arXiv subjects

R. de los Reyes

Publications and source records attributed to R. de los Reyes.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2015

Cherenkov Telescope Array Data Management

Very High Energy gamma-ray astronomy with the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is evolving towards the model of a public observatory. Handling, processing and archiving the large amount of data generated by the CTA instruments and delivering scientific products are some of the challenges in designing the CTA Data Management. The participation of scientists from within CTA Consortium and from the greater worldwide scientific community necessitates a sophisticated scientific analysis system capable of providing unified and efficient user access to data, software and computing resources. Data Management is designed to respond to three main issues: (i) the treatment and flow of data from remote telescopes; (ii) "big-data" archiving and processing; (iii) and open data access. In this communication the overall technical design of the CTA Data Management, current major developments and prototypes are presented.

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arXiv2015

Data model issues in the Cherenkov Telescope Array project

The planned Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), a future ground-based Very-High-Energy (VHE) gamma-ray observatory, will be the largest project of its kind. It aims to provide an order of magnitude increase in sensitivity compared to currently operating VHE experiments and open access to guest observers. These features, together with the thirty years lifetime planned for the installation, impose severe constraints on the data model currently being developed for the project. In this contribution we analyze the challenges faced by the CTA data model development and present the requirements imposed to face them. While the full data model is still not completed we show the organization of the work, status of the design, and an overview of the prototyping efforts carried out so far. We also show examples of specific aspects of the data model currently under development.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2015

Strategy Implementation for the CTA Atmospheric Monitoring Program

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation facility of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes. It will reach unprecedented sensitivity and energy resolution in very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy. CTA will detect Cherenkov light emitted within an atmospheric shower of particles initiated by cosmic-gamma rays or cosmic rays entering the Earth's atmosphere. From the combination of images the Cherenkov light produces in the telescopes, one is able to infer the primary particle energy and direction. A correct energy estimation can be thus performed only if the local atmosphere is well characterized. The atmosphere not only affects the shower development itself, but also the Cherenkov photon transmission from the emission point in the particle shower, at about 10-20 km above the ground, to the detector. Cherenkov light on the ground is peaked in the UV-blue region, and therefore molecular and aerosol extinction phenomena are important. The goal of CTA is to control systematics in energy reconstruction to better than 10%. For this reason, a careful and continuous monitoring and characterization of the atmosphere is required. In addition, CTA will be operated as an observatory, with data made public along with appropriate analysis tools. High-level data quality can only be ensured if the atmospheric properties are consistently and continuously taken into account. In this contribution, we concentrate on discussing the implementation strategy for the various atmospheric monitoring instruments currently under discussion in CTA. These includes Raman lidars and ceilometers, stellar photometers and others available both from commercial providers and public research centres.

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arXiv2015

Data quality monitoring in the presence of aerosols and other adverse atmospheric conditions with H.E.S.S

Cherenkov telescope experiments, such as H.E.S.S., have been very successful in astronomical observations in the very-high-energy (VHE; E $>$ 100 GeV) regime. As an integral part of the detector, such experiments use Earth's atmosphere as a calorimeter. For the calibration and energy determination, a standard model atmosphere is assumed. Deviations of the real atmosphere from the model may therefore lead to an energy misreconstruction of primary gamma rays. To guarantee satisfactory data quality with respect to difficult atmospheric conditions, several atmospheric data quality criteria are implemented in the H.E.S.S. software. These quantities are sensitive to clouds and aerosols. Here, the Cherenkov transparency coefficient will be presented. It is a new monitoring quantity that is able to measure long-term changes in the atmospheric transparency. The Cherenkov transparency coefficient derives exclusively from Cherenkov data and is quite hardware-independent. Furthermore, its positive correlation with independent satellite measurements, performed by the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), will be presented.

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arXiv2013

Impact of aerosols and adverse atmospheric conditions on the data quality for spectral analysis of the H.E.S.S. telescopes

The Earth's atmosphere is an integral part of the detector in ground-based imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope (IACT) experiments and has to be taken into account in the calibration. Atmospheric and hardware-related deviations from simulated conditions can result in the mis-reconstruction of primary particle energies and therefore of source spectra. During the eight years of observations with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) in Namibia, the overall yield in Cherenkov photons has varied strongly with time due to gradual hardware aging, together with adjustments of the hardware components, and natural, as well as anthropogenic, variations of the atmospheric transparency. Here we present robust data selection criteria that minimize these effects over the full data set of the H.E.S.S. experiment and introduce the Cherenkov transparency coefficient as a new atmospheric monitoring quantity. The influence of atmospheric transparency, as quantified by this coefficient, on energy reconstruction and spectral parameters is examined and its correlation with the aerosol optical depth (AOD) of independent MISR satellite measurements and local measurements of atmospheric clarity is investigated.

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arXiv2013

Influence of aerosols from biomass burning on the spectral analysis of Cherenkov telescopes

During the last decade, imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) have proven themselves as astronomical detectors in the very-high-energy (VHE; E>0.1 TeV) regime. The IACT technique observes the VHE photons indirectly, using the Earth's atmosphere as a calorimeter. Much of the calibration of Cherenkov telescope experiments is done using Monte Carlo simulations of the air shower development, Cherenkov radiation and detector, assuming certain models for the atmospheric conditions. Any deviation of the real conditions during observations from the assumed atmospheric model will result in a wrong reconstruction of the primary gamma-ray energy and the resulting source spectra. During eight years of observations, the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) has experienced periodic natural as well as anthropogenic variations of the atmospheric transparency due to aerosols created by biomass burning. In order to identify data that have been taken under such long-term reductions in atmospheric transparency, a new monitoring quantity, the Cherenkov transparency coefficient, has been developed and will be presented here. This quantity is independent of hardware changes in the detector and, therefore, isolates atmospheric factors that can impact the performance of the instrument, and in particular the spectral results. Its positive correlation with independent measurements of the atmospheric optical depth (AOD) retrieved from data of the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) on board of the Terra NASA's satellite is also presented here.

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arXiv2012

Pulsar Prospects for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

In the last few years, the Fermi-LAT telescope has discovered over a 100 pulsars at energies above 100 MeV, increasing the number of known gamma-ray pulsars by an order of magnitude. In parallel, imaging Cherenkov telescopes, such as MAGIC and VERITAS, have detected for the first time VHE pulsed gamma-rays from the Crab pulsar. Such detections have revealed that the Crab VHE spectrum follows a power-law up to at least 400 GeV, challenging most theoretical models, and opening wide possibilities of detecting more pulsars from the ground with the future Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). In this contribution, we study the capabilities of CTA for detecting Fermi pulsars. For this, we extrapolate their spectra with "Crab-like" power-law tails in the VHE range, as suggested by the latest MAGIC and VERITAS results.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2012

Prospects for Observations of Pulsars and Pulsar Wind Nebulae with CTA

The last few years have seen a revolution in very-high gamma-ray astronomy (VHE; E>100 GeV) driven largely by a new generation of Cherenkov telescopes (namely the H.E.S.S. telescope array, the MAGIC and MAGIC-II large telescopes and the VERITAS telescope array). The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) project foresees a factor of 5 to 10 improvement in sensitivity above 0.1 TeV, extending the accessible energy range to higher energies up to 100 TeV, in the Galactic cut-off regime, and down to a few tens GeV, covering the VHE photon spectrum with good energy and angular resolution. As a result of the fast development of the VHE field, the number of pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) detected has increased from one PWN in the early '90s to more than two dozen firm candidates today. Also, the low energy threshold achieved and good sensitivity at TeV energies has resulted in the detection of pulsed emission from the Crab Pulsar (or its close environment) opening new and exiting expectations about the pulsed spectra of the high energy pulsars powering PWNe. Here we discuss the physics goals we aim to achieve with CTA on pulsar and PWNe physics evaluating the response of the instrument for different configurations.

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arXiv2012

A newly discovered VHE gamma-ray PWN candidate around PSR J1459-60

Observations of the Galactic Plane performed by the H.E.S.S. telescope array have revealed a significant excess at very-high-energies (VHE; E>0.1 TeV) from the direction of PSR J1459-60, a rather old gamma-ray pulsar (64 kyr) with a spindown energy of ~10^36 erg/s, discovered by the Fermi/LAT satellite in high-energy (HE) gamma-rays. The X-ray pulsar counterpart has been recently detected using the Suzaku satellite. In this contribution, we present the discovery of a new VHE gamma-ray source, including morphological and spectral analyses. Its association with the gamma-ray pulsar in a PWN scenario will be discussed.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2008

Monte Carlo Studies of Geomagnetic Field Effects on the Imaging Air Cherenkov Technique for the MAGIC Telescope Site

Imaging air Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) detect the Cherenkov light from extensive air showers (EAS) initiated by very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays impinging on the Earth's atmosphere. Due to the overwhelming background from hadron induced EAS, the discrimination of the rare gamma-like events is vital. The influence of the geomagnetic field (GF) on the development of EAS can further complicate the imaging air Cherenkov technique. The amount and the angular distribution of Cherenkov light from EAS can be obtained by means of Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. Here we present the results from dedicated MC studies of GF effects on images from gamma-ray initiated EAS for the MAGIC telescope site, where the GF strength is ~40 micro Tesla. The results from the MC studies suggest that GF effects degrade not only measurements of very low energy gamma-rays below ~100 GeV but also those at TeV-energies.

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arXiv2008

Geomagnetic Field Effects on the Imaging Air Shower Cherenkov Technique

Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) detect the Cherenkov light flashes of Extended Air Showers (EAS) triggered by very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays impinging on the Earth's atmosphere. Due to the overwhelming background from hadron induced EAS, the discrimination of the rare gamma-like events is rather difficult, in particular at energies below 100 GeV. The influence of the Geomagnetic Field (GF) on the EAS development can further complicate this discrimination and, in addition, also systematically affect the gamma efficiency and energy resolution of an IACT. Here we present the results from dedicated Monte Carlo (MC) simulations for the MAGIC telescope site. Additionally we show that measurements of sub-TeV gamma-rays from the Crab nebula are affected even for a low GF strength of less than 33 micro Tesla.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

The MAGIC Project: Contributions to ICRC 2007

The MAGIC Project: Contributions to ICRC 2007, Merida, Mexico. Contents pages for the Contribution on behalf of the MAGIC Collaboration to the 30th ICRC that took place in July 2007 in Merida, Mexico. The contents are in html form with clickable links to the papers that exist on the Astrophysics archive. We hope that this will make it easier to access the output of the conference in a systematic way. Comments on how useful this is/ how it could be improved should be sent to michela.demaria@iuav.it.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

MAGIC upper limits on the very high energy emission from GRBs

The fast repositioning system of the MAGIC Telescope has allowed during its first data cycle, between 2005 and the beginning of year 2006, observing nine different GRBs as possible sources of very high energy gammas. These observations were triggered by alerts from Swift, HETE-II, and Integral; they started as fast as possible after the alerts and lasted for several minutes, with an energy threshold varying between 80 and 200 GeV, depending upon the zenith angle of the burst. No evidence for gamma signals was found, and upper limits for the flux were derived for all events, using the standard analysis chain of MAGIC. For the bursts with measured redshift, the upper limits are compatible with a power law extrapolation, when the intrinsic fluxes are evaluated taking into account the attenuation due to the scattering in the Metagalactic Radiation Field (MRF).

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Discovery of VHE gamma-ray emission from 1ES1218+30.4

The MAGIC collaboration has studied the high peaked BL-Lac object 1ES1218+30.4 at a redshift z = 0.182, using the MAGIC imaging air Cherenkov telescope located on the Canary island of La Palma. A gamma-ray signal was observed with 6.4sigma significance. The differential energy spectrum for an energy threshold of 120GeV can be fitted by a simple power law yielding F_E(E) = (8.1+-2.1)*10^-7 (E/250GeV)^(-3.0+-0.4) TeV^-1 m^-2 s^-1. During the six days of observation in January 2005 no time variability on time scales of days was found within the statistical errors. The observed integral flux above 350GeV is nearly a factor two below the the upper limit reported by the Whipple Collaboration in 2003.

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arXiv2006

Flux upper limit of gamma-ray emission by GRB050713a from MAGIC Telescope observations

The long-duration GRB050713a was observed by the MAGIC Telescope, 40 seconds after the burst onset, and followed up for 37 minutes, until twilight. The observation, triggered by a SWIFT alert, covered energies above ~175 GeV. Using standard MAGIC analysis, no evidence for a gamma signal was found. As the redshift of the GRB was not measured directly, the flux upper limit, estimated by MAGIC, is still compatible with the assumption of an unbroken power-law spectrum extending from a few hundred keV to our energy range.

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