VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) is a ground-based gamma-ray instrument operating at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO) in southern Arizona, USA. It consists of four imaging telescopes, each with a 12 m diameter optical reflector and a photomultiplier camera. VERITAS is built to detect the faint flashes of Cherenkov light from air showers initiated in the atmosphere by high-energy photons. These imaging Cherenkov telescopes are deployed such that they have the highest sensitivity in the very-high-energy (VHE) band (85 GeV - 50 TeV).
The VERITAS group at DESY is covering the following topics:
- Gamma-ray emission from astrophysical jets in binary systems and active galactic nuclei (AGN)
- Particle acceleration in binary systems
- Extragalactic background light measurements
- Transient searches in optical and gamma rays
- Searches for dark-matter particles
- Data analysis and development of innovative analysis methods
- Monte Carlo simulations
- Synergies with CTA prototype Schwarzschild-Couder telescope
