Astrophysics at Very High Energies Saas-Fee Advanced Course 40. Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy

With the success of Cherenkov Astronomy and more recently with the launch of NASA’s Fermi mission, very-high-energy astrophysics has undergone a revolution in the last years. This book provides three comprehensive and up-to-date reviews of the recent advances in gamma-ray astrophysics and of multi-messenger astronomy. Felix Aharonian and Charles Dermer address our current knowledge on the sources of GeV and TeV photons, gleaned from the precise measurements made by the new instrumentation. Lars Bergström presents the challenges and prospects of astro-particle physics with a particular emphasis on the detection of dark matter candidates. The topics covered by the 40th Saas-Fee Course present the capabilities of current instrumentation and the physics at play in sources of very-high-energy radiation to students and researchers alike. This book will encourage and prepare readers for using space and ground-based gamma-ray observatories, as well as neutrino and other multi-messenger detectors.

Very high energy gamma ray domain.- Why VHE gamma rays?.- Why VHE gamma rays?.- Detection technique.- VHE gamma-ray source populations.- VHE gamma-ray source populations.- Non-thermal processes in supernova remnants.- Non-thermal processes in supernova remnants.- Pulsar wind nebulae (plerions) and gamma ray loud binary systems.- Pulsar wind nebulae (plerions) and gamma ray loud binary systems.- TeV blazars and the extragalactic background light.- Multi-messenger astronomy and dark matter.- Lecture programme: The particle universe: introduction, cosmological parameters.- Basic cross sections for neutrinos and gamma-rays; IceCube.- Density of relic particles from the early Universe.- Dark matter: Direct and indirect detection methods; the galactic centre & other promising DM sources.- Neutrinos and antimatter from dark matter, Sommerfeld enhancement.- Particular dark matter candidates (WIMPS, Kaluza-Klein particles, sterile neutrinos,...).- Super-symmetric dark matter, DarkSUSY.- Diffuse extragalactic gamma-rays, primordial black holes, Hawking radiation.- Gravitational waves.- Sources of GeV photons and Fermi results.- Lecture programme: GeV instrumentation and the GeV sky with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.-  First Fermi Catalog of Gamma Ray Sources and the Fermi Pulsar Catalog.- First Fermi AGN Catalog.- Relativistic jet physics and blazers.- Gamma rays from cosmic rays in the Galaxy.- Gamma rays from star-forming galaxies and clusters of galaxies, and the diffuse extragalactic gamma-ray background.- Microquasars, radio galaxies, and the extragalactic background light.- Fermi observations of Gamma Ray Bursts.- Fermi acceleration, ultra-high energy cosmic rays, and Fermi.