Non-Gamma-ray Applications of TeV Telescopes

Abstract

Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) are instruments for the indirect detection of very high energy cosmic and gamma rays, since they are essentially very large light buckets used to gather the optical Cherenkov photons generated within extensive air showers. Whilst the imaging quality of their reflective surfaces may be crude it should not be forgotten that they are in actuality amongst the largest optical telescopes ever constructed-with sensitive camera equipment ideal for application to high time resolution optical astronomical research from scales of seconds down to nanoseconds. Recent advances in instrumentation have resulted in the VER-ITAS IACTs making sub-milliarcsecond resolution observations through the revived technique of intensity interferometry and obtaining the smallest optical angular resolution measurements to date in direct measurements of stellar diameters at the ∼100 micro-arcsecond scale from observations of asteroid occultations of stars. There are many further diverse non-gamma-ray applications that these types of telescopes are starting to contribute to: from the simultaneous search for optical counterparts to Fast Radio Bursts, to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. This increased range of utility for these form of telescope expands their potential remit from facilities for specialised purposes to observatories for a wider scientific community in prime locations around the world.

Optical Microlensing by Primordial Black Holes with IACTs

“…Compared to these, IACTs are optical telescopes that are constructed to detect the ∼ nanosecond flashes of Cherenkov light from atmospheric air showers. For an overview of IACTs as optical instruments, see [15]. Their large optical reflectors make them powerful detectors for high time resolution photometry, as they minimize atmospheric scintillation noise.…”

Muon Hunter: a Zooniverse project

“…One purpose of this project is to train a reliable CNN model to classify muon rings. Two sources of labels, one provided by the VERITAS analysis [9] and the other by the Muon Hunter user input, can be used for the training, validation, and testing of the models. We randomly selected 16 observation runs, each 30 minutes in duration, and analysed them using one of the standard VERITAS data analysis packages, with the muon identification proceedure outlined in [8].…”

Summary of the 36th ICRC Gamma-ray Indirect sessions

“…Due to shortness of the phenomena, observations have to be performed strictly simultaneously with a radio telescope, and the coincidence of a possible signal with FRB is done offline. Interestingly, Cherenkov telescopes, due to their huge mirror areas can also be used as optical telescopes for looking for optical counterparts of FRBs [89]. While during the observations times with the Cherenkov telescopes a number of FRB have been detected by radio telescopes, no significant emission either as gamma-ray excess, nor raise of optical flux has been observed [88,81].…”

“…The full power of SII with Cherenkov telescopes will be released only once CTA is constructed. Larger number of telescopes, spread over a large area, will provide simultaneous sensitivity to various angular scales making possible to get an actual image of the star [89].…”