Cherenkov telescope array extragalactic survey discovery potential and the impact of axion-like particles and secondary gamma rays

0538337 - FZÚ 2021 RIV NL eng J - Journal Article
De Franco, A. … Total 4 authors
Cherenkov telescope array extragalactic survey discovery potential and the impact of axion-like particles and secondary gamma rays.
Astroparticle Physics. Roč. 93, July (2017), s. 8-16. ISSN 0927-6505. E-ISSN 1873-2852
Research Infrastructure: CTA-CZ - 90046
Keywords : active galactic nuclei * blazars * survey
OECD category: Particles and field physics
Impact factor: 3.203, year: 2017
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2017.03.010

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is about to enter construction phase and one of its main key science projects is to perform an unbiased survey in search of extragalactic sources. We make use of both the latest blazar gamma-ray luminosity function and spectral energy distribution to derive the expected number of detectable sources for both the planned Northern and Southern arrays of the CTA observatory. We find that a shallow, wide survey of about 0.5 hour per field of view would lead to the highest number of blazar detections. Furthermore, we investigate the effect of axion-like particles and secondary gamma rays from propagating cosmic rays on the source count distribution, since these processes predict different spectral shape from standard extragalactic background light attenuation. We can generally expect more distant objects in the secondary gamma-ray scenario, while axion-like particles do not significantly alter the expected distribution. Yet, we find that, these results strongly depend on the assumed magnetic field strength during the propagation. We also provide source count predictions for the High Altitude Water Cherenkov observatory (HAWC), the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) and a novel proposal of a hybrid detector.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0316782