Wou-MMA: Particle Astrophysics with VERITAS and CTA

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This award continues an ambitious and diverse research program focused on high precision measurements of Galactic particle accelerators, which hold the key to the origin of the Galactic population of cosmic rays. Over the past decade the VERITAS observatory has played a key role in opening the highest energy electromagnetic window on the Universe. Gamma-ray emission reveals where relativistic particle acceleration happens, but the acceleration mechanisms, and the connections between the accelerators and the origin and properties of cosmic rays, remain unclear. The study will exploit new capabilities of VERITAS and synergies with new facilities to search for potentially transformative new source classes. This group plays a leading role in planning the next generation Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). This award provides operational support for the group’s ongoing research and their role in the maintenance, operations and calibration of VERITAS. This group mentors undergraduate students, engages local high school students, and gives public presentations to amateur astronomers and other interested groups. They also work with the overall VERITAS outreach program, including conducting on-site tours, but the main outreach effort is a high energy astrophysics summer school for graduate students and post-doctoral researchers from around the world.Targets for gamma-ray observation with VERITAS include a possible PeVatron, which may be the source of the highest energy Galactic cosmic rays, and a gamma-ray binary system at the peak of its 4.5-year super-orbital period. New instrumentation on VERITAS, and new synergies with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) radio telescope, will be used to search for optical and gamma-ray counterparts to the still enigmatic fast radio bursts. The many VERITAS activities are all worthwhile, some are creative, and others are potentially transformative.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.