IACT
IACT is a device or method to detect very-high-energy gamma ray photons in the photon energy range of 50 GeV to 50 TeV.
As of 2017, there are four operating IACT systems: High Energy Stereoscopic System, Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov Telescopes, First G-APD Cherenkov Telescope, and Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System. The Major Atmospheric Cerenkov Experiment Telescope is under construction in Hanle, Ladakh, India and is set to be the highest and second-largest IACT. The Cherenkov Telescope Array is a multinational project to build next-generation IACTs and is scheduled to begin data collection in 2022.
Background
Due to the rapidly falling flux of gamma-ray photons from cosmic sources in this energy regime, space-based detectors become ineffective due to their small collection areas which are often limited to some tens or hundreds of square centimeters. In the case of the IACT, the Earth's atmosphere is used as the detection medium, implying a collection area of many hundreds of square meters. This enables IACT instruments to detect gamma-ray photons in an energy regime inaccessible to space-based instruments.Technique
The IACT works by imaging the very short flash of Cherenkov radiation generated by the cascade of relativistic charged particles produced when a very-high-energy gamma ray strikes the atmosphere. This shower of charged particles, known as an Extensive Air Shower, is initiated at an altitude of 10–20 km. The incoming gamma-ray photon undergoes pair production in the vicinity of the nucleus of an atmospheric molecule. The electron-positron pair produced are of extremely high energy and immediately undergo Bremsstrahlung or "Braking Radiation". This radiation produced is itself extremely energetic, with many of the photons undergoing further pair production. A cascade of charged particles ensues which, due to its extreme energy, produces a flash of Cherenkov radiation lasting between 5 and 20 ns. The total area on the ground illuminated by this flash corresponds to many hundreds of square meters, which is why the effective area of IACT telescopes is so large.The instrument used to detect the Cherenkov radiation usually comprises a large segmented mirror which reflects the Cherenkov light onto an array of photomultiplier tubes. The tubes are coupled to fast electronics which amplify, digitise and record the pattern or image of the shower. The most effective mode of operation is to use an array of such telescopes, which can be typically located 70 to 120 meters apart. The primary advantage of this mode of operation is that the energy threshold of the telescope can be lowered as local muons produced by cosmic ray induced showers can be eliminated. This is because the narrow Cherenkov light cone produced by local muons will only be recorded by a single telescope. The shower reconstruction and background rejection offered by an array of telescopes provides an order of magnitude increase in sensitivity and improved angular and energy resolution as compared to a single telescope. This advantage has been used to great effect by the H.E.S.S. telescope array which has detected several new sources of very high energy gamma-ray photons in recent years.