Speaker
Description
The Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) is an array of four 12 m Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs), located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Arizona, USA, that has been in full array operation since 2007. VERITAS pursues a broad science program spanning both Galactic and extragalactic targets: it probes supernova remnants, pulsar wind nebulae, and binary systems; searches for γ-ray bursts and fast radio bursts; monitors jetted active galactic nuclei; and undertakes multimessenger follow-ups and indirect dark matter searches. In this talk, I will first introduce the IACT technique and the VERITAS instrumentation, review the employed to discriminate between γ-ray showers from cosmic-ray backgrounds, and finally highlight several landmark results that showcase VERITAS’s role in advancing VHE astrophysics.
