posted on 2019-05-31, 14:52authored byRD Parsons, F Schussler, T Garrigoux, A Balzer, M Fuessling, C Hoischen, M Holler, A Mitchell, G Puehlhofer, G Rowell, S Wagner, E Bissaldi, P O'Brien, PHT Tam
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are some of the Universe’s most enigmatic and exotic events. However, at energies above 10 GeV their behaviour remains largely unknown. Although space based telescopes such as the Fermi-LAT have been able to detect GRBs in this energy range, their photon statistics are limited by the small detector size. Such limitations are not present in ground based gamma-ray telescopes such as the H.E.S.S. experiment, which has now entered its second phase with the addition of a large 600 m2 telescope to the centre of the array. Such a large telescope allows H.E.S.S. to access the sub 100-GeV energy range while still maintaining a large effective collection area, helping to potentially probe the short timescale emission of these events.
We present a description of the H.E.S.S. GRB observation programme, summarising the performance of the rapid GRB repointing system and the conditions under which GRB observations are initiated. Additionally we will report on the GRB follow-ups made during the 2014-15 observation campaigns.
Funding
The support of the Namibian authorities and of the University of Namibia in facilitating the construction and operation
of H.E.S.S. is gratefully acknowledged, as is the support by the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF),
the Max Planck Society, the German Research Foundation (DFG), the French Ministry for Research, the CNRSIN2P3 and the Astroparticle Interdisciplinary Programme of the CNRS, the U.K. Science and Technology Facilities
Council (STFC), the IPNP of the Charles University, the Czech Science Foundation, the Polish Ministry of Science
and Higher Education, the South African Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation,
the University of Namibia, the Innsbruck University, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), and the Austrian Federal
Ministry for Science, Research and Economy, and by the University of Adelaide and the Australian Research Council.
We appreciate the excellent work of the technical support staff in Berlin, Durham, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Palaiseau,
Paris, Saclay, and in Namibia in the construction and operation of the equipment. This work benefited from services
provided by the H.E.S.S. Virtual Organisation, supported by the national resource providers of the EGI Federation.
History
Citation
AIP Conference Proceedings, 2017, 1792, 050034
Author affiliation
/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING/Department of Physics and Astronomy
Source
6th International Meeting on High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy, Heidelberg, GERMANY