The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the major ground-based gamma-ray observatory under construction. The CTA South observatory is foreseen to consist of Large-, Medium-, and Small-sized imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs). The innovative Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope (SCT) is a candidate IACT and a proposed major U.S. contribution for the Medium-sized, 10m aperture telescopes for CTA. The SCT is designed to simultaneously achieve 8 degrees field of view and high imaging resolution with unprecedented 11,328 pixels camera by implementing novel, aplanatic, segmented dual-mirror optics and compact silicon photomultiplier detectors. This presentation will provide an overview of the SCT program in the U.S. including the construction of a full-scale prototype instrument by an international consortium of scientists with the focus on the alignment of the segmented primary and secondary mirrors and the ongoing upgrade of the camera to full scale.
The prototype Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope (pSCT) is a candidate for a medium-sized telescope in the Cherenkov Telescope Array. The pSCT is based on a dual-mirror optics design that reduces the plate scale and allows for the use of silicon photomultipliers as photodetectors. The prototype pSCT camera currently has only the central sector instrumented with 25 camera modules (1600 pixels), providing a 2.68-deg field of view (FoV). The camera electronics are based on custom TARGET (TeV array readout with GSa/s sampling and event trigger) application-specific integrated circuits. Field programmable gate arrays sample incoming signals at a gigasample per second. A single backplane provides camera-wide triggers. An upgrade of the pSCT camera that will fully populate the focal plane is in progress. This will increase the number of pixels to 11,328, the number of backplanes to 9, and the FoV to 8.04 deg. Here, we give a detailed description of the pSCT camera, including the basic concept, mechanical design, detectors, electronics, current status, and first light.
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next-generation ground-based observatory for very-high-energy gamma rays. One candidate design for CTA's medium-sized telescopes consists of the Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope (SCT), featuring innovative dual-mirror optics. The SCT project has built and is currently operating a 9.7-m prototype SCT (pSCT) at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO); such optical design enables the use of a compact camera with state-of-the art silicon photomultiplier detectors. A partially-equipped camera has recently successfully detected the Crab Nebula with a statistical significance of 8.6 standard deviations. A funded upgrade of the pSCT focal plane sensors and electronics is currently ongoing, which will bring the total number of channels from 1600 to 11328 and the telescope field of view from about 2.7° to 8° . In this work, we will describe the technical and scientific performance of the pSCT.
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