Title :
All-sky survey high resolution air-shower detector (Ashra)
Author_Institution :
Cosmic Ray Res., Univ. of Tokyo, Japan
Abstract :
We propose a new air fluorescence and Cerenkov detector Ashra. The Ashra phase-1 detector consists of 1+1/3 observational stations installed at the distance of 30-40 km in a mountain site. It ensures the large target mass for neutrinos and low-energy threshold for TeV gamma rays. The observational station is composed of 12 wide-angle high-precision telescope, which can cover completely all-sky view. Each telescope has a field-of-view of 50 deg. x 50 deg. and spot size resolution of 1 arcmin. To realize the Ashra telescope concept, we newly apply the following techniques matured in the other fields: i) Baker-Nunn optics optimized to keep better than 1 arcmin resolution in 50 deg. field of view, ii) electrostatic lens image intensifier tube with the resolution matched with that of the above optics, iii) photoelectric image pipeline with self triggering capability using light splitting after sufficient amplification, and iv) CMOS image sensor which read triggered images out of the above IIT. These novel techniques allow us an excellent opportunity for simultaneous observation of air fluorescence and Cerenkov lights with 1 arcmin resolution in entirely all sky. This will open a new field, "Observational Particle Astrophysics" by continuously observing TeV gamma-rays, VHE-neutrinos. Knee-CRs, and UHECRs.
Keywords :
CMOS image sensors; Cherenkov counters; cosmic ray apparatus; cosmic ray showers; high-energy cosmic ray interactions; Ashra; Baker-Nunn optics; Cerenkov detector; TeV gamma rays; air fluorescence detector; all-sky survey high resolution air-shower detector; electrostatic lens image intensifier tube; large target mass; low-energy threshold; photoelectric image pipeline; self triggering capability; Detectors; Electrostatics; Fluorescence; Gamma rays; Image resolution; Neutrino sources; Optical sensors; Phase detection; Stimulated emission; Telescopes;
Conference_Titel :
Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record, 2003 IEEE
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-8257-9
DOI :
10.1109/NSSMIC.2003.1352017