WoU-MMA: Very High Energy Astrophysics with VERITAS and CTAO

Gamma-ray astronomy studies the physics of powerful systems like black holes found in the centers of active galaxies and the remnants of supernova explosions, which mark the end of many massive stars’ lives. These systems produce radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum and can be observed using ground-based detectors. The VERITAS gamma-ray observatory, located at the F. L. Whipple Observatory in Arizona, plays a crucial role in advancing this field. It has made important discoveries that have greatly enhanced our understanding of the most energetic processes in the universe. The VERITAS team at the University of Minnesota focuses on exploring how active galaxies generate gamma rays and how this relates to the origins of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays and astrophysical neutrinos—two very significant questions in astrophysics. The teams at University of Minnesota includes students and postdocs.

Ground-based very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray astrophysics has matured as a field in the last decade, expanding the VHE catalog from a handful to over 300 objects across a wide range of source classes that represent the most extreme phenomena in the Universe. VERITAS observations combined with a wealth of multi-wavelength data from radio to X-ray, and especially high-energy gamma rays from NASA’s Fermi-LAT satellite, has significantly increased our understanding of the most energetic processes in the Universe. The work carried out by the University of Minnesota VERITAS team under this grant is crucial to maintaining and extending the analysis packages of VERITAS to maximize the science return on data taking campaigns across the spectrum as well as with multi-messenger observatories. These efforts enable discoveries of new VHE emitting active galactic nuclei (AGN) and observations of known VHE blazars and radio galaxies to better characterize the so-called blazar sequence. The blazar sequence postulates an inverse relationship between blazar luminosity and peak synchrotron emission frequency potentially due to cosmic evolution. Results from this work are being used to elucidate the astrophysics behind gamma-ray emission in blazars and its potential links to the origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays and astrophysical neutrino production. The UMN team is also developing the software pipelines that are enabling the production of Legacy Data Products that are being made publicly available. These public data sets will be compatible with data formats that enable the broader scientific community, including members of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO), to analyze VERITAS datasets for long-term source variability as an example. The development of these pipelines also includes the ability to jointly analyze VERITAS data and the co-located prototype Schwarzschild-Couder telescope for both improved operations and science extraction purposes.

This project advances the objectives of "Windows on the Universe: the Era of Multi-Messenger Astrophysics", one of the 10 Big Ideas for Future NSF Investments.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Award Number: 2513660
Principal Investigator: Lucy Fortson
Funds Obligated: $200,000
State: MN