Wou-MMA: Understanding Cosmic Particle Accelerators with the VERITAS and CTA Gamma-Ray Observatories

能量超过1000亿电子伏特的极高能量伽马射线观测为研究我们宇宙中最高能量的宇宙射线提供了间接方法。它们有助于解决粒子天体物理学中一些突出和重要的问题，例如宇宙射线加速的效率，并提供宇宙射线加速器的证据。在银河系和遥远的宇宙中，有大量的天体物理源以伽马射线的形式发射高能辐射，这是电磁波谱的最高能量形式。将粒子加速到如此巨大的伽马射线能量的天体物理环境必须具有电磁或引力势能的极端条件。该奖项支持巴纳德学院的研究人员在VERITAS天文台进行操作和观测活动，以探索宇宙加速器和多信使源的物理学。该计划维持高本科研究的影响，并帮助学生在科学和技术领域的未来做好准备，甚至在下一代天体物理学的职业生涯。该小组的研究生和博士后积极参与指导活动，该小组致力于以公平的方式让本科生参与高能天体物理学研究，包括来自科学途径学者计划的学生，为代表性不足的学生提供服务。强烈天体物理源的性质是天体粒子物理学中一个悬而未决的问题，这一领域的研究将影响我们对基础物理和宇宙起源的理解。VERITAS天文台的观测活动促进了数据分析，重点是超大质量黑洞驱动的耀变体喷流等河外天体的物理学，并寻找中微子事件和引力波等瞬变源的伽马射线对应物。在我们自己的星系内，VERITAS观测在peta-electron-Volt范围内寻找加速器，寻找超新星遗迹壳外的伽马射线，并研究由地面水切伦科夫天文台探测到的银河系中的源。此外，该研究计划还包括利用新型双镜望远镜原型进行科学研究，重点是对银河系中的源进行形态学研究。这种新的望远镜可以建造一个高分辨率的相机，比现有的望远镜多10倍的成像像素，同时保持相机直径小3倍。这些改进对包括巡天在内的关键科学课题至关重要。该项目推进了NSF宇宙大创意窗口的目标。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Very-high-energy gamma-ray observations at energies above a hundred billion electron-Volts offer indirect methods for studying the highest-energy cosmic rays in our Universe. They help address some of the outstanding and important questions in particle astrophysics, such as the efficiency of cosmic ray acceleration, and provide evidence on sites of cosmic ray accelerators. A large number of astrophysical sources, both within the Milky Way Galaxy, and in the distant universe, are known to emit high-energy radiation in the form of gamma rays, which are the highest energy form of the electromagnetic spectrum. The astrophysical environments that accelerate particles to such tremendous gamma-ray energies must have extreme conditions of electromagnetic or gravitational potential energy. This award supports the group of Barnard Collage researchers to conduct operations and observing campaigns at the VERITAS Observatory to explore the physics of cosmic accelerators and multimessenger sources. The program sustains high undergraduate research impact, and aids in preparing students for a future in the fields of science and technology, or even a career in the next generation of astrophysics. Graduate students and postdocs in the group are actively engaged in mentoring activities and the group is deeply committed to involving undergraduate students in high energy astrophysics research in an equitable manner, including students from the Science Pathways Scholars Program serving underrepresented students. The nature of intense astrophysical sources is an outstanding open question in astroparticle physics, and studies in this field will impact our understanding of fundamental physics and the origin of our universe. Observing campaigns at the VERITAS Observatory facilitate data analyses with a focus on the physics of extragalactic objects such as blazar jets powered by supermassive black holes, and to search for gamma-ray counterparts of transient sources such as neutrino events and gravitational waves. Within our own galaxy, the VERITAS observations search for accelerators at the peta-electron-Volt range, for gamma rays outside the shells of supernova remnants, and to study sources in the Milky Way Galaxy detected by ground-based water-Cherenkov observatories. In addition, the research program includes scientific studies with a prototype novel dual-mirror telescope, with a focus on morphological studies of sources in the Galaxy. This new telescope allows the construction of a high-resolution camera, with a factor of ten more imaging pixels than in current telescopes, while keeping the camera diameter about a factor of three smaller. These improvements are fundamentally important to key science topics that include sky surveys. This project advances the goals of the NSF Windows on the Universe Big Idea.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.