(Italiano) AHEAD, Integrated Activities for the High Energy Astrophysics Domain

AHEAD is an ongoing project approved in the framework of the European Horizon 2020 program (Research Infrastructures for High Energy Astrophysics). AHEAD, has formally started 1 September 2015, and after a planned duration of 42 months has finished in February 2018. AHEAD  has integrated national efforts in high-energy Astrophysics and has promoted the domain at the European level, by keeping its community at the cutting edge of science and technology and ensuring that space observatories for high-energy astrophysics were at the state of the art. AHEAD has integrated key research infrastructures for on-ground test and calibration of space-based sensors and electronics and has promoted their coordinated use by European researchers. In parallel, the best facilities for data analysis of high-energy astrophysical observatories have been made available to interested, qualified scientists in Europe and abroad. The improvement of selected critical technologies, background modelling and cross calibration for the benefit of future high energy missions like Athena, as well as the best exploitation of existing observatories have been two major AHEAD objectives. The advancement in space oriented instrumentation and cutting-edge sensor technology in Europe has enabled the development of new technologies and the growth of the related European market with a dedicated technology innovation package. Through AHEAD, feasibility studies of space-based instrumentation for future gamma-ray missions have also been carried out. AHEAD has supported the community via grants for collaborative studies, dissemination of results, and promotion of workshops. A strong public outreach activity  has allowed publicizing the high-energy astrophysics at national, European and International level.

International and national partners

AHEAD have seen the participation of a large team of European scientists and their host institutions. AHEAD Principal Investigator is L. Piro of INAF/IAPS (Italy), other involved INAF research centres have been OAPA, OABO, OARM, OABrera. The full list of involved institutions includes: University of Leicester (UK), SRON (The Netherlands), MPE/MPG (Germany), National Observatory of Athens (Greece), Thales Alenia Space Italia Spa (Italy), Denmark Tekniske Universitet (Denmark), Centrum Astronomiczne (Poland), Università degli studi di Ferrara (Italy), Università degli studi di Perugia (Italy), Universitè de Liège (Belgium), Università degli studi di Genova (Italy), CEA(France), VTT (Finland), Lancaster University (UK), Ceske Vysoke Uceni T. V P. (Czech Republic), NUID-UCD (Ireland), Università degli studi di Palermo (Italy), Tartu Observatory (Estonia), Universidad de Alicante (Spain), CSIC (Spain), EKUT (Germany), LIP (Portugal), CNRS (France), IAP (France), Universitè de Genève (Switzerland), INFN (Italy).

OAPA role and participants

S. Sciortino has been the coordinator of the AHEAD Work Package dealing with the overall activity of Trans-National Activity (TNA) to ground test and calibration facilities. He has chaired the selection board for the relevant applications and has been member of the AHEAD management team. Under the responsibility of A. Collura and OAPA/XACT team the XACT facility has been offered, free of charge, for access to interested external teams. Several OAPA scientists (A. Maggio, E. Flaccomio, S. Orlando, G. Micela, S. Sciortino, etc.) have provide their support for the AHEAD TNA in the field of X-ray data analysis mentoring of competitively selected external applicants. OAPA scientists have also participated to the technological development activities lead by Prof. M. Barbera of the Department of Physics and Chemistry of the Università di Palermo (DIFC/UNIPA), associate to INAF/OAPA.

Esternal links

http://ahead.iaps.inaf.it