TY - JOUR

T1 - The TAIGA—a Hybrid Detector Complex in Tunka Valley for Astroparticle Physics, Cosmic Ray Physics and Gamma-Ray Astronomy

AU - the TAIGA Collaboration

AU - Budnev, N.

AU - Chiavassa, A.

AU - Garmash, A.

AU - Ivanova, A. L.

AU - Kravchenko, E.

AU - Sokolov, A.

AU - Вайдянатан, Арун

N1 - The work was performed at the UNU “Astrophysical Complex of MSU-ISU” (agreement EB 075-15-2021-675). The work is supported the Russian Science Foundation (grant 23-72-00016 (Section 3), 23-72-00019 (Section 4), by the Russian Federation Ministry of Science and High Education (projects 23-72-00016, FZZE-2023-0004, FSUS2020-0039, FSUS-2022-0015), Federal academic leadership program Priority-2030).

PY - 2023/9/1

Y1 - 2023/9/1

N2 - The physical motivations and performance of the TAIGA (Tunka Advanced Instrument for cosmic ray physics and Gamma Astronomy) project are presented. The TAIGA observatory 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 and astroparticle physics. The pilot TAIGA-1 complex locates in the Tunka valley, km West from the southern tip of the lake Baikal. It includes integrated air Cherenkov TAIGA-HiSCORE array with 120 wide-angle optical stations distributed over on area 1.1 square kilometer about and three 4-m class Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes of the TAIGA-IACT array. The latter array has a shape of triangle with side lengths of about 300, 400 and 500 m. The integral sensitivity of the 1-km TAIGA-1 detector is about TeV cm s for detection of TeV gamma-rays in 300 hours of source observations. The combination of the wide-angle Cherenkov array and IACTs could offer a cost effective-way to build a large (up to 10 km) array for very high energy gamma-ray astronomy. The reconstruction of a given EAS energy, incoming direction, and the core position, based on the TAIGA-HiSCORE data, allows one to increase the distance between the relatively expensive IACTs up to 600–800 m. These, together with the surface and underground electron/Muon detectors, will be used for selection of gamma-ray-induced EAS. Present status of the project, together with the current array description, the first experimental results and plans for the future are reported.

AB - The physical motivations and performance of the TAIGA (Tunka Advanced Instrument for cosmic ray physics and Gamma Astronomy) project are presented. The TAIGA observatory 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 and astroparticle physics. The pilot TAIGA-1 complex locates in the Tunka valley, km West from the southern tip of the lake Baikal. It includes integrated air Cherenkov TAIGA-HiSCORE array with 120 wide-angle optical stations distributed over on area 1.1 square kilometer about and three 4-m class Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes of the TAIGA-IACT array. The latter array has a shape of triangle with side lengths of about 300, 400 and 500 m. The integral sensitivity of the 1-km TAIGA-1 detector is about TeV cm s for detection of TeV gamma-rays in 300 hours of source observations. The combination of the wide-angle Cherenkov array and IACTs could offer a cost effective-way to build a large (up to 10 km) array for very high energy gamma-ray astronomy. The reconstruction of a given EAS energy, incoming direction, and the core position, based on the TAIGA-HiSCORE data, allows one to increase the distance between the relatively expensive IACTs up to 600–800 m. These, together with the surface and underground electron/Muon detectors, will be used for selection of gamma-ray-induced EAS. Present status of the project, together with the current array description, the first experimental results and plans for the future are reported.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85192390276&origin=inward&txGid=4bc83bcff50353708d1781b23b89414c

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/74f3238e-38a5-360a-b66e-b03cda6c8f0c/

U2 - 10.1134/S1063778823040051

DO - 10.1134/S1063778823040051

M3 - Article

VL - 86

SP - 471

EP - 477

JO - Physics of Atomic Nuclei

JF - Physics of Atomic Nuclei

SN - 1063-7788

IS - 4

ER -