The GCT camera for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

• Published in: arXiv.org 2016-08
• Main Authors: Brown, Anthony M, Abchiche, A, Allan, D, Amans, J P, Armstrong, T P, Balzer, A, Berge, D, Boisson, C, J -J Bousquet, Bryan, M, Buchholtz, G, Chadwick, P M, Costantini, H, Cotter, G, Daniel, M K, De Franco, A, De Frondat, F, J -L Dournaux, Dumas, D, Fasola, G, Funk, S, Gironnet, J, Graham, J A, Greenshaw, T, Hervet, O, Hidaka, N, Hinton, J A, J -M Huet, Jegouzo, I, Jogler, T, Kraus, M, Lapington, J S, Laporte, P, Lefaucheur, J, Markoff, S, Melse, T, Mohrmann, L, Molyneux, P, Nolan, S J, Okumura, A, Osborne, J P, Parsons, R D, Rosen, S, Ross, D, Rowell, G, Sato, Y, Sayede, F, Schmoll, J, Schoorlemmer, H, Servillat, M, Sol, H, Stamatescu, V, Stephan, M, Stuik, R, Sykes, J, Tajima, H, Thornhill, J, Tibaldo, L, Trichard, C, Vink, J, Watson, J J, White, R, Yamane, N, Zech, A, Zink, A, Zorn, J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Field of view; Gamma rays; Pixels
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1608.03420

The Gamma-ray Cherenkov Telescope (GCT) is proposed for the Small-Sized Telescope component of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). GCT's dual-mirror Schwarzschild-Couder (SC) optical system allows the use of a compact camera with small form-factor photosensors. The GCT camera is ~0.4 m in diameter and has 2048 pixels; each pixel has a ~0.2 degree angular size, resulting in a wide field-of-view. The design of the GCT camera is high performance at low cost, with the camera housing 32 front-end electronics modules providing full waveform information for all of the camera's 2048 pixels. The first GCT camera prototype, CHEC-M, was commissioned during 2015, culminating in the first Cherenkov images recorded by a SC telescope and the first light of a CTA prototype. In this contribution we give a detailed description of the GCT camera and present preliminary results from CHEC-M's commissioning.