Abstract

Poster - Splinter Multimessenger

Friday, 13 September 2024, 16:40   (S25)

FACT - Highlights from Ten Years of Blazar Monitoring

Daniela Dorner and Bernd Schleicher for the FACT Collaboration
JMU Würzburg, ETH Zürich

The First G-APD Cherenkov Telescope (FACT) has been monitoring blazars at TeV energies since October 2011. Within a decade of operation, it collected more than 15000 hours of physics data. Designed for remote and automatic operation and using semiconductor photosensors, the duty cycle of the instrument is maximized and the gaps in the light curves are minimized. Thanks to the unbiased observation strategy, a unique and unprecedented data sample has been collected. Apart from blazar monitoring which is joined with multi-wavelength campaigns, the physics program includes follow-up observations of multi-wavelength and multi-messenger alerts. The brightest sources have been observed for up to 3500 hours each, providing insights not only to bright flares but also to the long-term behaviour of the sources and allowing for multi-wavelength and multi-messenger correlation studies. The presentation summarizes the lessons learned from more than ten years of operation and the results of this legacy data sample.