Related papers: Gamma-Hadron Separation in Very-High-Energy gamma-…
The photon density on the ground is a fundamental quantity in all experiments based on Cherenkov light measurements, e.g. in the Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes (IACT). IACT's are commonly and successfully used in order to search and study…
High energy gamma-ray astronomy has been established during the last decade through the launch of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) and the success of its ground-based counterpart, the imaging atmospheric Cherenkov technique. In the…
Imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) are used to observe very high-energy photons from the ground. Gamma rays are indirectly detected through the Cherenkov light emitted by the air showers they induce. The new generation of…
Based on the Monte Carlo simulations we have studied the performance of the HEGRA system of imaging air Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) in its present configuration of 4 IACTs as well as in its future final configuration of 5 IACTs. Here we…
Wide-angle, non-imaging air Cherenkov detectors provide a way to observe cosmic gamma-rays which is complementary to observations by imaging Cherenkov telescopes. Their particular strength lies in the multi-TeV to ultra high energy range (E…
The high-lights of ground-based very-high-energy (VHE, $E>100$ GeV) gamma-ray astronomy are reviewed. The summary covers both Galactic and extra-galactic sources. A total of at least 70 sources are currently known. Implications for our…
In this paper, we present the results of Monte Carlo simulations of atmospheric showers induced by diffuse gamma rays as detected by the high-energy gamma ray astronomy (HEGRA) system of five imaging atmospheric Cerenkov telescopes (IACTs).…
Very high energy (VHE $>$100 GeV) gamma rays coming from blazars can produce pairs when interacting with the Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) and the Cosmic Microwave Background, generating an electromagnetic cascade. Depending on the…
H.E.S.S. is a system of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) measuring cosmic gamma-rays with very high energies in Namibia. Extending the array with a fifth telescope with a mirror area of 600 m$^2$ leads to a lower energy…
For air showers observed simultaneously by more than two imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, the shower geometry is overconstrained by the images and image information should be combined taking into account the quality of the images.…
We present simulations of a large array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs), for which the size of the array footprint is much larger than the size of the Cherenkov lightpool. To evaluate limitations of the imaging…
A significant source of noise for Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs), which are designed to measure air showers caused by astrophysical gamma rays, is optical light emitted from the night sky. This Night Sky Background (NSB)…
Gamma ray observations from a few hundred MeV up to tens of TeV are a valuable tool for studying particle acceleration and diffusion within our galaxy. Constructing a coherent physical picture of particle accelerators such as supernova…
The observation of cosmic gamma-rays from the ground is based upon the detection of gamma-ray initiated air showers. At energies between approximately $10^{11}$ eV and $10^{13}$ eV, the imaging air Cherenkov technique is a particularly…
In the atmospheric Cerenkov technique gamma rays are detected against the abundant background produced by hadronic showers. In order to improve the signal to noise ratio of the experiment, it is necessary to reject a significant fraction of…
Imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) detect extended air showers (EASs) generated when very-high-energy (VHE) gamma rays or cosmic rays interact with the Earth's atmosphere. Cherenkov photons produced during an EAS are captured…
Several key motivations and perspectives of ground based gamma-ray astronomy are discussed in the context of the specifics of detection techniques and scientific topics/objectives relevant to four major energy domains -- very-low or…
The planned Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a future observatory for very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray astronomy composed of one site per hemisphere. It aims at 10 times better sensitivity, a better angular resolution and wider energy…
The launch of the Fermi satellite in 2008, with its Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board, has opened a new era for the study of gamma-ray sources at GeV ($10^9$ eV) energies. Similarly, the commissioning of the third generation of imaging…
Very-high-energy (VHE, E>0.1 TeV) gamma-ray emission regions with angular extents comparable to the field-of-view of current imaging air-Cherenkov telescopes (IACT) require additional observations of source-free regions to estimate the…