Construction of the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory

HAWC 伽马射线天文台的建设

• 批准号: 1002546
• 负责人: Jordan Goodman
• 金额: $ 570.21万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-02-01 至 2017-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1002546&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Construction; HAWC; Gamma; Ray; Observatory

This award will provide funds for the construction of the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) gamma-ray observatory to be built at Sierra Negra in Mexico. The costs for hardware, engineering, and contract (nonscientist) labor to build HAWC are being provided here. The observations of HAWC will probe the most extreme environments in the Universe, providing a unique view of non-thermal processes in the Galaxy and beyond. The key science goals of HAWC are to: (a) Measure the spectrum of Galactic sources to the highest energies; (b) Map the Galactic diffuse gamma-ray emission from 1 TeV to 100 TeV measuring the cosmic-ray flux and spectrum across the Galaxy; (c) Study transient emission from active galactic nuclei (AGN); (d) Monitor the sky for 100 GeV emission from gamma-ray bursts; and (e) Search for new TeV physics with HAWC's unbiased sky survey. HAWC measurements have the potential to shed light on the fundamental symmetries of nature, including the search for Lorentz violation at extreme energies, the search for the dark matter in the universe, and the direct detection of massive relic particles.HAWC is an array consisting of 250 large water tanks, each instrumented with three photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) mounted on the bottom of the tank. The tanks will cover an area of ~20,000 square meters. The expanded detection, increased altitude and optical isolation of the detector elements lead to a 15-fold increase in sensitivity relative to Milagro, which performed the deepest wide-field survey of the TeV sky to date. Refinement of the design and cost has been achieved through prototyping and deploying a test array at the HAWC site. The cost estimate and design sensitivity have stayed roughly constant through the development process. The goal is to begin taking data while the array is under construction and to be online within approximately three years. This will allow HAWC to run while the Fermi mission is ongoing.Broader Impacts: HAWC is an all-sky instrument that will have the sensitivity to extend the measurement of satellite-discovered sources to TeV energies. HAWC will build on the strong outreach record of Milagro to bring this exciting field of research to students and the general public. Since HAWC is a joint US-Mexican project, this will be an excellent opportunity to attract talented Hispanic students to the field of Particle Astrophysics and to Physics in general. The group has developed an outreach video about HAWC and web materials about HAWC and Particle Astrophysics in both Spanish and English.

该合同将为在墨西哥Sierra Negra建造高海拔水切伦科夫（HAWC）伽马射线观测站提供资金。这里提供了硬件、工程和合同（非科学家）劳动力的成本。HAWC的观测将探测宇宙中最极端的环境，为银河系及其他地区的非热过程提供独特的视角。HAWC的主要科学目标是：（a）测量最高能量的银河系源的光谱;（B）绘制1 TeV至100 TeV的银河系弥散伽马射线发射图，测量整个银河系的宇宙射线通量和光谱;（c）研究活动星系核的瞬态发射;（d）监测天空伽马射线爆发的100 GeV发射;（e）利用HAWC的无偏巡天研究新的TeV物理。HAWC测量有可能揭示自然界的基本对称性，包括寻找极端能量下的洛伦兹破坏，寻找宇宙中的暗物质，以及直接探测大质量遗迹粒子。HAWC是由250个大型水箱组成的阵列，每个水箱底部安装有三个光电倍增管（PMT）。坦克将覆盖约20，000平方米的面积。探测范围的扩大、高度的提高和探测器元件的光学隔离，使其灵敏度比Milagro提高了15倍，后者是迄今为止对TeV天空进行最深宽视场调查的探测器。通过原型设计和在HAWC现场部署测试阵列，实现了设计和成本的优化。在整个开发过程中，成本估算和设计敏感度大致保持不变。目标是在阵列构建期间开始采集数据，并在大约三年内上线。更广泛的影响：HAWC是一种全天空仪器，将具有将卫星发现的源的测量扩展到TeV能量的灵敏度。HAWC将在Milagro强大的外展记录的基础上，将这一令人兴奋的研究领域带给学生和公众。由于HAWC是一个美国和墨西哥的联合项目，这将是一个很好的机会，吸引有才华的西班牙裔学生到粒子天体物理学和物理学领域。该小组制作了关于HAWC的宣传视频以及关于HAWC和粒子天体物理学的西班牙文和英文网络材料。