Extreme Environment Astrophysics with H.E.S.S. Phase I 2007-2010

在过去几年中，PPARC一直支持英国参与在西南非洲纳米比亚建造、调试和运行一台名为H.E.S.S.的甚高能伽马射线望远镜。阵该阵列的前4架望远镜于2004年1月开始例行运行，向我们揭示了大量充当巨大粒子加速器的天文物体-遥远星系中的超大质量黑洞，超新星遗迹和超新星。英国天文学家对这些物体的变化特别感兴趣，特别是活跃星系如何加速粒子，以及我们自己星系中这些物体的迷你版本，称为微类星体，以及微类星体中粒子加速的机制。我们也对解决过去100年的一个大难题感兴趣，这就是一直轰击我们的宇宙射线的起源。长期以来，人们一直怀疑它们是在超新星遗迹中产生的，现在我们开始找到证据证明这很可能是事实。然而，拼图的最后部分需要来自更广泛的VHE伽马射线观测和其他波长的观测。除了分析来自望远镜的数据外，英国科学家还负责一些技术任务，以确保整个合作能够从望远镜中获得科学结果。达勒姆小组负责望远镜使用的校准系统，以确保达到完全的灵敏度。独特的是，在VHE伽马射线望远镜的情况下，大气实际上构成了探测器的一部分，因此我们必须了解大气，然后在计算机模拟中使用这些信息来计算入射伽马射线的能量。此外，数据往往必须根据大气变化进行校正，以便将这些数据与我们观察到的物体的伽马射线发射的变化分开，这显然对我们的科学兴趣有重要影响。利兹的吉姆欣顿博士负责确保望远镜正常工作的电子系统和软件的部分。该拨款要求资助两名博士后科学家继续从事HESS工作数据并执行重要的协作校准任务。

PPARC has supported for the past few years UK participation in the construction, commissioning and operation of a very high energy (VHE) gamma ray telescope in Namibia, South West Africa, called the H.E.S.S. array. The first 4 telescopes of the array began routine operations in January 2004, and are revealing to us a wealth of astronomical objects acting as huge particle accelerators - supermassive black holes in distant galaxies, supernova remnants and pulsars. UK astronomers are particularly interested in variability in such objects, particularly how active galaxies accelerate particles and in mini versions of these objects in our own galaxy known as microquasars, and in the mechanisms of particle acceleration in pulsars. We are also interested in the solution of one of the great puzzles of the last 100 years, which is the origin of the cosmic rays that bombard us all the time. It has long been suspected that they are produced in supernova remnants, and now we are beginning to find evidence that this might well be the case. However, the final pieces of the jigsaw need to come from more extensive VHE gamma ray observations and observations at other wavelengths. As well as analysing the data from the telescopes, UK scientists are responsible for some of the technical tasks that ensure the whole collaboration is able to get the scientific results from the telescopes. The Durham group is responsible for the calibration systems used with the telescopes in order to ensure that the achieve full sensitivity. Uniquely, in the case of VHE gamma ray telescopes, the atmosphere actually forms part of the detector, and so we have to understand the atmosphere and then use that information in computer simulations to calculate the energies of the incoming gamma rays. In addition, data often have to be corrected for atmospheric variations, so that these can be disentangled from variations in the gamma ray emission of the objects that we observe, which obviously has an important bearing on our scientfic interests. Dr. Jim Hinton at Leeds is responsible for parts of the electronic system and software that ensure the telescopes work properly together. This grant requests funding for two postdoctoral scientists to continue working on H.E.S.S. data and perform the important calibration tasks for the collaboration.