Research talk by Arun Madhavan, ISU Physics and Astronomy department graduate student.
The Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula whose spectrum has been well-studied at many wavelengths. Since the detection of steady TeV gamma-ray emission from the nebula in 1989, the Crab has been regarded as the standard candle of gamma-ray astronomy. Despite recent detection of flaring in the MeV-GeV regime, the Crab is still used as a calibration candle by atmospheric Cherenkov telescope (ACT) experiments. Here an overview of the VERITAS ACT experiment and science goals will be presented, along with a full spectral analysis of the Crab above 200 GeV and proposed future research.
