Observations of Galactic TeV Sources with VERITAS

我们的银河系包含天体物理系统，可以将粒子加速到人类建造的任何加速器无法企及的能量。是什么驱动了这些加速器是天体物理学中的一个主要问题，了解这些加速器具有广泛的意义。该奖项将资助使用高能辐射成像望远镜阵列系统(VERITAS)对高能光子撞击地球大气层时产生的切伦科夫光的闪光进行成像的研究。TeV波段的观测是对各种银河系天体中发生的最高能量物理过程的灵敏探测。长期以来，有一种说法认为，宇宙射线的主要加速器是超新星爆炸时产生的冲击波，但缺乏直接的观测证实。TeV波段超新星残骸的图像和光谱应该可以解决这个问题。有了这一奖项，地面TeV望远镜阵列VERITAS将被用于研究银河系粒子加速器，包括超新星残骸、恒星质量黑洞和快速旋转的喷流、年轻的中子星和不明的伽马射线源。该小组将操作和维护定点监测系统，以提高VERITAS在源定位和扩展对象测绘方面的性能。该计划的科学成果将促进我们对宇宙射线的起源、相对论粒子加速、相对论粒子与其环境的相互作用以及银河系内相对论粒子加速器的物理性质的理解。这些领域的进展，特别是宇宙射线的性质和相对论喷流与其环境的相互作用，对于促进我们在天体物理的几个领域的理解非常重要。拟议的更广泛的影响活动的一个组成部分将是向大学生和高中生以及普通公众广泛传播关于非常高能伽马射线天文学的信息，利用阿德勒天文馆和天文博物馆领导的VERITAS教育和推广计划中开发的材料。本科生将参与Veritas的伽马射线科学和硬件研究。

Our Galaxy contains astrophysical systems that accelerate particles to energies beyond the reach of any accelerator built by humans. What drives these accelerators is a major question in astrophysics, and understanding these accelerators has broad implications. This award will fund studies using the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) to image flashes of Cherenkov light produced when highly energetic photons strike Earth's atmosphere. Observations in the TeV band are a sensitive probe of the most energetic physical processes occurring in a variety of Galactic objects. There has been a long-standing suggestion that the main accelerators of cosmic rays are the shock waves created in supernova explosions, but direct observational confirmation is lacking. Images and spectra of supernova remnants in the TeV band should resolve this question. With this award, VERITAS, a ground-based TeV telescope array, will be used to study Galactic particle accelerators including supernova remnants, jets from stellar-mass black holes and rapidly rotating, young neutron stars, and unidentified gamma-ray sources. This group will operate and maintain the pointing monitor system that enhances the performance of VERITAS in regard to source localization and mapping of extended objects. The scientific results of this program will advance our understanding of the origin of cosmic rays, relativistic particle acceleration, the interaction of relativistic particles with their environment, and the physical nature of relativistic particle accelerators within the Milky Way. Progress in these areas, particularly the nature of cosmic rays and the interactions of relativistic jets with their environment, is important to advance our understanding in several areas of astrophysics.An integral part of the proposed Broader Impacts activity will be the broad dissemination of information on very high energy gamma-ray astronomy to college and high school students and the general public making use of material developed in the VERITAS education and outreach program being led by the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum. Undergraduates will participate in research on the gamma-ray science and hardware of VERITAS.