MAGIC

MAGIC

Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov – Pioneering experiment to study very high energy photons (above 30 GeV).

SHORT DESCRIPTION

MAGIC is a stereoscopic system of two gamma-ray telescopes that exploit Cherenkov light (IACT – Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope) to study the origin of cosmic rays and phenomena of fundamental physics and high-energy astrophysics. With two large 17 m diameter paraboloids they observe gamma rays from galactic and extragalactic sources in the very high energy gamma-ray band (VHE band, characterized by photons with energies above 30 GeV and up to 100 TeV).
The MAGIC telescopes are managed and scientifically exploited by the MAGIC Collaboration, an international collaboration that currently includes about 165 astrophysicists from 24 institutions and consortia in 12 countries. The two telescopes are located at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma, in the Canary Islands.

ROLE OF THE OBSERVATORY

The Observatory has contributed significantly to the activities of the MAGIC Collaboration since 2006, and officially since 2008 when INAF was welcomed into the MAGIC Collaboration among the institutions formally involved in the experiment, with a large delegation of scientists, technologists and technicians largely belonging to the Brera Astronomical Observatory.

Among the most significant contributions provided over time by the Brera Astronomical Observatory to the MAGIC Collaboration we can mention:

  • in the technological field:
    •  the conception and design, prototyping and metrological qualification, installation and alignment of innovative glass panels for the gigantic mosaic mirrors (Giovanni Pareschi, Rodolfo Canestrari, Giacomo Bonnoli, Sergio Cantù), the production of which was entrusted to Media Lario S.r.l. of Bosisio Parini (LC) with the collaboration of ZAOT S.r.l. of Vittuone (NO) for the deposition of the highly reflectivity coatings;
  • in the field of observations:
    • conducting observation shifts with the MAGIC telescopes at the La Palma site, (Giacomo Bonnoli, Chiara Righi, Alberto Sciaccaluga);
    • the analysis of MAGIC data for observational campaigns of interest, especially in the field of observations of blazars and radio galaxies  (Giacomo Bonnoli, Chiara Righi, Alberto Sciaccaluga);
    • the planning, conduct and data analysis of observation campaigns complementary to MAGIC observations in the infrared, optical and X-ray bands (Giacomo Bonnoli, Chiara Righi, Stefano Covino);
    • fulfilling the role of Flare Advocate for the rapid preliminary analysis of MAGIC observations of transient phenomena(Giacomo Bonnoli, Chiara Righi, Alberto Sciaccaluga);
  • the coverage of numerous scientific-organizational responsibility roles within the Collaboration:
    • Time Allocation Committee (Giacomo Bonnoli, Lara Nava, Fabrizio Tavecchio, Stefano Covino, Laura Maraschi)
    • Scheduling Team (Giacomo Bonnoli) 
    • Publication Board (Fabrizio Tavecchio, Stefano Covino, Chiara Righi)
    • Outreach Board (Chiara Righi)
    • scientific coordination of the working groups dedicated to the study of extragalactic sources (Fabrizio Tavecchio, Giacomo Bonnoli, Chiara Righi)  and of Gamma-ray Bursts (Stefano Covino, Lara Nava).

Scientific production has mainly focused on the physics of emission processes in blazars and radio galaxies (Fabrizio Tavecchio, Laura Maraschi, Giacomo Bonnoli, Chiara Righi, Stefano Covino) and in the Gamma-ray Bursts (Lara Nava, Stefano Covino), with significant contributions in the development of theoretical-phenomenological models of radiative emission from relativistic jets, and in the interpretation of observational data in the context of the proposed models.

OBSERVATORY STAFF INVOLVED
  • Stefano Covino – scientist – stefano.covino AT inaf.it
  • Lara Nava – scientist – lara.nava AT inaf.it
  • Giacomo Bonnoli- scientist – giacomo.bonnoli AT inaf.it
  • Fabrizio Tavecchio – scientist – fabrizio.tavecchio AT inaf.it
  • Alberto Sciaccaluga – PhD Student – alberto.sciaccaluga AT inaf.it
  • Giovanni Pareschi – Research Manager – giovanni.pareschi AT inaf.it

Other people who collaborated in MAGIC’s activities in the past years: 

  • Laura Maraschi – scientist,
  • Chiara Righi – scientist
  • Rodolfo Canestrari – technologist
  • Sergio Cantù – technician
TIMELINE

2006 – Now

WEBSITE

MAGIC

CONTACTS

stefano.covino AT inaf.it, giacomo.bonnoli AT inaf.it

CREDITS

Web page content: G. Bonnoli

MAGIC Experiment Insights

The first MAGIC-I telescope started collecting data in 2004; the twin MAGIC-II telescope, located 85 m from the first, started observations in June 2009. The two instruments observe the same direction of the sky, making stereoscopic observations of events caused by the interaction of gamma rays of astrophysical origin with the Earth’s atmosphere. These can be reconstructed three-dimensionally, greatly improving the rejection of the sky background and the angular and energy resolution of the system compared to observations with a single Cherenkov telescope.

The peculiarities that have distinguished MAGIC from all similar instruments, both previous and contemporary, are:

  • fast pointing: the pointing of the telescopes can be redirected to any position in the sky in less than 40s, despite the considerable moving mass of 60 t. This is an essential feature to promptly observe Gamma-ray Bursts by automatically reacting to alerts coming from some orbiting instruments such as Swift/BAT or SVOM/ECLAIR;
  • the low energy threshold (thanks to the gigantic mirrors with a total surface area of ​​236 square meters);
  • the high sensitivity for weak sources (fluxes lower than 1% of the Crab Nebula gamma-ray flux are detectable).

In its twenty-year activity, MAGIC has produced over 200 scientific works published in the most important journals, including Nature and Science. Among the most striking results we can mention:

  • The detection of signals from the Crab Pulsar at energies above 25 GeV (and up to a few TeV);
  • the discovery of signals in the VHE band from 8 of the 10 Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars now known to be sources in this band, including some of the most distant at redshift z ~ 1
  • the first detection of a blazar flare, blazar TXS 0506+056, coinciding with the detection by the IceCube experiment of a neutrino coming from the same direction; a possible clue that cosmic rays of the highest energies may be produced in the relativistic jets of blazars;
  • the measurement of the Crab Nebula spectrum up to 100 TeV;
  • the first detection of a signal in the VHE gamma band from a Gamma-ray Burst, GRB190114C, in January 2019;
  • the distance record for a source observed with Cherenkov telescopes, with the detection of a VHE signal from the Gamma-ray Burst GRB201216C at a redshift of z=1.1;
  • the first detection of a signal in the VHE gamma-ray band from an erupting recurrent nova, RS Ophiuchi, in August 2021.