GAW (Gamma Air Watch): a novel imaging Cherenkov telescope

GAW (Gamma Air Watch) is a new imaging Cherenkov telescope designed for observation of very high-energy gamma-ray sources. GAW will be equipped with a 3 meter diameter Fresnel lens as light collector and with an array of 300 multi-anode photomultipliers at the focal plane. The pixel size will be 4 a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2001-10
Main Authors: Cusumano, G, Agnetta, G, Biondo, B, Catalano, O, Giarrusso, S, Gugliotta, G, La Fata, L, Maccarone, M C, Mangano, A, Mineo, T, Russo, F, Sacco, B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Field of view
Focal plane
Gamma rays
Imaging
Photoelectrons
Photomultiplier tubes
Telescopes
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Summary:GAW (Gamma Air Watch) is a new imaging Cherenkov telescope designed for observation of very high-energy gamma-ray sources. GAW will be equipped with a 3 meter diameter Fresnel lens as light collector and with an array of 300 multi-anode photomultipliers at the focal plane. The pixel size will be 4 arcmin wide for a total field of view of 10.5 degrees. Whith respect to the planned imaging Cherenkov telescopes (CANGAROO III, HESS, MAGIC, VERITAS) GAW follows a different approach for what concerns both the optical system and the detection working mode: the Cherenkov light collector is a single acrylic flat Fresnel lens (instead of mirrors) that allows to achieve wide field of view; the photomultipliers operate in single photoelectron counting mode (instead of charge integration). The single photoelectron counting mode allows to reach a low energy threshold of ~200 GeV, in spite of the relatively small dimension of the GAW optic system.
ISSN:2331-8422