Speaker
Description
VERITAS is one of the world’s most sensitive detectors of astrophysical very high energy (E> 100 GeV) gamma rays. The array is located in southern Arizona, USA and is made up of four 12-m imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs). With nearly 20 years of operation since the first telescope’s installation was complete, the instrument has been able to study Galactic sources such as pulsar wind nebulae, binary systems, and supernova remnants; and extragalactic sources such as the starburst galaxy M82, blazars, radio galaxies, gamma-ray bursts and fast radio bursts. Additionally, the instrument provides measurements with direct impact on multimessenger astrophysics, such as dark matter limits from dwarf spheroidal galaxies and neutrino-triggered blazar observations. The instrument was also used to pioneer the use of IACTs as optical intensity interferometers which can provide high angular resolution observations ( < 1 mas) at B photometric wavelengths. Recent highlights from the VERITAS observing program and scientific results will be presented.
