The Tunka-Grande scintillation facility is part of the TAIGA (Tunka Advanced Instrument for cosmic rays and Gamma Astronomy) astrophysical complex located in the Tunka Valley (Republic of Buryatia, ...Russia) 50 km from Lake Baikal. The purpose of the experiment is to study the energy spectrum and mass composition of primary cosmic rays (PCRs), as well as search for diffuse gamma radiation in the energy range of
eV. This paper presents a description of the installation and the main scientific results obtained during the first 5 years of its operation.
In November 2020, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory registered a neutrino event with an energy of 150 TeV directed at the Cygnus Cocoon gamma-ray source. In the Carpet-2 experiment, as part of the ...Baksan Neutrino Observatory (BNO), a sharp increase in the flow of events with an energy above 300 TeV was recorded from the same direction within the angular accuracy of the events. This flux is 4 orders of magnitude higher than the expected intensity of gamma quanta of this energy region according to data in the region of less than 100 TeV. It was expected that such a powerful flare could be registered by the TAIGA-HiSCORE installation of the TAIGA astrophysical complex. We analyzed the events of the EAS recorded by the installation of TAIGA-HiSCORE for 18 h in October–November 2020 from the Cygnus Cocoon source. This article provides the upper limit of the expected excess flow.
The status of the TAIGA experiment (Tunka Advanced Instrument for cosmic-ray physics and Gamma-ray Astronomy) located in the Tunka Valley is presented. The paper presents mainly the tasks, developed ...approaches for their solution, and first results on high-energy gamma-ray astronomy (10 TeV and higher) obtained from a two- to three-year exposure. The current tasks of gamma-ray astronomy and plans for development of the installation are discussed.
The Tunka Radio Extension (Tunka-Rex) is a digital antenna array, which measures radio emission of the cosmic-ray air-showers in the frequency band of 30-80 MHz. Tunka-Rex is co-located with the ...TAIGA experiment in Siberia and consists of 63 antennas, 57 of them are in a densely instrumented area of about 1 km
2
. In the present workwe discuss the improvements of the signal reconstruction applied for Tunka-Rex. At the first stage we implemented matched filtering using averaged signals as template. The simulation study has shown that matched filtering allows one to decrease the threshold of signal detection and increase its purity. However, the maximum performanceof matched filtering is achievable only in case of white noise, while in reality the noise is not fully random due to different reasons. To recognize hidden features of the noise and treat them, we decided to use convolutional neural network with autoencoder architecture. Taking the recorded trace as an input, the autoencoder returns denoised traces, i.e. removes all signal-unrelated amplitudes. We present the comparison between the standard method of signal reconstruction, matched filtering and the autoencoder, and discuss the prospects of application of neural networks for lowering the threshold of digital antenna arrays for cosmic-ray detection.
The current status of the equipment development for the new wide-angle gamma-ray imaging air Cherenkov telescope for TAIGA hybrid installation is presented. A front-end electronic and data ...acquisition system board based on the Zynq family Xilinx FPGA chips specially designed for this project have been produced and are being tested. A detailed description if presented for internal structure of the four main subsystems: four 8-channel 100 MHz ADCs, board’s control system, internal clock and synchronization system and the power supply system. Additionally, the current status of a small scale prototype telescope SIT consisting of 49 SiPM is presented. The telescope includes a digital camera for observing the stars and weather condition. The SIT-HiSCORE synchronization systems and the telemetry information collection had been tested.
In TAIGA Observatory (Tunka Advanced Instrument for cosmic ray physics and Gamma-ray Astronomy) we are commissioning the first Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope (IACT). The telescope has an ...alt-azimuth mount and 17-bit shaft encoder for each axis, stepper motors are used for axis control. For the pointing calibration of the telescope a CCD-camera is installed on the dish of the telescope and its position allows to capture simultaneously both the Cherenkov camera with LEDs and the sky with observed source. Since October 2017, the telescope has been operating in tracking mode. In this work the TAIGAIACT telescope pointing calibration approach and first results of the tracking operations are described.
The Tunka-Grande and TAIGA-Muon arrays are the part of a single experimental complex, which also includes the Tunka-133 and TAIGA-HiSCORE (High Sensitivity COsmic Rays and gamma Explorer) wide-angle ...Cherenkov arrays, TAIGA-IACT array (Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope) and Tunka-Rex radio antennas array (Tunka Radio Extension). This complex is located in the Tunka Valley (Buryatia Republic, Russia), 50 km from Lake Baikal. It is aimed at investigating the energy spectrum and mass composition of charged cosmic rays in the energy range 100 TeV - 1000 PeV, searching for diffuse gamma rays above 100 TeV and studying local sources of gamma rays with energies above 30 TeV. This report outlines 3 key points. The first is a description of the Tunka-Grande and TAIGA-Muon scintillation arrays. The second part presents preliminary results of the search for diffuse gamma rays with energies above 50 PeV according to the Tunka-Grande data. The third part is devoted to the prospects of the search for diffuse gamma rays with energies above 100 TeV using the TAIGA-Muon array.
Abstract
In the paper we present our simulation strategy of the Tunka-Grande, TAIGA-Muon, and TAIGA-HiSCORE arrays in the light of the problem of separation astrophysical high-energy gamma rays from ...the cosmic ray background. The paper contains a description of our simulation method, based on Geant4 and CORSIKA codes. We also present the prospect of future research with TAIGA (Tunka Advanced Instrument for cosmic rays and Gamma Astronomy) with using the simulation results.