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Inauguration and first light of the GCT-M prototype for the Cherenkov telescope array

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conference contribution
posted on 2017-03-20, 12:29 authored by J. J. Watson, A. De Franco, A. Abchiche, D. Allan, J.-P. Amans, T. P. Armstrong, A. Balzer, D. Berge, C. Boisson, J. J. Bousquet, A. M. Brown, M. Bryan, G. Buchholtz, P. M. Chadwick, H. Costantini, G. Cotter, M. K. Daniel, F. De Frondat, J. L. Dournaux, D. Dumas, J. P. Ernenwein, G. Fasola, S. Funk, J. Gironnet, J. A. Graham, T. Greenshaw, O. Hervet, N. Hidaka, J. A. Hinton, J. M. Huet, I. Jegouzo, T. Jogler, M. Kraus, J. S. Lapington, P. Laporte, J. Lefaucheur, S. Markoff, T. Melse, L. Mohrmann, P. Molyneux, S. J. Nolan, A. Okumura, J. P. Osborne, R. D. Parsons, S. Rosen, D. Ross, G. Rowell, C. B. Rulten, Y. Sato, F. Sayède, J. Schmoll, H. Schoorlemmer, M. Servillat, H. Sol, V. Stamatescu, M. Stephan, R. Stuik, J. Sykes, H. Tajima, J. Thornhill, L. Tibaldo, C. Trichard, J. Vink, R. White, N. Yamane, A. Zech, A. Zink, J. Zorn
The Gamma-ray Cherenkov Telescope (GCT) is a candidate for the Small Size Telescopes (SSTs) of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). Its purpose is to extend the sensitivity of CTA to gamma-ray energies reaching 300 TeV. Its dual-mirror optical design and curved focal plane enables the use of a compact camera of 0.4 m diameter, while achieving a field of view of above 8 degrees. Through the use of the digitising TARGET ASICs, the Cherenkov flash is sampled once per nanosecond contin-uously and then digitised when triggering conditions are met within the analogue outputs of the photosensors. Entire waveforms (typically covering 96 ns) for all 2048 pixels are then stored for analysis, allowing for a broad spectrum of investigations to be performed on the data. Two prototypes of the GCT camera are under development, with differing photosensors: Multi-Anode Photomultipliers (MAPMs) and Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs). During November 2015, the GCT MAPM (GCT-M) prototype camera was integrated onto the GCT structure at the Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, where it observed the first Cherenkov light detected by a prototype instrument for CTA.

Funding

We acknowledge support from the EU 7th Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement n. 317446. We also gratefully acknowledge support from the agencies and organisations listed under Funding Agencies at this website: http://www.cta-observatory.org/.

History

Citation

AIP Conference Proceedings, 2017, 1792(1), 080006

Author affiliation

/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING/Department of Physics and Astronomy

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Published in

AIP Conference Proceedings

Publisher

AIP Publishing

issn

0094-243X

eissn

1551-7616

isbn

9780735414563

Copyright date

2017

Available date

2017-03-20

Publisher version

http://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.4969027

Language

en

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