Collaboration for new gamma-ray observatory launched
"An international R&D collaboration for a future wide field-of-view gamma ray observatory in the southern hemisphere was launched this week in Lisbon"
Scientists gathered in Lisbon discussed ideas and proposals for a future wide field-of-view observatory to be built in the southern hemisphere. Such an instrument will be a powerful time-variance explorer, filling an empty space in the global multi-messenger network of gravitational, electromagnetic and neutrino observatories. It will be able to issue pointing alerts and be fully complementary to the large next generation imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope array, CTA.
A major outcome of the meeting was the creation of an international collaboration for R&D on such an observatory. The new collaboration joins different groups and communities that were already involved in R&D in this field, coming both from currently running experiments and from new R&D projects. This is the case of LATTES, an ambitious and innovative R&D project to which LIP has been deeply committed in the last few years, together with Brazilian and Italian colleagues, and of the SGSO (Southern Gamma-ray Survey Observatory) Alliance, created to discuss the future of the field and to prepare a white paper with ideas and recommendations for the future.
The new collaboration will start with four working groups that will handle the development of the science case; simulation, analysis and performance optimization; site selection; and detector R&D. The collaboration agreement is expected to be signed by July 1st by a minimum of four countries. The collaboration will be governed by a committee of country representatives who will elect the spokesperson of the collaboration.
