Status and Prospects of the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory

por Francisco Salesa Greus (Colorado State University)

jueves 25 abr. 2013 12:00 → 13:00 Europe/Madrid

Sala Seminarios IFIC (Edf. Institutos de Investigación)

The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory is a TeV gamma-ray detector currently under construction at an altitude of 4100 meters on the slope of the Sierra Negra volcano in the state of Puebla, Mexico. The detector will consist of 300 water Cherenkov detectors (WCDs) spread on a 22000 square meter area. Each WCD is instrumented with four photo-multiplier tubes used to detect energetic secondary particles produced after the interaction of a cosmic ray or gamma-ray in the atmosphere. Thanks to its large field-of-view, excellent angular resolution and 90% duty cycle, HAWC will allow us to study the Galactic sources at high energies, diffuse gamma-ray emission, and transient emission from Active Galactic Nucleus (AGNs) and Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). In this talk I will present the current status of the deployment, the first results, and its scientific prospects.