小组在 HAWC 中发挥着重要的领导作用。 该奖项将使马里兰大学小组能够继续从事 HAWC 的建设、运行和科学工作，包括重建和模拟软件、多 PB 数据存档的维护以及科学分析。 更广泛的影响：HAWC 是一款全天仪器它将作为地面观测站的 TeV“探测器”望远镜，并且可用于将卫星发现的源的测量扩展到 TeV 能量。 HAWC 将在 Milagro 强大的外展记录的基础上，将这一令人兴奋的研究领域带给学生和公众。 由于 HAWC 是一个墨西哥裔美国人联合项目，它提供了一个吸引西班牙裔美国学生学习科学和天体粒子物理学的机会。