Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Mathematisch-Naturwissen­schaft­liche Fakultät - Experimentelle Elementarteilchenphysik

High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.)

 H.E.S.S. telescopes

 

H.E.S.S. is an array of five Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes located in the southern hemisphere in the Khomas Highland of Namibia. It is operated by a collaboration of about 220 scientists and allows the detection of gamma-rays with energies between 50 GeV and 100 TeV. In its Phase I (since 2004) the system has been fully operational with four identical 12m-diameter telescopes whose high sensitivity allowed the discovery of numerous galactic and extragalactic sources. In the summer of 2012, an additional fifth telescope with a mirror diameter of 28m has been added (H.E.S.S. Phase II). This telescope is located in the center of the existing array and is the largest Cherenkov telescope ever built. Its larger mirror surface helps to improve the sensitivity even more and lowers the energy threshold.


The Berlin H.E.S.S. group combines data analysis activities (supernovae as possible sources of cosmic rays, binaries and pulsarwind nebulae, search for pulsed emission from pulsars, dark matter and exotic physics) with responsibility for the data acquisition system of the experiment.

Research Topics

 

  • Pulsar Wind Nebulae

    Pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) are luminous structures visible around pulsars. They are powered by the spin-down energy loss of the pulsar and have been detected at various energies (e.g. X-ray, high-energy). PWNe form the largest known population of Galactic gamma-ray sources and it is assumed that many currently unidentified sources will be classified as PWNe. Observations with H.E.S.S. in combination with multiwavelength data help to understand the evolution and structure of PWN.

  • Supernova Remnants

    Supernova remnants (SNR) result from the explosions of stars in supernovae. Apart from heating up the interstellar medium they accelerate cosmic rays which is of particular interest since the acceleration mechanisms of extremly high energetic particles are still poorly known.

Group members

Staff scientists

Theses

List of theses written within the H.E.S.S group

Publications

List of publications of the H.E.S.S. group