A group of Novosibirsk State University scientists led by Evgeny Kravchenko, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Head of the NSU Physics Department Laboratory of New Methods for Detection of Ionizing Radiation at the Interdisciplinary Center for Elementary Particle Physics and Astrophysics, has been working with the TAIGA observatory (Tunka Advanced Instrument for Cosmic Rays and Gamma Astronomy) for more than five years. His work is dedicated to solving a fundamental problem studying the mechanisms of acceleration and searching for potential sources of cosmic rays and gamma rays with energies above 1 PeV in the Galaxy and extragalactic objects.
It is expected that, thanks to a grant from the Russian Science Foundation’s Presidential Research Projects Program, researchers will be able to create tools for modeling, processing, and analyzing data obtained at the TAIGA gamma-ray observatory and create scientific equipment such as new scintillation detectors for expanding and modernizing the observatory's recording systems.
Kravchenko explained,
TAIGA is a gamma-ray observatory located 50 kilometers from Lake Baikal. It studies extensive air showers (EAS) that occur during the interaction of primary cosmic rays (protons, nuclei, gamma rays) with the Earth's atmosphere. A wide air shower includes both cascades of secondary particles, a charged component, and Cherenkov light from charged particles together with radio emission. A feature of the TAIGA experiment is that all these EAS components are recorded simultaneously. Now, in addition to University scientists, two students are participating in the project. We hope that receiving a grant for three years will encourage some students to join our Laboratory. This is my fifth grant application, but my first win. I think this is an indication that the expert council evaluated the results of the TAIGA experiment and its progress over the past few years, as well as publication activity.
