STACEE CROP 2002 Web Assignment Bill Waggoner--Rosalie-Bancroft

Overview Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Effect Experiment Located at Sandia National Lab (near Albuquerque NM) at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility Utilizes a large field of solar mirrors (heliostats) Built in stages between 1997 and 2001, STACEE is a working experiment

Overview --Funding The National Science Foundation The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada The Research Corporation The University of California Los Angeles The University of Chicago Case Western Reserve University

Collaborators University of Alberta University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) University of California, Santa Cruz Case Western Reserve University Columbia University University of Chicago Mc Gill University Doug Gingrich, Professor Jennifer Carson, Graduate Student Susan Channels, Research assistant Jason Minamora, Undergrad Rene Ong, Professor Nicolas Rassat, Graduate Student Katy Tschann-Grimm, Undergrad Judy Wong, Graduate Student Jeffery Zweerink, Post-doc Lowell Boone, Graduate Student David Williams, Professor Corbin Covault, Professor Marta Lewandowska, Research Assistant Richard Scalzo, Graduate Student Doug Bramel, Graduate Student Reshmi Mukherjee, Professor Jim Hinton, Post-doc Pascal Fortin, Graduate Student David Hanna, Professor Carsten Mueller, Graduate Student Ken Ragan, Professor

STACCE GOALS To find out how “natures accelerators” work -- pulsars, supernova remnants, blazars, Active Galactic Nuclei,etc. To find out what mechanisms supply the energy To search out  ray sources in the GeV/TeV gap

Experimental Technique Collect one photon of (Cherenkov radiation) spread out over 1 m 2 Mirrors (heliostats) track together and sends the light to five secondary reflectors sending the light from a single heliostat to a PM tube.

RESULTS 1999 Crab Nebula to test-then the sources seen by EGRET 2001 Markarian pointed to Markarian 501 analysis is on going

SUMMARY STACEE is a working experiment to detect gamma ray sources STACEE utilizes a novel and cost effective apparatus to detect sources of cosmic rays STACEE operates in a unique energy range that will help us learn currently known  -ray sources STACEE offers promise of finding new g-ray sources STACEE may lead to us learning the fundamental question of how high energy cosmic rays are created