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Tluczykont, M. "Connecting neutrino Astrophysics to Multi-TeV to PeV gamma-ray astronomy with TAIGA" in Proceedings, Magellan Workshop: Connecting Neutrino Physics and Astronomy / Dahmke, Stefan K.G., Meyer, Mikko, Vanhoefer, Laura (eds.), Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, DESY : 2016 ; Magellan Workshop, 2016-03-17 - 2016-03-18, Hamburg Magellan Workshop, Hamburg, Germany, 17 Mar 2016 - 18 Mar 2016 ; DESY-PROC 135-142(2016). doi:10.3204/DESY-PROC-2016-05/27, Recent evidence for neutrinos in the PeV energy range from IceCube provides additional motivation for the search for the most energetic Galactic accelerators. Gamma-ray astronomy is a sound strategy to reach this goal, providing the energy range beyond 10\,TeV can be covered at a sufficient sensitivity level. The energy spectra of most known gamma-ray emitters only reach up to few 10s of TeV. The HEGRA IACT installation reported evidence for gamma-ray energies from the Crab Nebula as high as 80\,TeV. Uncovering their spectral shape up to few 100s of TeV could answer the question whether some of these objects are cosmic ray Pevatrons, i.e. Galactic PeV accelerators. Extending observations beyond this energy range requires very large effective detector areas, as planned by the TAIGA collaboration., Published by Verlag Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Hamburg

Magellan Workshop, Hamburg, Germany, 17 Mar 2016 - 18 Mar 2016 ; DESY-PROC 143-150(2016). doi:10.3204/DESY-PROC-2016-05/33, The Tunka Advanced International Gamma-ray and Cosmic ray Astrophysics (TAIGA) project aims at observation of cosmic rays beyond 100 TeV and gamma rays above 1 TeV via observation of the extensive air showers (EAS) caused in the atmosphere. Two common detection techniques are timing arrays and imaging air shower cherenkov telescopes (IACT). Timing arrays yield good directional and energy reconstruction, but provide only mediocre gamma-hadron-separation at their energy threshold. IACTs are good at separation, but since a stereoscopic view of a shower is needed for high reconstruction accuracy, it is difficult to achieve the large effective areas needed for ultra high energy observations. In this work we present the simulations performed to explore and optimize our IACT design and the first steps towards hybrid reconstruction., Published by Verlag Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Hamburg

A new EAS Cherenkov light array, Tunka-133, with ~1 km^2 geometrical area has been installed at the Tunka Valley (50 km from Lake Baikal) in 2009. The array permits a detailed study of cosmic ray energy spectrum and mass composition in the energy range 10^16 - 10^18 eV with a uniform method. We describe the array construction, DAQ and methods of the array calibration.The method of energy reconstruction and absolute calibration of measurements are discussed. The analysis of spatial and time structure of EAS Cherenkov light allows to estimate the depth of the EAS maximum X_max. The results on the all particles energy spectrum and the mean depth of the EAS maximum X_max vs. primary energy derived from the data of two winter seasons (2009 -- 2011), are presented. Preliminary results of joint operation of the Cherenkov array with antennas for detection of EAS radio signals are shown. Plans for future upgrades -- deployment of remote clusters, radioantennas and a scintillator detector network and a prototype of the HiSCORE gamma-telescope -- are discussed., 8 pages, Proceedings of the RICAP 2011 Conference, submitted to NIM A

We present the results of the prompt, early and afterglow optical observations of five γ-ray bursts (GRBs): GRB 100901A, GRB 100902A, GRB 100905A, GRB 100906A and GRB 101020A. These observations were made with the Mobile Astronomical System of TElescope-Robots in Russia (MASTER-II Net), the 1.5-m telescope of the Sierra Nevada Observatory and the 2.56-m Nordic Optical Telescope. For two sources, GRB 100901A and GRB 100906A, we detected optical counterparts and obtained light curves starting before the cessation of γ-ray emission, at 113 and 48 s after the trigger, respectively. Observations of GRB 100906A were conducted in two polarizing filters. Observations of the other three bursts gave the upper limits on the optical flux; their properties are briefly discussed. A more detailed analysis of GRB 100901A and GRB 100906A, supplemented by Swift data, provides the following results and indicates different origins for the prompt optical radiation in the two bursts. The light-curve patterns and spectral distributions suggest that there is a common production site for the prompt optical and high-energy emission in GRB 100901A. The results of the spectral fits for GRB 100901A in the range from optical to X-ray favour power-law energy distributions and a consistent value of the optical extinction in the host galaxy. GRB 100906A produced a smoothly peaking optical light curve, suggesting that the prompt optical radiation in this GRB originated in a front shock. This is supported by a spectral analysis. We have found that the Amati and Ghirlanda relations are satisfied for GRB 100906A. We obtain an upper limit on the value of the optical extinction on the host of GRB 100906A. © 2012 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2012 RAS.

We present results of the prompt, early, and afterglow optical observations of five gamma-ray bursts, GRBs 100901A, 100902A, 100905A, 100906A, and 101020A, made with the Mobile Astronomical System of TElescope-Robots in Russia (MASTER-II net), the 1.5-m telescope of Sierra-Nevada Observatory, and the 2.56-m Nordic Optical Telescope. For two sources, GRB 100901A and GRB 100906A, we detected optical counterparts and obtained light curves starting before cessation of gamma-ray emission, at 113 s and 48 s after the trigger, respectively. Observations of GRB 100906A were conducted with two polarizing filters. Observations of the other three bursts gave the upper limits on the optical flux; their properties are briefly discussed. More detailed analysis of GRB 100901A and GRB 100906A supplemented by Swift data provides the following results and indicates different origins of the prompt optical radiation in the two bursts. The light curves patterns and spectral distributions suggest a common production site of the prompt optical and high-energy emission in GRB 100901A. Results of spectral fits for GRB 100901A in the range from the optical to X-rays favor power-law energy distributions with similar values of the optical extinction in the host galaxy. GRB 100906A produced a smoothly peaking optical light curve suggesting that the prompt optical radiation in this GRB originated in a front shock. This is supported by a spectral analysis. We have found that the Amati and Ghirlanda relations are satisfied for GRB 100906A. An upper limit on the value of the optical extinction on the host of GRB 100906A is obtained., Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures, 14 tables, 5 machine readable tables; accepted for publication in MNRAS