SECTION: Physics, Nanotechnologies, Materials Technology, Space
SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATION:
Irkutsk State University
REPORT FORM:
«Poster report»
AUTHOR(S)
OF THE REPORT:
Vladimir Lenok, Nikolaj Budnev, Razmik Mirzoyan
SPEAKER:
Vladimir, Lenok
REPORT TITLE:
Coincident Operation of HiSCORE with Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes in TAIGA. A Novel Approach for Exploring the Sky in Very High Energy Gamma and Cosmic Rays
TALKING POINTS:

To increase the sensitivity and to decrease the threshold, to organize monitoring of certain sources and above all to separate more reliably gamma-ray initiated showers from the background of charged cosmic ray showers, it is really important to operate an array of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes to TAIGA. We have designed and start constructing the first TAIGA-IACT, the prototype of the array. An array of IACTs are planned to be implemented within TAIGA. The reflectors of these telescopes will have a an area of ~10 m2, and a focus of 4,75 m. We are designing imaging camera matrixes consisting of ~400 PMT-based pixels, with observational field of view of 8х8 degrees and an angular size of 0.36 degrees for a pixel. Preliminary simulation results show that joint operation of the wide-angle Cherenkov array Tunka-HISCORE and a system of Tunka-IACTs can be a very effective inexpensive and a fast way to extend the gamma-astrophysics into the unexplored yet super high energy domain. The basic idea is that the two arrays (TAIGA-HiSCORE and TAIGA-IACTs) will work in a coincidence mode and will complement each other: by using the timing and the imaging methods, showers with high precision can be measured. Namely, the results of reconstruction of core position and arrival direction of coincident EAS events from the TAIGA-HiSCORE array (expected accuracy of core location ~5-6m and arrival direction ~0.1 degree) will help an IACT in rejecting the high energy background events on large impact parameters of say up to 300 -500 m. On its turn, the IACT observing a concrete strong source in the sky, say, for example, the Crab Nebula, can with high efficiency tag the coincident high energy gamma event candidates, which can be used by the HiSCORE array for developing, training and improving its gamma-ray selection methods. What is particularly important that the distance between IACT telescopes can be made considerably larger than in the current arrays of H.E.S.S., MAGIC, VERITAS, CTA etc. As a result for development of 1 km2 area array only 4-9 (the number will be specified in the course of further simulations) TAIGA-IACT telescopes will be needed. Due to a dedicated, optimised design of the IACTs the total cost of such a complex array can be an order of magnitude lower than the cost of an IACT array of the same area built with use of only classical narrow-angle IACT detectors. We are going to show the details of the Monte Carlo simulations in our report.