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Verification of the optical system of the 9.7-m prototype Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope

  • C. Adams
  • , R. Alfaro
  • , G. Ambrosi
  • , M. Ambrosio
  • , C. Aramo
  • , W. Benbow
  • , B. Bertucci
  • , E. Bissaldi
  • , M. Bitossi
  • , A. Boiano
  • , C. Bonavolontà
  • , R. Bose
  • , A. Brill
  • , J. H. Buckley
  • , K. Byrum
  • , R. A. Cameron
  • , M. Capasso
  • , M. Caprai
  • , C. E. Covault
  • , L. Di Venere
  • S. Fegan, Q. Feng, E. Fiandrini, A. Furniss, M. Garczarczyk, F. Garfias, A. Gent, N. Giglietto, F. Giordano, M. M. González, R. Halliday, O. Hervet, G. Hughes, T. B. Humensky, M. Ionica, A. Iriarte, W. Jin, P. Kaarat, D. Kieda, B. Kim, F. Licciulli, M. Limon, S. Loporchio, V. Masone, T. Meures, B. A.W. Mode, R. Mukherjee, D. Nieto, A. Okumura, N. Otte, N. La Palombara, F. R. Pantaleo, R. Paoletti, G. Pareschi, A. Petrashyk, J. Powell, K. Powell, D. Ribeiro, E. Roache, J. Rousselle, A. Rugliancich, J. Ruíz-Diáz-Soto, M. Santander, S. Schlenstedt, S. Scuderi, R. Shang, G. Sironi, B. Stevenson, L. Stiaccini, L. P. Taylor, L. Tosti, G. Tovmassian, V. Vagelli, M. Valentino, J. Vandenbroucke, V. V. Vassiliev, S. P. Wakely, P. Wilcox, D. A. Williams, P. Yu
  • Columbia University
  • Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
  • INFN Sezione di Perugia
  • INFN Sezione di Napoli
  • Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
  • University of Perugia
  • Politecnico di Bari
  • INFN Sezione di Bari
  • Washington University in St. Louis
  • Argonne National Laboratory
  • Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
  • Case Western Reserve University
  • Ip Paris
  • Barnard College
  • California State University - East Bay
  • c/o DESY
  • Citadel Securities Llc
  • National Astronomical Observatory
  • College of Computing
  • Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Pisa
  • University of California at Santa Cruz
  • Science and Research Directorate
  • ISASI
  • University of Chicago
  • CTAO
  • University of Minnesota
  • University of Alabama
  • University of Iowa
  • University of Utah
  • University of California, Los Angeles
  • University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • IPARCOS-UCM (Instituto de Física de Partículas y del Cosmos)
  • Nagoya University
  • INAF Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, Milan
  • University of Siena

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

For the first time in the history of ground-based x-ray astronomy, the on-axis performance of the dual mirror, aspheric, aplanatic Schwarzschild-Couder optical system has been demonstrated in a 9:7-m aperture imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope. The novel design of the prototype Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope (pSCT) is motivated by the need of the next-generation Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) observatory to have the ability to perform wide (≥8°) field-of-view observations simultaneously with superior imaging of atmospheric cascades (resolution of 0:067 per pixel or better). The pSCT design, if implemented in the CTA installation, has the potential to improve significantly both the x-ray angular resolution and the off-axis sensitivity of the observatory, reaching nearly the theoretical limit of the technique and thereby making a major impact on the CTA observatory sky survey programs, follow-up observations of multi-messenger transients with poorly known initial localization, as well as on the spatially resolved spectroscopic studies of extended x-ray sources. This contribution reports on the initial alignment procedures and point-spread-function results for the challenging segmented aspheric primary and secondary mirrors of the pSCT.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationOptical System Alignment, Tolerancing, and Verification XIII
EditorsJose Sasian, Richard N. Youngworth
PublisherSPIE
ISBN (Electronic)9781510637825
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2020
Externally publishedYes
EventOptical System Alignment, Tolerancing, and Verification XIII 2020 - Virtual, Online, United States
Duration: 24 Aug 20204 Sept 2020

Publication series

NameProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume11488
ISSN (Print)0277-786X
ISSN (Electronic)1996-756X

Conference

ConferenceOptical System Alignment, Tolerancing, and Verification XIII 2020
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityVirtual, Online
Period24/08/204/09/20

Keywords

  • Aplanatic Optical System
  • Gamma Ray
  • Imaging Cherenkov Telescopes

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