The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory is a multi-institutional international collaboration to study very high energy gamma rays from astronomical sources. The observatory uses the atmospheric Cherenkov technique, in which gamma rays interacting with the Earth’s atmosphere produce an electromagnetic cascade that emits brief flashes of light called Cherenkov radiation. This radiation is detected by an array of water tanks at high altitude in Mexico.
The HAWC Observatory began taking data in 2015 and has since made several important discoveries, including the detection of two new sources of very-high-energy gamma rays and the most precise measurement yet of the flux of cosmic rays at energies above 10^18 electron volts. The HAWC collaboration is also working on developing new methods for using atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes to study neutrinos, as well as searching for evidence of dark matter annihilation in the Milky Way galaxy.
With its large field of view and high duty cycle, the HAWC Observatory is uniquely suited to studying transient phenomena such as gamma ray bursts. The collaboration is also working on improving our understanding of hadronic interactions at extremely high energies, which are relevant for both astrophysics and particle physics.