Heidelberg 2007 – scientific programme

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PV: Plenarvorträge

PV II

PV II: Plenary Talk

Tuesday, March 6, 2007, 11:45–12:30, HS Chemie

The universe seen in VHE gamma rays — •Thomas Schweizer — MPI für Physik, Föhringer Ring 6, 80805 München

Very high energy gamma ray astronomy is a very fast evolving branch of astroparticle physics. It has the potential to shed light on many questions in the exploration of the nonthermal phenomena in our universe, the search for the origin of cosmic rays, the study of particle acceleration and the history of star formation. Gamma rays are emitted by the most energetic and violent cosmic processes. To be named are phenomena related to supermassive black holes, galactic sources as supernova remnants, pulsars and many more. The Cherenkov telescope imaging technique has proven to be very successful in the detection of VHE gamma rays. Starting from pioneering experiments as WHIPPLE and HEGRA a new generation of Cherenkov telescope experiments such as H.E.S.S., MAGIC, CANGAROO and VERITAS has been launched with a highly improved sensitivity. Many new galactic sources have been detected mainly by the scan of the galactic plane performed by the H.E.S.S. experiment revealing a rich plethora of phenomena. In addition, several very distant extragalctic sources have been detected by both H.E.S.S. and MAGIC. In this talk an overview over this interesting field will be given. An outlook to future projects will be presented.