MG14 - Talk detail

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In the last decade, very high energy (VHE) gamma ray astronomy - at photon energies of 100 GeV and beyond - has developed in giant steps, with the number of known cosmic VHE gamma ray sources now well over 100. Cosmic particle accelerators – giving rise to gamma ray production when accelerated particles interact with the ambient medium and radiation fields – are ubiquitous in the Galaxy and in the Universe. Yet many questions remain open, such as: Can particle acceleration in supernova remnants quantitatively account for the observed spectrum of cosmic rays? What are the exact mechanisms of acceleration in the vicinity of compact objects such as pulsars or black holes? How do the accelerated particles influence their environment and cosmic evolution? Very high energy gamma ray astronomy also offers windows onto key questions of fundamental physics, such as the search for dark matter or the search for signs of quantum gravity inducing a dispersion in the propagation speed of very high energy photons. Current instruments are not quite sensitive enough to probe these issues, which are driving the design of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) as a next-generation facility for ground-based gamma-ray astronomy. CTA is a world-wide project, with over 1000 scientists in 29 countries working on the design of the instrument and the planning of the science programme. CTA is planned to include a northern and a southern site, equipped with arrays of Cherenkov telescopes of three different sizes, covering the energy range from 20 GeV to several 100 TeV, and providing almost an order of magnitude sensitivity increase over existing instruments. For the first time in this field, CTA will be operated as an open observatory. The presentation will review the science goals and science prospects of CTA, the performance of the instrument, and the status of design and prototyping.

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