The Cherenkov Telescope Array

TL;DR

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a planned next-generation gamma-ray observatory aiming to significantly improve sensitivity, energy coverage, and sky coverage to advance understanding of high-energy astrophysical phenomena and fundamental physics.

Contribution

This paper provides an overview of CTA's technical design, current status, and its potential to revolutionize VHE gamma-ray astronomy with enhanced capabilities.

Findings

CTA will increase sensitivity by an order of magnitude.

CTA will extend energy coverage from tens of GeV to hundreds of TeV.

CTA will enable full sky coverage with arrays in both hemispheres.

Abstract

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is planned to be the next generation ground based observatory for very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray astronomy. Gamma-rays provide a powerful insight into the non-thermal universe and hopefully a unique probe for new physics. Imaging Cherenkov telescopes have already discovered more than 170 VHE gamma-ray emitters providing plentiful of valuable data and clearly demonstrating the power of this technique. In spite of the impressive results there are indications that the known sources represent only the tip of the iceberg. A major step in sensitivity is needed to increase the number of detected sources, observe short time-scale variability and improve morphological studies of extended sources. An extended energy coverage is advisable to observe far-away extragalactic objects and improve spectral analysis. CTA aims to increase the sensitivity by an order of magnitude compared to current facilities, to extend the accessible gamma-ray energies from a few tens of GeV to a hundred of TeV, and to improve on other parameters like angular and energy resolution. CTA will provide moreover a full sky-coverage by featuring an array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes in both hemispheres. This paper presents an overview of the technical design and summarize the current status of the project. CTA prospects for some key science topics like the origin of relativistic cosmic particles, the acceleration mechanisms in extreme environments such as neutron stars and black holes and searches for Dark Matter are discussed.