TY - JOUR

T1 - The TAIGA experiment - A hybrid detector for very high energy gamma-ray astronomy and cosmic ray physics in the Tunka valley

AU - the TAIGA Collaboration

AU - Budnev, N.

AU - Astapov, I.

AU - Bezyazeekov, P.

AU - Boreyko, V.

AU - Borodin, A.

AU - Brueckner, M.

AU - Chiavassa, A.

AU - Dyachok, A.

AU - Fedorov, O.

AU - Gafarov, A.

AU - Gorbunov, N.

AU - Grebenyuk, V.

AU - Gress, O.

AU - Gress, T.

AU - Grishin, O.

AU - Grinyuk, A.

AU - Haungs, A.

AU - Horns, D.

AU - Huege, T.

AU - Ivanova, A.

AU - Kalmykov, N.

AU - Kazarina, Y.

AU - Kindin, V.

AU - Kiryuhin, S.

AU - Kokoulin, R.

AU - Kompaniets, K.

AU - Korosteleva, E.

AU - Kostunin, D.

AU - Kozhin, V.

AU - Kravchenko, E.

AU - Kunnas, M.

AU - Kuzmichev, L.

AU - Lemeshev, Yu

AU - Lenok, V.

AU - Lubsandorzhiev, B.

AU - Lubsandorzhiev, N.

AU - Mirgazov, R.

AU - Mirzoyan, R.

AU - Monkhoev, R.

AU - Nachtigall, R.

AU - Osipova, E.

AU - Pakhorukov, A.

AU - Panasyuk, M.

AU - Pankov, L.

AU - Petrukhin, A.

AU - Poleschuk, V.

AU - Popescu, E.

AU - Popova, E.

AU - Porelli, A.

AU - Sokolov, A.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

PY - 2017/1/1

Y1 - 2017/1/1

N2 - The physics motivations and characteristics of the new gamma-experiment TAIGA (Tunka Advanced Instrument for cosmic ray physics and Gamma Astronomy) are presented. The TAIGA experiment addresses ground-based gamma-ray astronomy at energies from a few TeV to several PeV, as well as cosmic ray physics from 100 TeV to several EeV. For the energy range 30-200 TeV the sensitivity of the planned for future extension of TAIGA up to 5 km2 area for detection of the local sources is expected to be 10-13 erg cm-2 sec-1 for 500 h of observation. The combination of the wide angle Cherenkov timing detectors of the TAIGA-HiSCORE array and the 4 m class Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes of the TAIGA-IACT array with their FoV of 10×10 degrees offers a cost effective-way to construct a 5 km2 array. Reconstruction of an EAS energy, direction and core position based on the TAIGA-HiSCORE data will allow us to increase the distance between comparatively expensive IACTs up to 800-1200 m. The low investments together with the high sensitivity for energies >30-50 TeV make this pioneering technique very attractive for exploring the galactic PeVatrons and cosmic rays. In addition to the Cherenkov light detectors we intend to deploy an array of muon detectors (TAIGA-Muon array) over an area of 1 km2 with a total area of about 2000-3000 m2. The TAIGA-IACT-HiSCORE together with the TAIGA-Muon array will be used for selection of gamma-ray induced EAS. At present the first stage of TAIGA have been constructed in the Tunka valley, ∼50 km West from the Lake Baikal in Siberia. Now it consists of 28 TAIGA-HiSCORE Cherenkov stations distributed over an area of 0.25 km2 and the first IACT of the TAIGA-IACT array. We are planning to test operation of the single telescope in coincidence with the HiSCORE up to shower impact distances of ∼500-600 m; for this purpose we already started construction of the second imaging telescope at 300 m distance from the first one. During 2017-2019 years we intend to increase the number of the TAIGA-HiSCORE stations up to 100-120, spread on the area of 1 km2 and to deploy 2 additional IACTs.

AB - The physics motivations and characteristics of the new gamma-experiment TAIGA (Tunka Advanced Instrument for cosmic ray physics and Gamma Astronomy) are presented. The TAIGA experiment addresses ground-based gamma-ray astronomy at energies from a few TeV to several PeV, as well as cosmic ray physics from 100 TeV to several EeV. For the energy range 30-200 TeV the sensitivity of the planned for future extension of TAIGA up to 5 km2 area for detection of the local sources is expected to be 10-13 erg cm-2 sec-1 for 500 h of observation. The combination of the wide angle Cherenkov timing detectors of the TAIGA-HiSCORE array and the 4 m class Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes of the TAIGA-IACT array with their FoV of 10×10 degrees offers a cost effective-way to construct a 5 km2 array. Reconstruction of an EAS energy, direction and core position based on the TAIGA-HiSCORE data will allow us to increase the distance between comparatively expensive IACTs up to 800-1200 m. The low investments together with the high sensitivity for energies >30-50 TeV make this pioneering technique very attractive for exploring the galactic PeVatrons and cosmic rays. In addition to the Cherenkov light detectors we intend to deploy an array of muon detectors (TAIGA-Muon array) over an area of 1 km2 with a total area of about 2000-3000 m2. The TAIGA-IACT-HiSCORE together with the TAIGA-Muon array will be used for selection of gamma-ray induced EAS. At present the first stage of TAIGA have been constructed in the Tunka valley, ∼50 km West from the Lake Baikal in Siberia. Now it consists of 28 TAIGA-HiSCORE Cherenkov stations distributed over an area of 0.25 km2 and the first IACT of the TAIGA-IACT array. We are planning to test operation of the single telescope in coincidence with the HiSCORE up to shower impact distances of ∼500-600 m; for this purpose we already started construction of the second imaging telescope at 300 m distance from the first one. During 2017-2019 years we intend to increase the number of the TAIGA-HiSCORE stations up to 100-120, spread on the area of 1 km2 and to deploy 2 additional IACTs.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85046057730&partnerID=8YFLogxK

M3 - Conference article

VL - Part F135186

JO - Proceedings of Science

JF - Proceedings of Science

SN - 1824-8039

ER -