Opticon Porto 1 High Time Resolution Astrophysics Network Andy Shearer Centre for Astronomy School of Physics, NUI, Galway Ireland

Opticon Porto2 special thanks to Don Phelan, NUI, Galway  taking over network administration  coordinating the two workshops editing the two volumes of proceedings annual meetings

Opticon Porto3 Background - rationale for the network Are there special HTRA requirements?  detectors high quantum efficiency photon counting low (zero?) read-out noise APDs, EMCCD, PNCCDs, Transition Edge Sensors, superconducting tunnel diodes wide wavelength range UV-IR  instruments spectroscopy : Ultraspec photometry : Ultracam, Optima, S-CAM polarimetry : Optima, GASP very short time scales (t < s): Quanteye, GASP

Opticon Porto4 Key Deliverables & Objectives in FP6 Key Objective  “…will bring together the expertise of different teams which have so far developed HTRA independently..” Key Deliverables  Report on the state-of-the-art in HTRA  International Conference

Opticon Porto5 Activity Workshop held in June, 2006 at NUI, Galway, Ireland  20 invited experts  Over 45 attendees  13 Countries represented  Topics Science, Instrumentation, Detectors, Software, Future Plans

Opticon Porto6 Report on the state-of-the-art in HTRA High Time Resolution Astrophysics  Springer-Verlag : Astrophysics & Space Science Library (ASSL)  ISBN &  Published August 2007  More info on the HTRA website at

Opticon Porto7 International Conference held in Edinburgh in September 2007 “High Time Resolution Astrophysics: The Universe at sub-second timescales”  Royal Observatory Edinburgh over 3 days  International Scientific Organising Committee  Participants from 12 countries  39 papers presented  Industrial sponsorship and endorsement of HTRA

Opticon Porto8

9 Network Deliverables Proceedings  Published 2008  ISBN Network Communication  Regular updates and discussions through mailing lists  annual network meetings  joint observing programmes and instrument development

Opticon Porto10 Summary All Key Objectives and Deliverables completed in 2008 Real integration and restructuring of the HTRA community International profile resulting from conferences and book publications

Opticon Porto11 Summary 2 - Science Main science targets  Binary systems CVs X-ray binary system  Neutron stars  Gamma ray Bursts  AGN  Transits  Transients  Flaring  2nd order correlations

Opticon Porto12

Opticon Porto13 adapted from Ryan & Redfern, HTRA, ASSL, 351, 229 see also Dhillon, same volume

Opticon Porto14 Future plans under FP7 Continuation of the network building upon our work under FP6 .... with the aim of formulating a comprehensive scientific overview of HTRA into the extremely large telescopes [ELT] era  primarily looking at HTRA science and instrument requirements

Opticon Porto15 adapted from Ryan & Redfern, HTRA, ASSL, 351, 229 ELT stochastic limits

Opticon Porto16 Pulsars - limit for HTRA - faint and fast

Opticon Porto17 * CTA 1 pulsar - Fermi Abdo et al, 2008, science

Opticon Porto18 New radio quiet pulsars from Fermi results will need ELT follow-up

Opticon Porto19 Future plans under FP7 Continuation of the network building upon our work under FP6 .... with the aim of formulating a comprehensive scientific overview of HTRA into the extremely large telescopes [ELT] era  first network meeting mid-February 2009, Padova  also looking other funding EU - Marie Curie and COST ERC funding industrial