H.E.S.S.-II - Gamma ray astronomy from 20 GeV to hundreds of TeV’s

• Main Author: de Naurois Mathieu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: EDP Sciences 2017-01-01
• Series: EPJ Web of Conferences
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201713603001

Since the commissioning of the fifth, largest telescope (28 m diameter) in December 2012, H.E.S.S. II is the only hybrid array of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes operating in the energy range ~ 20 GeV to ~ 100 TeV. The last years have seen a tremendous effort in the design, implementation and optimization of analysis techniques suitable for monoscopic & stereoscopic events. At the same time, a complete redesign of the acquisition scheme resulted in a very significant speed-up of repointing, allowing the big telescope to be on target just ~ 20 s after receiving a Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) alert notification. With its deep sensitivity, broad energy range, and fast reaction time, H.E.S.S. II provides an unprecedented high-quality view of the Universe at the highest energies, in a multi-wavelength and multi-messenger approach which is currently based on agreements many collaborations including in particular Fermi, IceCube, ANTARES and VIRGO/LIGO. In the last years, we conducted deep observations of several galactic regions of primordial importance, among them are the Galactic Center region and its halo (particularly relevant for dark matter searches), the Crab Nebula, the supernova remnant RXJ 1713.7-3946, the Vela pulsar and several binary systems such as LS 5039 and PSR B1259-63. Outside the Milky Way, the blazars PKS 2155-304 and PG 1553+113 have been extensively monitored, and H.E.S.S.-II forms part of a multi-wavelength campaign of the flaring activity of Mrk 501 in 2014. Highlights of these observations with H.E.S.S.-II have been presented and discussed at the conference. Moreover, after ten years of H.E.S.S. phase I observations, we are currently preparing a Legacy Release of the H.E.S.S. Galactic Plane Survey. A special edition of Astronomy & Astrophysics is currently under preparation, and will contain many important legacy results from H.E.S.S.-I. Major results from this very deep scan of the MilkyWay performed with H.E.S.S.-I, including among others spectacular findings from the Large Magellanic Cloud, have been presented.