International School of Cosmic Ray Astrophysics

16^th  Course: "Gamma Ray and Cosmic Ray Astrophysics: From below GeV to beyond EeV Energies"

 5-12 July 2008
Ettore Majorana Centre
Erice, Sicily, Italy

Topic: CTA; Next Generation Ground-Based Gamma-Ray Observatory
Lecturer: Masahiro Teshima

In recent years ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has experienced a major breakthrough with the impressive astrophysical results obtained mainly by the current generation instruments like CANGAROO, H.E.S.S. , MAGIC, MILAGRO and VERITAS. A clear physics potential of this field has been demonstrated, which is not only restricted to pure astrophysical observations, but also allows significant contributions to the field of particle physics and cosmology. The next generation gamma ray observatory CTA is under design study in Europe, which will provide the deepest ever insight into the non-thermal high-energy universe. CTA foresees a factor of 5-10 better sensitivity than the current generation instruments and cover wider energy range from a few 10GeV to 100TeV. The detail of CTA and its scientific objectives will be discussed.