From nine to forty: the SST telescopes and gamma-ray science with ASTRI and CTAO

Scientific Rationale

Although celestial sources emitting in the few tens of GeV up to a few TeV are being thoroughly investigated by imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope arrays such as H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS, at higher energies, up to a few PeV, more suitable instrumentation is required to detect ultra-high-energy photons, such as extensive air shower arrays, as HAWC, LHAASO, Tibet ASγ.

The Italian National Institute for Astrophysics has recently become the leader of an international project, the ASTRI Mini-Array, to install and operate an array of nine dual-mirror Cherenkov telescopes at the Observatorio del Teide, in Spain, starting the early science operations already in 2025. The ASTRI Mini-Array is expected to span a wide range of energies (1–200 TeV), with a large field of view (approximately 10 degrees) and an angular and energy resolution of ∼3 arcmin and ∼10%, respectively.

The first four years of operations will be dedicated to the exploitation of ASTRI Core Science, with a limited selection of very deep pointings to address some of the fundamental questions on the origin of cosmic rays, cosmology, and fundamental physics, the time-domain astrophysics and non -ray studies (e.g., stellar intensity interferometry and direct measurements of cosmic rays). Subsequently, four more years will be dedicated to ASTRI Observatory Science, open to the scientific community through the submission of observational proposals selected on a competitive basis. At the same time, up to 40 telescopes based on the same optical design of the
ASTRI Mini-Array ones will be installed at the southern site of the forthcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory, to constitute its array of Small Sized Telescopes, capable of exploring the very high energy gamma-ray sky above several TeV with unprecedented sensitivity. This conference will address both the technological and scientific aspects of small-sized telescopes for CTAO and ASTRI, considering the synergies with current and upcoming observational facilities.

The scientific sessions will cover a broad range of topics:

• The context of gamma-ray astronomy
• IACT observations towards CTAO
• Galactic sources under the eyes of SSTs
• Extragalactic sources and emission models
• Transient phenomena at TeV energies
• Cosmic Rays and their accelerators
• Fundamental physics at TeV energies
• Large SST arrays under new perspectives
• Multi-wavelength synergies
• Multi-messenger synergies
• Telescopes, optics and control
• Cameras, detectors and electronics
• Data Analysis

Further details on the timetable can be found in the Indico page of the conference.

Organizers

SOC
Josefa Becerra Gonzalez
Giacomo Bonnoli (Chair)
Pierre Cristofari
Stefan Funk
Jim Hinton
Francesco Longo
Giovanni Pareschi
Gianpiero Tagliaferri
Stefano Vercellone
Roberta Zanin
Andreas Zech

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