Charlie Duke

Current Research Interests

The study of high-energy gamma-rays incident on the earth's atmosphere from astrophysical sources through the Veritas Collaboration consumes most of my time. The Veritas Collaboration built and manages the four-telescope array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Southern Arizona. Operational since 2007, the primary emphasis of the collaboration's research efforts is the search for and study of celestial sources of gamma rays in the energy range 100 GeV to 30 TeV. Most of my current collaboration activities center on managing the GrISU Monte-Carlo simulation software for modeling the atmospheric cascades and the VERITAS telescopes and data acquisition hardware and on developing new analysis methods using machine learning techniques for incorporation into the eventdisplay and VEGAS analysis packages. I also develop simulation software for modeling the new planned CTA array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes.

Recent Research Students

• Colin Grove, Hugh Potter, Joseph Wendel: summer 2009
• Ferdaus Faruq: spring 2008
• Prabal Adhikari and Ferdaus Faruq: summer 2007