Surveys with the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Abstract

Surveys open up unbiased discovery space and generate legacy datasets of long-lasting value. One of the goals of imaging arrays of Cherenkov telescopes like CTA is to survey areas of the sky for faint very high energy gamma-ray (VHE) sources, especially sources that would not have drawn attention were it not for their VHE emission (e.g. the Galactic "dark accelerators"). More than half the currently known VHE sources are to be found in the Galactic plane. Using standard techniques, CTA can carry out a survey of the region |l|<60 degrees, |b|<2 degrees in 250 hr (1/4th the available time per year at one location) down to a uniform sensitivity of 3 mCrab (a "Galactic Plane survey"). CTA could also survey 1/4th of the sky down to a sensitivity of 20 mCrab in 370 hr of observing time (an "all-sky survey"), which complements well the surveys by the Fermi/LAT at lower energies and extended air shower arrays at higher energies. Observations in (non-standard) divergent pointing mode may shorten the "all-sky survey" time to about 100 hr with no loss in survey sensitivity. We present the scientific rationale for these surveys, their place in the multi-wavelength context, their possible impact and their feasibility. We find that the Galactic Plane survey has the potential to detect hundreds of sources. Implementing such a survey should be a major goal of CTA. Additionally, about a dozen blazars, or counterparts to Fermi/LAT sources, are expected to be detected by the all-sky survey, whose prime motivation is the search for extragalactic "dark accelerators".

10 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics, special issue on Physics with the Cherenkov Telescope Array

References in corpus (9)

• The ATNF Pulsar Catalogue
• TeV Gamma-Ray Sources from a Survey of the Galactic Plane with Milagro
• Anisotropy and Corotation of Galactic Cosmic Rays
• HESS VHE Gamma-Ray Sources Without Identified Counterparts
• Discovery of Localized Regions of Excess 10-TeV Cosmic Rays
• The GeV-TeV Connection in Galactic gamma-ray sources
• Constraints on the TeV source population and its contribution to the galactic diffuse TeV emission
• Searches for dark matter subhaloes with wide-field Cherenkov telescope surveys
• Latest results on Galactic sources as seen in VHE gamma-rays

Cited by in corpus (55)

• Cosmological Magnetic Fields: Their Generation, Evolution and Observation
• The H.E.S.S. Galactic plane survey
• Resolving the Extragalactic $\gamma$-ray Background above 50 GeV with Fermi-LAT
• The nature of the Diffuse Gamma-Ray Background
• The HiSCORE concept for gamma-ray and cosmic-ray astrophysics beyond 10\,TeV
• Gamma-Ray Burst Science in the Era of the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Pulsar-wind nebulae and magnetar outflows: observations at radio, X-ray, and gamma-ray wavelengths
• Dark matter vs. Pulsars: Catching the impostor
• Monte Carlo studies for the optimisation of the Cherenkov Telescope Array layout
• Flux upper limits for 47 AGN observed with H.E.S.S. in 2004-2011
• Deciphering Contributions to the Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Background from 2 GeV to 2 TeV
• A Very High Energy $\gamma$-Ray Survey towards the Cygnus Region of the Galaxy
• Dark matter substructure modelling and sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array to Galactic dark halos
• Gamma-Ray Active Galactic Nucleus Type through Machine-Learning Algorithms
• Capturing the electromagnetic counterparts of binary neutron star mergers through low latency gravitational wave triggers
• Cherenkov Telescope Array is Well Suited to Follow Up Gravitational Wave Transients
• The high-energy $\gamma$-ray emission of AP Librae
• Anisotropy test of the axion-like particle Universe opacity effect: a case for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Fermi-LAT gamma-ray anisotropy and intensity explained by unresolved Radio-Loud Active Galactic Nuclei
• Design and expected performance of a novel hybrid detector for very-high-energy gamma astrophysics
• Binaries with the eyes of CTA
• Discovery of high and very high-energy emission from the BL Lac object SHBL J001355.9-185406
• Ground-based Gamma-Ray Astronomy: an Introduction
• MACHETE: A transit Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope to survey half of the Very High Energy $\gamma$-ray sky
• Prospects for annihilating Dark Matter towards Milky Way's dwarf galaxies by the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• A simplified view of blazars: the very high energy gamma-ray vision
• Searching for Gamma-Ray counterparts to Gravitational Waves from merging binary neutron stars with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Supernova remnants in the very-high-energy gamma-ray domain: the role of the Cherenkov telescope array
• Prospects for future very high-energy gamma-ray sky survey: impact of secondary gamma rays
• Gravitational-wave follow-up with CTA after the detection of GRBs in the TeV energy domain
• Sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array to dark subhalos
• Prospects for a survey of the Galactic plane with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• VLBA observations of radio faint Fermi-LAT sources above 10 GeV
• Multiwavelength constraints on the unidentified Galactic TeV sources HESS J1427$-$608, HESS J1458$-$608, and new VHE $\gamma$-ray source candidates
• On the potential of the Cherenkov Telescope Array for the study of cosmic-ray diffusion in molecular clouds
• The Steady-State Multi-TeV Diffuse Gamma-Ray Emission Predicted with GALPROP and Prospects for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Radio Galaxies with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Monte Carlo simulations of alternative sky observation modes with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Lower Bound on the Cosmic TeV Gamma-ray Background Radiation
• Observing small-scale $\gamma$-ray anisotropies with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• The Making of Catalogues of Very-High-Energy γ-ray Sources
• Testing source confusion and identification capability in Cherenkov Telescope Array data
• Status of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Project
• Cherenkov telescope array extragalactic survey discovery potential and the impact of axion-like particles and secondary gamma rays
• A new method of reconstructing very-high-energy gamma-ray spectra: the Template Background Spectrum
• CTA: the future of ground-based gamma-ray astrophysics
• On the possible correlation of Galactic VHE source locations and enhancements of the surface density in the Galactic plane
• Dark Matter and Fundamental Physics Searches with IACTs
• 2FHL: The second Catalog of hard {\it Fermi}-LAT sources
• The luminosity function of TeV-emitting BL Lacs: observations of an HBL sample with VERITAS
• gamma-sky.net: Portal to the Gamma-Ray Sky
• Search for Galactic dark matter substructures with Cherenkov telescopes
• Extragalactic Searches for Dark Matter Annihilation
• Future developments in ground-based gamma-ray astronomy
• Isotropic diffuse and extragalactic $\gamma$-ray background: emission from extragalactic sources vs dark matter annihilating particles