甚高能γ射线天文观测的利器--成像大气切伦科夫望远镜  

Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope:A Key Instrument in VHE γ-ray Astronomy Observation

作　　者：高启[1,2] 陈天禄[1,2] 刘茂元[1,2] 马帅康 肖迪泫 GAO Qi;CHEN Tian-lu;LIU Mao-yuan;Ma Shuai-kang;Xiao Di-xuan(Key Laboratory of Cosmic Rays,Ministory of Education,Tibet University,Lhasa 850000,China;Department of Physics,Tibet University,Lhasa 850000,China)

机构地区：[1]西藏大学宇宙线教育部重点实验室,拉萨850000 [2]西藏大学物理系,拉萨850000

出　　处：《天文学进展》2021年第3期350-376,共27页Progress In Astronomy

基　　金：国家自然科学基金(11873005,11765019,11947411,12047575)。

摘　　要：地基甚高能(very high energy, VHE)γ射线天文观测成果的取得,很大程度上与成像大气切伦科夫望远镜技术发展密不可分。大气切伦科夫技术概念于20世纪50年代提出,20世纪80年代末和20世纪90年代初取得重要突破,21世纪初逐步发展成熟。立体成像大气切伦科夫望远镜阵列以其良好的角度分辨率、能量分辨能力和优异的γ/p鉴别能力成为地基VHEγ射线天文观测关键探测技术,在现有和计划中的γ射线地基探测中被广泛使用。对成像大气切伦科夫技术发展历史和现状作了概述,包括地基VHEγ射线探测现状、大气切伦科夫望远镜探测原理、技术演进、目前典型的成像大气切伦科夫望远镜阵列、未来发展等内容。Very high energy(VHE)γ-ray are considered as the best“messengers”to study the extreme Universe and its physical processes because their production mechanisms are closely related to the particles interaction and the transmission process are not influenced by the star magnetic field.The window of VHEγ-ray was opened only in 1989 by the Whipple collaboration,reporting the observation of TeVγ-ray from the Crab nebula.After a slow start,this new field of research is now rapidly expanding with the discovery of more than 200 VHEγ-ray emitting sources.Due to the limitation of effective area,space experiments can only detectγ-ray with energy below TeV directly,the higher energyγ-ray can only be detected indirectly by ground experiments.Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope(IACT)array is one of the key detection technology of ground-based VHEγ-ray astronomical observation and widely used in the existing and plannedγ-ray ground exploration because of the most sensitive view of the very high energyγ-ray sky(50 GeV―20 TeV),excellentγ/p discrimination ability,coupled with relatively good angular and spectral resolution,to some extent the achievement of ground-based VHEγ-ray astronomical observation results are closely related to the developments of IACT.The potential of atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes forγ-ray astronomy was first explored by Jelley and Galbraith in the 1950s,the key technology image of the Cherenkov emission from air showers and stereo observation technology made important breakthroughs in the late 1980s and 1990s,and gradually developed and matured at the beginning of this century.We summarized and prospected the developments and evolutions of atmospheric Cherenkov telescope,introduced the status of VHEγ-ray detection,the principle of atmospheric Cherenkov telescope,the development,evolution and key breakthroughs of the three generation Cherenkov telescope technology,the main IACT arrays in working and some of their work highlights,compared the advantages of different ground-based detect

关 键 词：甚高能γ射线天文学 成像大气切伦科夫技术 γ/p鉴别 立体观测 

分 类 号：P172.4[天文地球—天文学]