Gamma-Ray Astronomy from the Ground
Abstract
The observation of cosmic gamma-rays from the ground is based upon the detection of gamma-ray initiated air showers. At energies between approximately eV and eV, the imaging air Cherenkov technique is a particularly successful approach to observe gamma-ray sources with energy fluxes as low as erg\,cms. The observations of gamma-rays in this energy band probe particle acceleration in astrophysical plasma conditions and are sensitive to high energy phenomena beyond the standard model of particle physics (e.g., self-annihilating or decaying dark matter, violation of Lorentz invariance, mixing of photons with light pseudo-scalars). The current standing of the field and its major instruments are summarised briefly by presenting selected highlights. A new generation of ground based gamma-ray instruments is currently under development. The perspectives and opportunities of these future facilities will be discussed.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1602.08224,
title = {Gamma-Ray Astronomy from the Ground},
author = {D. Horns},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1602.08224},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
8 pages, 7 figures, to appear in Proceedings of the 14th international conference on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics: TAUP2015, Torino, Italy, edited by N. Fornengo, M. Regis, and H. Zechlin. To be published in Journal of Physics, Conference Series