Highlight Talk: The Advanced Gamma Ray Imaging System (AGIS)

AGIS COLLABORATION: SON 49 AUTORES (A.C. ROVERO)

Lodz, Polonia.

Conferencia; 31st International Cosmic Ray Conference; 2009

The Advanced Gamma-ray Imaging System (AGIS) is a next generation ground-based gamma-ray mission concept for the 50 GeV to 10 TeV energy regime with an order of magnitude improvedsensitivity compared to existing instruments such as MAGIC, HESS and VERITAS. The detection of Teraelectronvolt (TeV) gamma radiation from ~ 100 galactic and extragalactic sources provides a wealth of data for probing physical phenomena that pertainto some of the big questions in astrophysics.Key drivers for this field are the origin of cosmic rays, the connection between relativistic jets and black holes, the paradigm that supersymmetric particles fill our universe with dark matter and estimating the brightness of cosmological diffuse radiation fieldsin the optical/infrared waveband.The AGIS instrument design aims to combine a much improved angular resolution with a wide field of view, allowing survey capabilities in very high energy astronomy with unprecedented fluxsensitivity. AGIS is based on a new technological approach to Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs), and has the potential to provide a major breakthrough for TeV astronomy.