WoU-MMA: Development of the Optical Alignment Systems for the Medium-Sized Telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array

WoU-MMA：切伦科夫望远镜阵列中型望远镜光学对准系统的开发

• 批准号: 2320587
• 负责人: David Williams
• 金额: $ 390.44万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Cruz
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-15 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2320587&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: WoU; MMA; Development; Optical; Alignment

The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) is a forthcoming state-of-the-art facility to study very high-energy gamma-rays and provide transformative understanding of the most extreme objects in the Universe, including pulsars, supernova remnants, gamma-ray bursts, and supermassive black holes at the center of active galaxies. The CTAO is now entering the construction phase of the project, with first science observations anticipated in approximately three years utilizing the first pathfinder imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) of the observatory. This award supports U.S. CTAO scientists in the development, fabrication, and installation of the optical alignment systems for the initial seven medium-sized CTA telescopes, including five at the northern site at Rogue de los Muchachos Observatory, La Palma, Spain, one at the southern site at the European Southern Observatory, Paranal, Chile, and the prototype Schwarzchild-Couder telescope (pSCT) located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Arizona. The awarded activities provide a unique instrumentation training ground for students and early career researchers and a series of workshops are planned to develop educational high-energy astrophysics materials for K-12 schools. The leading U.S. contributions provided via this award provide the foundation for broad access of U.S. scientists to CTAO and the next generation gamma-ray discoveries. The CTAO will utilize advanced IACT technology in large arrays of three telescope apertures: large (23m), medium (10-12m) and small (4m). The medium-scale telescopes targeted in this award involve a single-mirror, prime focus Davis-Cotton design and a double-mirror, aplanatic Schwarzschild-Couder design. The observatory will provide up to ten times increased sensitivity over current instruments in measurements of astrophysical gamma-rays at energies between 20 GeV – 300 TeV. With design improvements of a 3x increase in imaging area, the CTAO will enable astrophysical sky surveys to be completed approximately 300x faster than current facilities, revolutionizing high-energy gamma-ray follow-up to multi-messenger astrophysics events, including those triggered by gravitational wave and high-energy neutrino alerts. The initial five medium telescopes at the northern site will be the most sensitive array in their energy-band as a stand-alone instrument. Operating in conjunction with the four large-sized telescopes currently being built on the site will form the largest, most sensitivity array of IACTs yet assembled. The first medium-sized telescope to be outfitted at the southern site will be the first IACT in the southern portion of the Western hemisphere, providing important new sky coverage for transient events such as gravitational wave counterparts. Finally, the high-angular resolution of the novel pSCT design will provide unique future additional reach to the CTAO program. This project advances the goals of the NSF Windows on the Universe Big Idea.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

切伦科夫望远镜阵列天文台 (CTAO) 是一个即将推出的最先进设施，用于研究极高能伽马射线，并提供对宇宙中最极端物体的变革性理解，包括脉冲星、超新星遗迹、伽马射线CTAO 目前正进入该项目的建设阶段，预计将在大约三年内利用第一个探路者成像大气进行首次观测。天文台的切伦科夫望远镜 (IACT) 该奖项支持美国 CTAO 科学家为最初的七台中型 CTA 望远镜开发、制造和安装光学对准系统，其中五台位于 Rogue de los Muchachos 天文台北部。 ，西班牙拉帕尔马，欧洲南方天文台南部站点，智利帕拉纳尔，原型史瓦西-库德望远镜（pSCT）位于亚利桑那州的弗雷德·劳伦斯·惠普尔天文台。获奖活动为学生和早期职业研究人员提供了一个独特的仪器培训基地，并计划举办一系列研讨会，为 K-12 学校开发高能天体物理学教育材料。该奖项为美国科学家广泛接触 CTAO 和下一代伽马射线发现奠定了基础 CTAO 将在三个望远镜孔径的大型阵列中利用先进的 IACT 技术：大。该奖项针对的中型望远镜包括单镜、主焦戴维斯-科顿设计和双镜、消球差史瓦西-库德天文台。在能量介于 20 GeV 至 300 TeV 之间的天体物理伽马射线测量中，通过设计改进，其灵敏度将比现有仪器提高十倍。 CTAO 的成像面积增加了 3 倍，天体物理天空勘测的完成速度将比现有设施快约 300 倍，彻底改变多信使天体物理事件（包括由引力波和高能触发的事件）的高能伽马射线后续工作北部站点最初的五台中型望远镜将是其能带中最敏感的阵列，作为独立仪器与四台大型望远镜一起运行。目前在该地点建造的望远镜将形成迄今为止组装的最大、最灵敏的 IACT 阵列。在南部地点装备的第一台中型望远镜将是西半球南部的第一个 IACT，提供重要的新功能。最后，新颖的 pSCT 设计的高角分辨率将为 CTAO 计划提供独特的未来覆盖范围。该项目推进了 NSF 宇宙之窗的目标。授予 NSF 的法定使命，并通过评估反映使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，被认为值得支持。