Seminar
From Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays to the Study of Gamma Rays

Resumen

For the beginning of my presentation, I would like to briefly present the astronomy program at the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics of Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Continuing, the main results of my diploma thesis will be presented during which I simulated the propagation of ultra-high energy cosmic rays throught the Universe using the simulation code SimProp v2r4 modelling the characteristics of possible sources. The results were compared with the observations from the Pierre Auger Observatory which is situed in Argentina. Thesis has been made with the cooperation of the Institute of Physics of Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. Ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) represent the subatomic particles, mainly protons and nuclei of different elements, which can attain energies up to 10²⁰ eV. Colliding with the Earth´s atmosphere they create the shower of secondary particles which can be detected by specific detectors on the ground. Origin of these particles with the highest energies is still a problem which haven´t been solved to these days.

Besides the corpuscular particles, the Earth is permanetly bombarded also by high energy photons or gamma rays. These are formed in the vicinity of exotic objects like active galactic nuclei (AGN) or supernova remnants (SNRs) or as a product of UHECRs. Colliding with the atmosphere, they also create a shower of secondary particles which is narrower than in the case of UHECRs. To observe this shower the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) have been developed observing the Cherenkov light formed as a product of the cascade. Such telescopes are for example the MAGIC telescopes situed at Observatorio del Roque de los Muchacos (ORM) on La Palma or the future Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) which northern part will be also situed at ORM.

Study of gamma rays represents currently the main topic of my PhD project. For this reason I am glad to had an opportunity to participate on ERASMUS+ mobility at IAC for 3 months and to cooperate with the astroparticle physics group. During this period I have been analyzing archival data taken by MAGIC telescopes of the active region around SNR G24.7+0.6. Specifically we are interested in a source labeled as 2FHL J1839.5-0705. Preliminary results of my study will be presented.