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

过去几年，PPARC一直支持英国参与在西南部非洲纳米比亚建造、调试和运行名为H.E.S.S.阵列的超高能伽马射线望远镜。该阵列的第一批4台望远镜于2004年1月开始常规运行，向我们展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、超新星遗迹和脉冲星。英国天文学家对这类天体的可变性特别感兴趣，特别是活动星系如何加速粒子，以及我们银河系中被称为微类星体的这些天体的迷你版本，以及脉冲星中粒子加速的机制。我们还对解决过去100年来最大的谜题之一感兴趣，这就是一直轰炸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，证明这很可能是真的。然而，拼图的最后一块需要来自更广泛的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获得科学结果。达勒姆小组负责与望远镜一起使用的校准系统，以确保望远镜达到完全灵敏度。独一无二的是，在VHE伽马射线望远镜的情况下，大气实际上是探测器的一部分，所以我们必须了解大气，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，数据经常必须针对大气变化进行校正，以便这些数据可以从我们观察到的物体的伽马射线发射的变化中分离出来，这显然对我们的科学兴趣具有重要影响。利兹大学的吉姆·辛顿博士负责部分电子系统和软件，以确保望远镜正常工作。这笔拨款要求为两名博士后科学家提供资金，让他们继续研究H.E.S.数据，并为合作执行重要的校准任务。

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.