TAIGA - a hybrid array for high energy gamma astronomy and cosmic ray physics

¹ Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics MSU, Moscow, Russia
² Institute of Applied Physics ISU, Irkutsk, Russia
³ Dipartimento di Fisica Generale Universiteta di Torino and INFN, Torino, Italy
⁴ Max-Planck-Institute for Physics, Munich, Germany
⁵ Institut fuür Experimentalphysik, University of Hamburg, Germany
⁶ IZMIRAN, Moscow, Russia
⁷ DESY, Zeuthen, Germany
⁸ National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Moscow, Russia
⁹ JINR, Dubna, Russia
¹⁰ Novosibirsk State University, NSU, Novosibirsk, Russia
¹¹ Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia
¹² ISS, Bucharest, Romania
¹³ Dubna State University, Dubna, Russia
¹⁴ Institut für Kernphysik, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, 76021 Germany
¹⁵ Institut für Prozessdatenverarbeitung und Elektronik, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

^* e-mail: nbudnev@api.isu.ru

Published online: 31 October 2018

Abstract

The physics motivations and advantages of the new TAIGA (Tunka Advanced Instrument for cosmic ray physics and Gamma Astronomy) detector are presented. TAIGA aims at gamma-ray astronomy at energies from a few TeV to several PeV, as well as cosmic ray physics from 100 TeV to several EeV. For the energy range 30 – 200 TeV the sensitivity of 10 km² area TAIGA array for the detection of local sources is expected to be 5 × 10^-14 erg cm^-2 sec^-1 for 300 h of observations. Reconstruction of the given EAS energy, incoming direction and its core position, based on the timing TAIGA-HiSCORE data, allows one to increase a distance between the IACTs up to 600-1000 m. The low investments together with the high sensitivity for energies ≥ 30-50 TeV make this pioneering technique very attractive for exploring the galactic PeVatrons and cosmic rays. At present the TAIGA first stage has been constructed in Tunka valley, 50 km West from the Lake Baikal. The first experimental results of the TAIGA first stage are presented.