MAGIC

Collaboration:

- Italy: Padova University and INFN, Siena University and INFN
- Armenia: Yerevan Physics Institute, Cosmic Ray Division, Yerevan; Laserayin Tekhnika, Yerevan.
- Finland: Tuorla Observatory, Pikkio,
- Germany: Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, München; Detektorphysik und Elektronik, Fachbereich Physik; Universität-GH Siegen; Universität Würzburg
- South Africa: Space Research Unit, Potchefstroom University.
- Poland: Division of Experimental Physics, University of Lódz.
- Spain: Institut de Física d’Altes Energies, Barcelona; Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Universidad Complutense, Madrid.
- Russia: Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow.
- Ucraina: Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, Nauchny.
- USA: University of California, Davis.

Laboratory: IAC- Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, ORM Observatorio Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain

National Responsible: L.Peruzzo (Pd)

1. Goal of the experiment

The MAGIC (Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cerenkov telescope) is one of the new generation imaging Cerenkov telescopes, which will be operative at low energy threshold in the next future.

Magic will be the first to be operative among the other next generation experiments.

The aim is to lower the energy threshold by at least one order of magnitude with respect to the present ground-based telescopes. This together with the increased upper energy threshold of satellites (Agile, Glast) will close the observative gap between 1-10 GeV and 300 GeV presently existing.

More on the experiment...

2.

Activities during 2002

- Pre-production of L2 boards.
- Development of L2 software.
- First integration in La Palma of trigger system.
- Final integration in La Palma of the alert system for GRBs.
- “Raw blank” production at LNL.
- Mirror pre-milling.
- Mirror polishing.
- Panel assembling.

The following achievements have been obtained:

- Production of the remaining 300 mirrors (100 %)
- 50% of the reflecting surface installed and aligned on the telescope (100 %)

Milestones 2003

950 metallic mirrors polished with diamond tool and coated | February 2003
Tests at La Palma on telescope with L1 trigger and DAQ | February 2003
Production of L2 boards and related software | February 2003
Completion of mirror panels at Eching | April 2003
Tests and calibration at La Palma on the Crab Nebula | April 2003
Installation of all the panels onto the telescope. | August 2003
Installation of L2 trigger at La Palma and tests. | August 2003
Start of Physics Data Acquisition. | August 2003

3. INFN contribution to the experiment in terms of manpower and financial support

Manpower: Manpower: 14 researches (9.7 FTE) and technical support by mechanic and electronic workshop of Sezione di Padova and LNL.

Budget for the Year 2003: 0.9 % of the CSN2 budget for 2003

4. Publications in refereed journals (Year 2002):

5. Conferences talks (Year 2002): 6

6. Number of undergraduate and doctoral theses on the experiment (Year 2002):

- 3 undergraduate thesis in progress

7. Leadership roles and primary responsibilities in the experiment

- Responsibility of the construction of the reflecting surface (L. Peruzzo).
- Co-spokesperson of MAGIC Project (M. Mariotti).
- Responsibility of Trigger (R. Paoletti).
- Software coordinator (D. Bastieri).
- Responsibility of the GRB alarm system (D. Bastieri).

8. Innovative instruments

- Innovative production of the raw blanks for the individual all metal mirrors which form the parabolic 17 m surface.
- Fast n-fold (n=3,4,5) next-neighbour logic trigger 1st level (2 ns pattern recognition).
- Topological 2nd level trigger (200 ns pattern recognition).
- GRB alarm system (agreement with NASA).

9. Competing experiments

- HESS. To be installed in southern hemisphere. Smaller mirrors but with stereoscopic system. One of the 4 telescopes installed.
- VERITAS. To be installed in USA. Similar technique with higher threshold and sensitivity but better energy resolution. Construction not yet started.
- CANGAROO III. To be installed in Australia. Smaller mirrors but with stereoscopic system.

10. International Committee which has reviewed the experiment
The MAGIC telescope experiment has been reviewed and approved by the MPI association (Muenchen), by BMBF and by IFAE (Barcelona)