CTAO Status and Updates

• Gavin Rowell (School of Physical Sciences, University of Adelaide)

I will present a brief status report on CTAO.

Update on AAL and related support of CTAO

• Alexander Cooke (Astronomy Australia)

An update on various things...

• Miroslav Filipovic (Western Sydney University)

SKAO Update

• Jess Broderick (SKAO)

I will give an update on recent SKAO activities since the last CTAO | Australia meeting in late 2024.

Flaring Stars as Possible TeV Sources

• Yuzhe Song (Swinburne University)

Gamma-ray emission from stellar activity, usually generated from relativistic particles, plays an important role in the space weather and habitability of exoplanets. Young dwarf stars of K-type and later are far more magnetically active than the Sun, yet only one other isolated main sequence star (TVLM 513-46546) apart from the Sun is detected in gamma-rays. Stacking surveys of radio, optical and X-ray flares of K-type and later dwarf stars using Fermi-LAT data during the flares placed a sensitive upper limit of their gamma-ray emission. The gamma-ray emission from stellar flares likely originates from the decay of neutral pions. They are generated by relativistic protons interacting within the stellar atmosphere. If the protons are accelerated to TeV energies, this emission mechanism might be able to produce TeV gamma-rays. This work aims to verify the detectability of stellar flares in CTA using existing observations from Fermi-LAT. Furthermore, it will serve as a guideline to determine which stars, based on their distance and flare events, can be detected in CTA.

Cosmic rays in the CGM and IGM

• Roland Crocker (Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University)

I will discuss modelling work we are embarked on that considers injection, transport, energy loss, and radiation of cosmic rays in the low density plasma trapped in dark matter halos surrounding galaxies, galaxy groups, and galaxy clusters. I will show that we can neither blithely ignore the hadronic gamma-ray emission from these particles nor their potential gas dynamical implications. The latter follows from the fact that over a Hubble time, the dark matter halo of an L_star galaxy can accumulate a total energy in ~GeV cosmic rays comparable to the CGM gas binding energy.

Indirect Detection of Ultra-Heavy Dark Matter Candidates: Potential for the CTAO

• Dipan Sengupta (University of New South Wales)

Astronomical and Cosmological data irrefutably point towards an invisible matter component of the universe 5 times denser than the visible matter. The masses of particle physics dark matter masses can span over 30 orders of magnitude. On the heavy dark matter mass, high energy gamma ray telescopes provide an unique opportunity to probe the parameter space of well-motivated models. I will review the potential of CTA to discover and probe heavy dark matter models, including the conclusions of the Snowmass ultra-heavy dark matter working group.

Update on reconstruction performance with truncated images

• Violet Harvey (The University of Adelaide)

CTAO SST Commissioning: Progress with QCAM

• Simon Lee (School of Physical Sciences, University of Adelaide)

The Small Sized Telescopes (SST) of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory are one of three designs to be used in the array, specifically focused on observing TeV gamma-rays. A partial prototype of the final camera design for these telescopes (QCAMi) has been built, and will undergo on-sky testing in Tenerife this June/July. As part of this commissioning process, waveform data is produced in a controlled lab environment by flashing the camera with a laser. This data can then be analysed for anomalies, processed to assess charge extraction performance, and compared to the existing SST simulation configuration. In this presentation, I will show my progress in processing and analysing QCAMi data, and outline future steps of the commissioning process.

Update on MSP with CTAO

• Hayden James (The University of Adelaide)

Update: Plan for PhD Project

• Scarlet Betterman (The University of Adelaide)

On the Transients Handler for the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory

• Tiffany Collins (University of Potsdam)

The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) is a next-generation gamma-ray observatory in both the Southern (Paranal, Chile) and Northern Hemisphere (La Palma, Spain) and will consist of up to 100 imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. With sensitivity far exceeding current facilities, CTAO will provide detailed measurements of gamma rays from GeV up to a few 100s of TeV. CTAO has a nominal field of view of ~10º and will rely on external alerts from observatories such as IceCube (neutrinos), Fermi-LAT (GeV gamma rays), LIGO (gravitational waves (GWs)) or the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory (optical) to trigger observations of targets of opportunity (ToOs). The Transients Handler (TH) is a subsystem of the Array Control and Data Acquisition that will provide the means of handling alerts and schedule follow-up observations. The TH is responsible for (i) filtering of thousands of internal and external alerts per night, (ii) processing of alerts according to the corresponding observation proposal to determine the optimal observation schedule with minimum interruptions to observations and (iii) broadcasting of events detected by CTAO to external facilities. In this work, we will discuss the architecture of the Transients Handler, its latest improvements and future updates.

Update: Deconvolution of Fermi Maps and Determination of Escape Energy

• Jemma Pilossof (The University of Adelaide)

Update: ISM Modelling

• Imogen Barnsley (The University)

CTAO funding plans

• Gavin Rowell (School of Physical Sciences, University of Adelaide)

A discussion of LIEF #4 funds.

CTAO Consortium MoU

• Nick Tothill (Western Sydney University)

Quick updates on MoU arrangements for the Consortium

StarFISH and the CTAO: Using 7mm maps of the Galactic Plane to search for counterparts of Gamma-Ray sources

• Aaron Bradley (Western Sydney University)

From ATCA project proposal C3145: "We are building on Australia’s rich tradition of spectral line legacy surveys to deliver a 7-mm dense gas survey of the Fourth Quadrant Galactic Plane in multiple molecular spectral lines and continuum emission. Using ATCA autocorrelation data, the "Full Strength" MALT45 will address a wide range of astrophysical challenges, including directly testing competing theories of massive star formation, mapping the dense gas structure of the Milky Way through to the far side of the Disk, and (combined with cutting-edge gamma ray data from forthcoming multi-national Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory) constraining the location and nature of the Galaxy's cosmic ray accelerators. The survey will provide lasting legacy value to the community, via both the science carried out by the survey team, and the data products it delivers. By locking in key measurements in our "astronomical backyard", the project will provide a crucial astrophysical template that will allow us to interpret future sensitive, high resolution surveys of external galaxies with ALMA and the SKA.". We propose reducing StarFISH data to create Galactic Plane maps as ancillary data to CTA observations

Analysis of J0450-7050, one of the largest LMC SNRs

• Zachary Smeaton (Western Sydney University)

I will present the results of a new multi-frequency analysis of one of the largest supernova remnants in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud. I will present the new high-resolution radio data available from the MeerKAT telescope to analyse the radio properties. The results show new filamentary structure which extend the size of J0450-7050 and a flat spectral index of -0.26.

CTAO Pol updates and 2.3m tel. discussion

• Nick Tothill (Western Sydney University)

Quick updates on CTA-Pol progress

Update: Modelling Particle Transport

• Edmund McKennall (The University of Adelaide)

Update: Escaping Cosmic Rays from RX J1713

• Robert Koenig (The University of Adelaide)

Update: SNR-MCs

• Ryan Burley (The University of Adelaide)

Wrapup

• Gavin Rowell (School of Physical Sciences, University of Adelaide)