Cosmic gamma rays are a special probe to investigate sudden cosmic events in the universe. Unlike thermal emission, which ranges from radio to X-rays, cosmic gamma rays are often a direct probe of bursts or other short lived cosmic catastrophes. Today, the timing of cosmic gamma rays is a vivid part of astronomy. Cherenkov telescopes observe the rare gamma rays with energies of several hundred giga electron Volt in large collecting areas exceeding the size of soccer or football fields. Particle detectors on satellites observe the much more abundand gamma rays with energies of about one giga electron Volt in small collecting areas with the size of about a car's windshield. But for better timing, we want to collect the abundand gamma rays with low energies in large collecting areas in order to have large statistics in short amounts of time. This is the goal of the atmospheric Cherenkov plenoscope.
This project explores the feasibility and performance of a Cherenkov plenoscope to observe cosmic gamma rays with energies as low as one giga electron Volt in collecting areas as large as several thousand square meters.
The main objectives are to investigate and publish our findings related to:
- Optics and light fields ✅
Explore and demonstrate how the optics of a plenoscope and it's perception of light fields can be used to overcome the physical limits of existing telescopes in order to build larger instruments which can detect cosmic gamma rays with lower energies.
- Background from cosmic rays 🔨 🔧
Explore the background of cosmic rays in the presence of earth's magnetic field which will be visible to any atmospheric Cherenkov instrument capable of detecting cosmic gamma rays with energies as low as one giga electron Volt.
- Astronomical performance 🔨 🔧
Estimate the response functions of a specific Cherenkov plenoscope designed to detect cosmic gamma rays with energies as low as one giga electron Volt. Estimate and discuss its sensitivity for astronomical targets in the context of timing. This might include: gamma ray bursts, counterparts to mergers seen in gravitational waves, timing arrays of pulsars, variability of active galactic nuclei.
- The Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) and the Astro-rivelatore Gamma a Immagini Leggero (AGILE) are particle detectors in space which can detect the abandund gamma rays at low energies but have only modest collecting areas. See also Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET).
- The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation of ground based instruments which can detect the rare high energetic gamma rays in large collecting areas. See also the current generation: Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS), Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC), High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), Major Atmospheric Cerenkov Experiment Telescope (MACE), and others.
This github organization collects the ideas, drafts and computer programs which simulate and estimate the performance of the Cherenkov plenoscope to observe cosmic gamma rays. The computer simulations have a modular design so that functionalities with limited scopes are put into their own packages. This organization collects these individual packages, and libraries. Having individual packages of limited scope is hoped to ever so slightly increase the chances for you to reuse this work. Individual packages have their own READMEs, they have their own unit tests, and they have interfaces which mostly consist out of types which are natural to the corresponding programming language.
However, some packages are special to the Cherenkov plenoscope. They bundle the other packages and use them to perform more complex tasks which are specific to the simulations of the Cherenkov plenoscope. The culmination of this is the starter_kit repository. It collects all the other packages as submodules and is the place where the computer simulations for the Cherenkov plenoscope are developed.