Introducing the CTA concept

• Published in: Astroparticle physics Vol. 43; no. SI; pp. 3 - 18
• Main Authors: Acharya, B.S., Aguilar, J., Aharonian, F., Arrabito, L., Babic, A., Bähr, J., Balis, D., Bamba, A., Basili, A., Becherini, Y., Beckmann, V., Bhattacharyya, S., Bogart, J., Bonardi, A., Bonnoli, G., Brau-Nogué, S., Brook, P., Bulik, T., Canestrari, R., Catalano, O., Cavazzani, S., Courty, B., De Frondat, F., de la Calle, I., Díaz, C., Dickherber, R., Dohmke, M., Dorner, D., Enomoto, R., Falcone, A., Favill, B., Fegan, S., Firpo Curcoll, R., Flores, H., Föhr, C., Förster, A., Fortson, L., Fukazawa, Y., Giommi, P., Glicenstein, J.-F., González, F., Harris, J., Haubold, T., Hermel, R., Hrabovsky, M., Kalkuhl, C., Kendziorra, E., Kifune, T., Korohoda, P., Krähenbühl, T., Krepps, A., Kretzschmann, A., Languignon, D., Lapington, J., Lee, S.-H., Leopold, D.J., Lipniacka, A., Lopatin, A., López-Oramas, A., Lubinski, P., Martin, P., Mastichiadis, A., Morello, C., Muraishi, H., Neyroud, N., Nozato, A., Otte, N., Paneque, D., Paredes, J.M., Peyaud, B., Rico, J., Riviére, A., Rivoire, S., Rohlfs, R., Ross, D., Ryde, F., Sahakian, V., Sant’Ambrogio, E., Schafer, J., Schwab, T., Sillanpää, A., Spanier, F., Sterzel, M., Szepieniec, T., Tajima, H., Tanaka, M., Terada, Y., Teshima, M., Tezier, D., Thuermann, D., Toussenel, F., Tsinganos, K., Waegebaert, V., Wagner, R.G., Wilkinson, M., Willingale, R., Yoshida, A., Zabalza, V., Zhou, X., Zitelli, V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Air showers; Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi; Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology; Astroparticle Physics; Astropartikelfysik; Astrophysics; Cherenkov Telescopes; Fysik; High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena; Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic; Natural Sciences; Naturvetenskap; Physical Sciences; Physics; Sciences of the Universe; TeV gamma-ray astronomy; Cherenkov Telescopes; TeV gamma-ray astronomy; Air showers; TeV gamma-ray astronomy Air showers Cherenkov Telescopes
• ISSN: 0927-6505; 1873-2852; 1873-2852
• DOI: 10.1016/j.astropartphys.2013.01.007

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a new observatory for very high-energy (VHE) gamma rays. CTA has ambitions science goals, for which it is necessary to achieve full-sky coverage, to improve the sensitivity by about an order of magnitude, to span about four decades of energy, from a few tens of GeV to above 100TeV with enhanced angular and energy resolutions over existing VHE gamma-ray observatories. An international collaboration has formed with more than 1000 members from 27 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America. In 2010 the CTA Consortium completed a Design Study and started a three-year Preparatory Phase which leads to production readiness of CTA in 2014. In this paper we introduce the science goals and the concept of CTA, and provide an overview of the project.