Extreme Environment Astrophysics with H.E.S.S. Phase I 2007-2010

极端环境天体物理学与 H.E.S.S.

• 批准号: PP/E001645/1
• 负责人: James Hinton
• 金额: $ 1.41万
• 依托单位: University of Leeds
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2008 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=PP%2FE001645%2F1
• 关键词: Extreme; Environment; Astrophysics; H.E.S.S.; Phase

PPARC has supported for the past few years UK participation in the construction, commissioning and operation of a very high energy (VHE) gamma ray telescope in Namibia, South West Africa, called the H.E.S.S. array. The first 4 telescopes of the array began routine operations in January 2004, and are revealing to us a wealth of astronomical objects acting as huge particle accelerators - supermassive black holes in distant galaxies, supernova remnants and pulsars. UK astronomers are particularly interested in variability in such objects, particularly how active galaxies accelerate particles and in mini versions of these objects in our own galaxy known as microquasars, and in the mechanisms of particle acceleration in pulsars. We are also interested in the solution of one of the great puzzles of the last 100 years, which is the origin of the cosmic rays that bombard us all the time. It has long been suspected that they are produced in supernova remnants, and now we are beginning to find evidence that this might well be the case. However, the final pieces of the jigsaw need to come from more extensive VHE gamma ray observations and observations at other wavelengths. As well as analysing the data from the telescopes, UK scientists are responsible for some of the technical tasks that ensure the whole collaboration is able to get the scientific results from the telescopes. The Durham group is responsible for the calibration systems used with the telescopes in order to ensure that the achieve full sensitivity. Uniquely, in the case of VHE gamma ray telescopes, the atmosphere actually forms part of the detector, and so we have to understand the atmosphere and then use that information in computer simulations to calculate the energies of the incoming gamma rays. In addition, data often have to be corrected for atmospheric variations, so that these can be disentangled from variations in the gamma ray emission of the objects that we observe, which obviously has an important bearing on our scientfic interests. Dr. Jim Hinton at Leeds is responsible for parts of the electronic system and software that ensure the telescopes work properly together. This grant requests funding for two postdoctoral scientists to continue working on H.E.S.S. data and perform the important calibration tasks for the collaboration.

在过去的几年中，PPARC支持了在西南非洲纳米比亚的高能（VHE）Gamma Ray望远镜的建设，调试和运营，称为H.E.S.S.大批。该阵列的前4个望远镜于2004年1月开始例行操作，并向我们揭示了许多天文学物体，这些物体充当巨大的粒子加速器 - 遥远星系，超新星残留物和脉冲的超级质量黑洞。英国天文学家对此类物体的变异性特别感兴趣，尤其是主动星系如何加速粒子和在我们自己的星系中被称为微Quasars的这些物体的迷你版本，以及脉冲星的粒子加速度机理。我们还对解决过去100年的巨大难题之一的解决方案感兴趣，这是宇宙射线的起源。长期以来，人们一直怀疑它们是在超新星残留物中生产的，现在我们开始发现证据表明情况很可能是这种情况。但是，拼图的最后一块需要来自更广泛的VHE伽马射线观测和其他波长的观测。除了分析望远镜的数据外，英国科学家还负责一些技术任务，以确保整个协作能够从望远镜中获得科学结果。达勒姆组负责望远镜与望远镜一起使用的校准系统，以确保达到完全敏感性。独特的是，在Vhe伽马射线望远镜的情况下，大气实际上是检测器的一部分，因此我们必须了解大气，然后在计算机模拟中使用该信息来计算传入的伽马射线的能量。此外，数据通常必须纠正大气变化，以便可以将这些数据与我们观察到的对象的伽马射线发射的变化相关，这显然对我们的科学利益具有重要的影响。利兹的吉姆·辛顿（Jim Hinton）博士负责电子系统和软件的一部分，以确保望远镜一起工作。该赠款要求为两名博士后科学家继续研究H.E.S.S.数据并执行协作的重要校准任务。