Research

VERITAS is a ground-based gamma-ray instrument operating at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO) in southern Arizona, USA. It is an array of four 12m optical reflectors for gamma-ray astronomy in the GeV – TeV energy range. These imaging Cherenkov telescopes are deployed such that they have the highest sensitivity in the VHE energy band (50 GeV – 50 TeV), with maximum sensitivity from 100 GeV to 10 TeV. This VHE observatory effectively complements the NASA Fermi mission.

Building on the technology of current generation ground-based gamma-ray detectors (H.E.S.S., MAGIC and VERITAS), the CTAO will be between five and 10 times more sensitive and have unprecedented accuracy in its detection of high-energy gamma rays. Current gamma-ray telescope arrays host up to five individual telescopes, but the CTAO, as the first open ground-based gamma-ray observatory, is designed to detect gamma rays over a larger area and a wider range of views with more than 60 telescopes located in the northern and southern hemispheres.

ADMX is an axion haloscope, which uses a strong magnetic field to convert dark matter axions to detectable microwave photons. The ADMX G2 experiment is one of the US Department of Energy’s flagship dark matter searches, and the only one looking for axions. The experiment consists of a large magnet, a microwave cavity, and ultra-sensitive low-noise quantum electronics.

ADMX is an international collaboration composed of researchers from University of Washington, University of Florida, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Fermi National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, UC Berkeley, Washington University in St. Louis, Sheffield University, and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.