Testing cosmology and fundamental physics with the Cherenkov Telescope Array

CTA Consortium, H. Martínez-Huerta, J. Biteau, J. Lefaucheur, M. Meyer, S. Pita, I. Vovk

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

Abstract

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation ground-based observatory for γ-ray astronomy at energies above 30 GeV. Thanks to its unique capabilities, CTA observations will address a plethora of open questions in astrophysics, ranging from the origin of cosmic messengers to the exploration of the frontiers of physics. In this note, we present a comprehensive sensitivity study to assess the potential of CTA to measure the γ-ray absorption on the extragalactic background light (EBL), to constrain or detect intergalactic magnetic fields (IGMFs), and probe physics beyond the standard model such as axion-like particles (ALPs) and Lorentz invariance violation (LIV), which could modify the γ-ray spectra features expected from EBL absorption. Our results suggest that CTA will have unprecedented sensitivity to detect IGMF signatures and will probe so-far unexplored regions of the LIV and ALP parameter space. Furthermore, an indirect measurement of the EBL and of its evolution will be performed with unrivaled precision.

Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 2019
Externally publishedYes
Event36th International Cosmic Ray Conference, ICRC 2019 - Madison, United States
Duration: 24 Jul 20191 Aug 2019

Conference

Conference36th International Cosmic Ray Conference, ICRC 2019
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityMadison
Period24/7/191/8/19

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was conducted in the context of the CTA Physics Working Group. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the agencies and organizations listed here: http://www.cta-observatory.org/consortium_acknowledgments/. HMH acknowledges FAPESP support No. 2015/15897-1 and 2017/03680-3 and the National Laboratory for Scientific Computing (LNCC/MCTI, Brazil) for providing HPC resources of the SDumont supercomputer (sdumont.lncc.br).

Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General

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