Transcript Science Drivers for the Next Generation VHE Telescope(s)

Science Drivers for the Next
Generation VHE Telescope(s?)
G. Sinnis
with much help from
C. Dermer, J. Buckley, H. Krawczynski, S.
LeBohec, R. Ong, M. Pohl, S. Swordy, D.
Williams, T.C. Weekes
Some History
• 2/91, T.C. Weekes, Texas Conference
– Crab Nebula was the only credible source
– Sources for future instruments
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Extragalactic diffuse gamma rays
Galactic plane diffuse gamma rays
Giant Molecular clouds
Supernova explosions
Supernova remnants
Radio pulsars
Active Galactic Nuclei
Classical Drivers
• Cosmic rays – where do they come from?
• Particle acceleration
– What is being accelerated?
• Where are the hadron accelerators? (UHECRs)
– How is it being accelerated?
• Are there different forms of acceleration?
• Is shock acceleration the only answer?
• Extragalactic diffuse
• Galactic diffuse
• Mapping our Galaxy in VHE gamma rays
– Molecular clouds, SNRs, x-ray binaries, EGRET unID
Modern Drivers
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Active Galactic Nuclei
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Jet physics
Radiation environment
Shock physics – relativistic shocks
How did they form?
Do they evolve?
Variability studies – short and long term
Do they accelerate hadrons? (IceCube partner)
Gamma Ray Bursts
– Almost all of above
– VHE spectrum
– Time structure at VHE energies
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Galaxy Clusters
Extragalactic Background Light
– What is the intensity and spectrum?
– Does it evolve?
The Avant-Garde
• AstroBiology
– Earth’s radiation environment
• Cosmic ray flux variations (amplitude and frequency)
• Disentangle solar and external causes
– GRB Remnants in our Galaxy
– Die offs (Ordovician trilobites 400 million years ago)
• Dark Matter
– Does it exist?
– How does it clump in the Universe?
• High-energy physics
– Lorentz violation?
• Cosmology
– Evolution of (EBL, AGN, GRBs, etc)
VHE Question List