From the first neutrino to CTAA tribute to Astroparticle Physics in South Africa

Christian Spiering, DESYCape Town, April 17, 2012

Fred Reines SN Remnant Potchefstroom Space weather C T A RX J1713.7-3946 H.E.S.S. group with Harm artist‘s viewFirst atmospheric as seen with Moraal fromneutrino in H.E.S.S. O. de Jager Potchefstroom UniversitySouth African Mine C. Raubenheimer(with J. Sellschop from U. Witswatersrand)

From the first neutrino to CTAA tribute to Astroparticle Physics in South Africa

1912: Discovery of Cosmic Rays

Gamma Rays and Neutrinos from Cosmic Accelerators

Detection of TeV Gamma Rays and Neutrinos

Gamma Ray

camera image

Discovery of atmospheric neutrinos

February 23, 1965East Rand Proprietary Mine, South Africa, Depth = 3200 meters

Case-Witswatersrand Collaboration(later Case-Wits-Irvine)

F. Reines et al.

(J.Sellschop, U. Witswatersrand)

Long liquid scintillationcounters

Nearly horizontal track

Fred ReinesCWI experiment

Discovery of atmospheric neutrinos

February 23, 1965East Rand Proprietary Mine, South Africa, Depth = 3200 meters

Case-Witwatersrand Collaboration(later Case-Wits-Irvine)

F. Reines et al.

(J.Sellshop, U. Witwatersrand)

Long liquid scintillationcounters

Nearly horizontal track

Fred ReinesCWI experiment

reactiondetector

neutrino

light cone

muon

upward going muon in IceCube

TeV Gamma Astronomy

1980s: many non-imaging telescopes worldwide No single convincing discovery of a TeV gamma sources South Africa: Telescope arrays Mk-I

and Mk-II in Noitgedaacht

One of the sub-telelescopes of Mk-II (Raubenheimer, de Jager)

1989: First discovery of a TeV source with an imaging telescope in Arizona (Crab Nebula, Whipple Telescope)

The H.E.S.S. TelescopeGamma ray

Four 12-m dishes

One 23-dish inauguration in Oct. 2012

Namibia

TeV Gamma Astronomy 2012

RX J1713.7-3946

H.E.S.S. scan of the galactic plane

moon

0.5°

Source Type

TeV Gamma Astronomy 2012

~ 135 sources

We have seen until now only the tip of the iceberg !

The next, worldwide step: CTA

Construction 2014-2019Now prototype phase

Science Potentialof CTA

H.E.S.S. ~500 h

Expected with CTA ~500 h

GLAST

MAGIC

The “quite expensive”

line

H.E.S.S.

Crab

10% Crab

1% Crab10-14

10-13

10-12

10-11

10 100 1000 104 105

E x

F(>

E) [

TeV

/cm

2s]

E [GeV]

Fermi

E.F

(>E

)

[Te

V/c

m2s]

expect ~1000 sources

Space Weather Research

Quite recently, DESY (Zeuthen) and the University Kiel, together with a group from the Potchefstroom University (Harm Moraal) , have installed particle detectors at the German Antartic Research Station „Neumayer“ and at the German Research Vessel „Polarstern“.

The detected particles are muons and low-energetic neutrons which can be used to monitor the solar activity and provide data on space weather.

Summary

South Africa has played a notable role in astroparticle physics.

Germany and South Africa have built up close connections within the H.E.S.S. project, and now also on space weather research.

Gamma Astronomy at TeV energies is stormy developing. Next step: CTA

Hope for first neutrino discoveries with IceCube in the next couple of years true multimessenger TeV astronomy !