Paper:	Physics with HAWC
Volume:	426, Proceedings of the 2009 Snowbird Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology Workshop (SNOWPAC 2009)
Page:	19
Authors:	Goodman, J. A.; HAWC Collaboration
Abstract:	The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) gamma-ray observatory will be a wide field of view, continuously operated, TeV gamma-ray observatory. HAWC is a natural extension of Milagro, which has demonstrated the ability to detect, at TeV energies many of the galactic sources which have been observed by the Fermi LAT in the GeV energy range. Since Milagro was a first generation detector constructed in a preexisting reservoir at a relatively low elevation (2640m), what Fermi was able to see in several months took Milagro ∼5 years to see. HAWC will be constructed as a joint Mexican-US collaboration on the Sierra Negra Mountain in Mexico at an elevation of 4100m. The design of HAWC was optimized using the lessons learned from Milagro and will be ∼15 times more sensitive than Milagro when completed. This improvement in sensitivity will allow HAWC to measure or constrain the TeV spectra of most of the Fermi discovered GeV sources. In addition, above 100 GeV HAWC will be more sensitive than the Fermi and be the only ground-based instrument capable of detecting prompt emission from gamma-ray bursts in this energy regime.

Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Conference Series

© Copyright 1988 - 2024 - Astronomical Society of the Pacific
No part of the material protected by this copyright may be reproduced or used in any form other than for personal use without written permission from the ASP.

Page generated in 0.055 seconds