High Energy All Sky Transient Radiation Observatory

Abstract

The scientific discoveries made by H.E.S.S. during its first year of operation encourage a reexamination of the open problems in high energy astrophysics and of the capabilities of the atmospheric Cherenkov technique, which could be employed to address them. We report on an initial Monte Carlo exploration of a ground-based instrument for observing cosmologically distant high energy transient phenomena. Such observations would require combining an order of magnitude increase in collecting area over existing instruments, with a similarly large increase in field of view for routine sky monitoring, and a factor of five decrease in energy threshold to extend the visibility range to redshifts exceeding one. A large array of moderately sized Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) through which the total array collecting area, array field of view and array data rates can be distributed, appears to be able to meet these requirements. To be practically feasible for construction, however, a cost effective imaging solution, with resolution of ~1 minute of arc within ~15 degrees field of view needs to be found. If image intensifier based technology provides such a solution in future, then, combined with super-fast parallel data processing, it may become a technological foundation for the next breakthrough in ground-based gamma-ray astronomy.