| 1. |
- Acharya, B. S., et al.
(författare)
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Introducing the CTA concept
- 2013
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Ingår i: Astroparticle physics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0927-6505 .- 1873-2852. ; 43, s. 3-18
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a new observatory for very high-energy (VHE) gamma rays. CTA has ambitions science goals, for which it is necessary to achieve full-sky coverage, to improve the sensitivity by about an order of magnitude, to span about four decades of energy, from a few tens of GeV to above 100 TeV with enhanced angular and energy resolutions over existing VHE gamma-ray observatories. An international collaboration has formed with more than 1000 members from 27 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America. In 2010 the CTA Consortium completed a Design Study and started a three-year Preparatory Phase which leads to production readiness of CTA in 2014. In this paper we introduce the science goals and the concept of CTA, and provide an overview of the project. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 2. |
- Ackermann, M., et al.
(författare)
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Detection of the Characteristic Pion-Decay Signature in Supernova Remnants
- 2013
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Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 339:6121, s. 807-811
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cosmic rays are particles (mostly protons) accelerated to relativistic speeds. Despite wide agreement that supernova remnants (SNRs) are the sources of galactic cosmic rays, unequivocal evidence for the acceleration of protons in these objects is still lacking. When accelerated protons encounter interstellar material, they produce neutral pions, which in turn decay into gamma rays. This offers a compelling way to detect the acceleration sites of protons. The identification of pion-decay gamma rays has been difficult because high-energy electrons also produce gamma rays via bremsstrahlung and inverse Compton scattering. We detected the characteristic pion-decay feature in the gamma-ray spectra of two SNRs, IC 443 and W44, with the Fermi Large Area Telescope. This detection provides direct evidence that cosmic-ray protons are accelerated in SNRs.
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| 3. |
- Abdo, A. A., et al.
(författare)
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The second Fermi large area telescope catalog of gamma-ray pulsars
- 2013
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0067-0049 .- 1538-4365. ; 208:2, s. 17-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This catalog summarizes 117 high-confidence ≥0.1 GeV gamma-ray pulsar detections using three years of data acquired by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi satellite. Half are neutron stars discovered using LAT data through periodicity searches in gamma-ray and radio data around LAT unassociated source positions. The 117 pulsars are evenly divided into three groups: millisecond pulsars, young radio-loud pulsars, and young radio-quiet pulsars. We characterize the pulse profiles and energy spectra and derive luminosities when distance information exists. Spectral analysis of the off-peak phase intervals indicates probable pulsar wind nebula emission for four pulsars, and off-peak magnetospheric emission for several young and millisecond pulsars. We compare the gamma-ray properties with those in the radio, optical, and X-ray bands. We provide flux limits for pulsars with no observed gamma-ray emission, highlighting a small number of gamma-faint, radio-loud pulsars. The large, varied gamma-ray pulsar sample constrains emission models. Fermi's selection biases complement those of radio surveys, enhancing comparisons with predicted population distributions.
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| 4. |
- Acero, F., et al.
(författare)
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Constraints on the galactic population of TeV pulsar wind nebulae using fermi large area telescope observations
- 2013
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 773:1, s. 77-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) have been established as the most populous class of TeV gamma-ray emitters. Since launch, the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) has identified five high-energy (100 MeV < E < 100 GeV) gamma-ray sources as PWNe and detected a large number of PWN candidates, all powered by young and energetic pulsars. The wealth of multi-wavelength data available and the new results provided by Fermi-LAT give us an opportunity to find new PWNe and to explore the radiative processes taking place in known ones. The TeV gamma-ray unidentified (UNID) sources are the best candidates for finding new PWNe. Using 45 months of Fermi-LAT data for energies above 10 GeV, an analysis was performed near the position of 58 TeV PWNe and UNIDs within 5. of the Galactic plane to establish new constraints on PWN properties and find new clues on the nature of UNIDs. Of the 58 sources, 30 were detected, and this work provides their gamma-ray fluxes for energies above 10 GeV. The spectral energy distributions and upper limits, in the multi-wavelength context, also provide new information on the source nature and can help distinguish between emission scenarios, i.e., between classification as a pulsar candidate or as a PWN candidate. Six new GeV PWN candidates are described in detail and compared with existing models. A population study of GeV PWN candidates as a function of the pulsar/PWN system characteristics is presented.
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| 5. |
- Ackermann, M., et al.
(författare)
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Determination of the point-spread function for the fermi large area telescope from on-orbit data and limits on pair halos of active galactic nuclei
- 2013
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 765:1, s. 54-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is a pair-conversion telescope designed to detect photons with energies from approximate to 20 MeV to > 300 GeV. The pre-launch response functions of the LAT were determined through extensive Monte Carlo simulations and beam tests. The point-spread function (PSF) characterizing the angular distribution of reconstructed photons as a function of energy and geometry in the detector is determined here from two years of on-orbit data by examining the distributions of gamma rays from pulsars and active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Above 3 GeV, the PSF is found to be broader than the pre-launch PSF. We checked for dependence of the PSF on the class of gamma-ray source and observation epoch and found none. We also investigated several possible spatial models for pair-halo emission around BL Lac AGNs. We found no evidence for a component with spatial extension larger than the PSF and set upper limits on the amplitude of halo emission in stacked images of low-and high-redshift BL Lac AGNs and the TeV blazars 1ES0229 + 200 and 1ES0347-121.
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