Astrophysics
Within the year 2007, MAGIC will be upgraded to a two telescope system at La Palma. Its main goal is to improve the sensitivity in the stereoscopic/coincident operational mode. At the same time it will lower the analysis threshold of the…
One of the main design goals of the MAGIC telescopes is the very fast repositioning in case of Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) alarms, implying a low weight of the telescope dish. This is accomplished by using a space frame made of carbon fiber epoxy…
In February 2007 the MAGIC Air Cherenkov Telescope for gamma-ray astronomy was fully upgraded with an ultra fast 2 GSamples/s digitization system. Since the Cherenkov light flashes are very short, a fast readout can minimize the influence…
In recent years, ground-based gamma-ray observatories have made a number of important astrophysical discoveries which have attracted the attention of the wider scientific community. The Division of Astrophysics of the American Physical…
We study the evolution of 82302 star-forming (SF) galaxies from the SDSS. Our main goals are to explore new ways of handling star formation histories (SFH) obtained with our publicly available spectral synthesis code STARLIGHT, and apply…
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has obtained 450 square degrees of photometric scan data, in five bands (u',g',r',i',z'), which we use to identify clusters of galaxies. We illustrate how we do star-galaxy separation, and present a simple and…
The detection of neutrinos from SN1987A confirmed the core-collapse nature of SN II, but the neutrinos were not noticed until after the optical discovery. The current generation of neutrino experiments are both much larger and actively…
Due to the lack of test-beams in ground-based gamma-ray astronomy, detector calibration has been a major challenge in this field. However, with the use of Cherenkov ring-images due to cosmic-ray muons and of strong gamma-ray signals, the…
The Very High Energy (VHE) gamma-ray emission of the BL Lacertae objects Markarian 501 and Markarian 421 has been observed by the CAT Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope in 1997 and 1998. The spectrum extraction method is presented, and…
An RPC carpet covering about 10^4 m^2 (ARGO-YBJ experiment) will be installed in the YangBaJing Laboratory (Tibet, P.R. China) at an altitude of 4300 m a.s.l. . A test-module of about 50 m^2 has been put in operation in this laboratory and…
The gamma-ray emission of the blazar Markarian 421 above 250 GeV has been observed by the CAT Cherenkov imaging telescope since December, 1996. We report here results on the source variability up to April, 1998, with emphasis on the 1998…
We report here observations of the active galactic nucleus Mrk 501, at energies above 250 GeV carried out with the CAT atmospheric imaging telescope from March 1997 to Autumn 1998. This source was in a high state of activity at several…
Since 1996, the CAT experiment, operating at the THEMIS site (French Pyrenees), has been collecting Very High Energy (VHE) gamma-ray data from the Crab. The temporal analysis of photon arrival times folded with the pulsar parameters did not…
We present here results from large zenith-angle observations with the CAT atmospheric Cherenkov imaging telescope, based on data taken on the Crab Nebula and on the blazar Mk501 from 1996 onwards. From Monte Carlo simulations, the threshold…
The CAT imaging telescope on the site of the former solar plant Th'emis in southern France observed gamma-rays from the BL Lac object Mkn501 above 250 GeV for more than 60 usable hours on-source from March to October 1997. This source was…
A first analysis of the AMANDA-B 10-string array data is presented. A total of 113 days of data from its first year of operation in 1997 have been analyzed. High energy neutrinos generate upward moving muons. Cosmic ray muons penetrating…
The Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) Telescope collaboration is constructing a large Cherenkov telescope (17 m diameter) for the exploration of the gamma-ray energy regime above 10 GeV with high sensitivity. One of the…
The Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) of the "Planck Surveyor" ESA mission will perform high-resolution imaging of the Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies at four frequencies in the 30-100 GHz range. We review the LFI main scientific…
Building on the success of the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) will make a major step in the study of such subjects as blazars,…
The Crab Nebula has been observed by the HEGRA stereoscopic system of 4 imaging air Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) for about 100 hours from 1997 September to 1998 March. The recent detailed studies on the system performance give an energy…