WoU-MMA: Development of the Optical Alignment Systems for the Medium-Sized Telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array

WoU-MMA：切伦科夫望远镜阵列中型望远镜光学对准系统的开发

• 批准号: 2320587
• 负责人: David Williams
• 金额: $ 390.44万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Cruz
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-15 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2320587&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: WoU; MMA; Development; Optical; Alignment

The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) is a forthcoming state-of-the-art facility to study very high-energy gamma-rays and provide transformative understanding of the most extreme objects in the Universe, including pulsars, supernova remnants, gamma-ray bursts, and supermassive black holes at the center of active galaxies. The CTAO is now entering the construction phase of the project, with first science observations anticipated in approximately three years utilizing the first pathfinder imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) of the observatory. This award supports U.S. CTAO scientists in the development, fabrication, and installation of the optical alignment systems for the initial seven medium-sized CTA telescopes, including five at the northern site at Rogue de los Muchachos Observatory, La Palma, Spain, one at the southern site at the European Southern Observatory, Paranal, Chile, and the prototype Schwarzchild-Couder telescope (pSCT) located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Arizona. The awarded activities provide a unique instrumentation training ground for students and early career researchers and a series of workshops are planned to develop educational high-energy astrophysics materials for K-12 schools. The leading U.S. contributions provided via this award provide the foundation for broad access of U.S. scientists to CTAO and the next generation gamma-ray discoveries. The CTAO will utilize advanced IACT technology in large arrays of three telescope apertures: large (23m), medium (10-12m) and small (4m). The medium-scale telescopes targeted in this award involve a single-mirror, prime focus Davis-Cotton design and a double-mirror, aplanatic Schwarzschild-Couder design. The observatory will provide up to ten times increased sensitivity over current instruments in measurements of astrophysical gamma-rays at energies between 20 GeV – 300 TeV. With design improvements of a 3x increase in imaging area, the CTAO will enable astrophysical sky surveys to be completed approximately 300x faster than current facilities, revolutionizing high-energy gamma-ray follow-up to multi-messenger astrophysics events, including those triggered by gravitational wave and high-energy neutrino alerts. The initial five medium telescopes at the northern site will be the most sensitive array in their energy-band as a stand-alone instrument. Operating in conjunction with the four large-sized telescopes currently being built on the site will form the largest, most sensitivity array of IACTs yet assembled. The first medium-sized telescope to be outfitted at the southern site will be the first IACT in the southern portion of the Western hemisphere, providing important new sky coverage for transient events such as gravitational wave counterparts. Finally, the high-angular resolution of the novel pSCT design will provide unique future additional reach to the CTAO program. 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.

切伦科夫望远镜阵列天文台（CTAO）是一个即将到来的最先进的设施，用于研究非常高能量的伽马射线，并提供对宇宙中最极端物体的变革性理解，包括恒星，超新星遗迹，伽马射线爆发和活动星系中心的超大质量黑洞。CTAO目前正进入该项目的建设阶段，预计将在大约三年内利用天文台的第一台探路者成像大气切伦科夫望远镜进行首次科学观测。 该奖项支持美国CTAO科学家为最初的七台中型CTA望远镜开发、制造和安装光学对准系统，其中五台位于西班牙拉帕尔马Rogue de los Muchachos天文台的北方站点，一台位于智利帕拉纳尔的欧洲南方天文台的南方站点，以及位于亚利桑那州弗雷德·劳伦斯维普莱天文台的原型施瓦兹柴尔德-库德望远镜（pSCT）。 获奖活动为学生和早期职业研究人员提供了一个独特的仪器培训场所，并计划举办一系列研讨会，为K-12学校开发教育高能天体物理学材料。通过该奖项提供的美国领先贡献为美国科学家广泛获得CTAO和下一代伽马射线发现奠定了基础。 CTAO将在三个望远镜孔径的大型阵列中利用先进的IACT技术：大（23米），中（10- 12米）和小（4米）。 该奖项针对的中型望远镜涉及单镜，主焦点戴维斯-科顿设计和双镜，消球差施瓦茨希尔德-库德设计。该观测站将提供比现有仪器高出10倍的灵敏度，用于测量能量在20 GeV - 300 TeV之间的天体物理伽马射线。CTAO的设计改进使成像面积增加了3倍，将使天体物理天空调查的完成速度比现有设施快约300倍，彻底改变了高能伽马射线对多信使天体物理事件的后续行动，包括引力波和高能中微子警报触发的事件。最初在北方的五台中型望远镜将作为一台独立的仪器，成为其能量波段中最灵敏的阵列。与目前正在该网站上建造的四台大型望远镜一起运行，将形成迄今为止组装的最大，最灵敏的IACT阵列。 在南部站点配备的第一台中型望远镜将是西半球南部的第一台IACT，为引力波对应物等瞬变事件提供重要的新天空覆盖。 最后，新型pSCT设计的高角度分辨率将为CTAO计划提供独特的未来额外覆盖范围。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。