High-energy astrophysics of the the Galactic Center region in gamma-rays

• Grant number: 22/04510-2
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): May 01, 2022
• Effective date (End): April 30, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Astronomy
• Principal researcher: Aion da Escóssia Melo Viana
• Grantee: Daniel Cecchin Momesso
• Home Institution: Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 19/14893-3 - Extreme phenomena of the Galactic Center and indirect searches of dark matter with gamma rays, AP.JP

Abstract

Among all the high-energy environments of our Galaxy, the Galactic Center region is definitely the richest. It harbours a large amount of high-energy emitters, including the closest supermassive black hole, a cosmic Pevatron, dense molecular clouds, strong star-forming activity, multiple supernova remnants and pulsar wind nebulae, arc-like radio structures, as well as the base of what may be large-scale galactic outflows. This project aims to study the high-energy astrophysical phenomena present in the Galactic Center region as seen by gamma-ray telescopes. Special attention will be given to the learning of advanced astronomical softwares to handle gamma-ray data, such as Astropy, Gammapy, CTools, and numerical libraries that can generate non-thermal radiation from a population of relativistic particle, such as Naima or Gamera. These softwares will be used to analyze real data from the Fermi-LAT and H.E.S.S. telescopes of a selection of sources in the Galactic Center region. A comparison between competing models that explain their gamma-ray emissions will be performed in order to chose, whenever possible, the best models. To this end, the student will work on the implementation of a multi-dimensional template (or cube) analysis, where models of spatial and energy distribution of the emission are used to disentangle overlapping sources in complex regions. After the successful implementation of this analysis to real data, the sensitivity of future observatories, such as the Southern Wide field-of-view Gamma-ray Observatory (SWGO) and the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), to high-energy phenomena yet undetected in very-high-energy gamma-rays will be performed.