The High Energy Physics group at Universidad Complutense de Madrid is an experimental group centred on observational Astroparticle Physics.

We are interested in the non-thermal universe: Very High Energy gamma rays, Cosmic Rays, the places where they are created and accelerated and the instruments and techniques used to study them.

We participate actively in the MAGIC and CTA collaborations and some of us are also members of FERMI, VERITAS and H.E.S.S.

MAGIC (Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov) is a system of two 17 m diameter, F/1.03 Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACT). They are dedicated to the observation of gamma rays from galactic and extragalactic sources in the very high energy range (VHE, 30 GeV to 100 TeV).

The MAGIC telescopes are currently run by an international collaboration of about 165 astrophysicists from 24 institutions and consortia from 12 countries. GAE-UCM has been one of the members of the collaboration since its creation.

Link to the MAGIC site

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation ground-based observatory for gamma-ray astronomy at very-high energies. With more than 100 telescopes located in the northern and southern hemispheres, CTA will be the world’s largest and most sensitive high-energy gamma-ray observatory. Building on the technology of current generation ground-based gamma-ray detectors (H.E.S.S., VERITAS and MAGIC), CTA will be ten times more sensitive and have unprecedented accuracy in its detection of high-energy gamma rays. Current gamma-ray telescope arrays host up to five individual telescopes, but CTA is designed to detect gamma rays over a larger area and a wider range of views with more than 100 telescopes located in the northern and southern hemispheres. While the CTA-South site will be placed on the Chilean ESO site at Cerro Paranal, CTA-North will be installed at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM), in La Palma canarian island, which has allowed a strong Spanish involvement in the construction effort of CTA-North.

Link to CTA Observatory web site.

The Large Area Telescope (LAT) is the principal scientific instrument on the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope spacecraft. The Fermi spacecraft was launched into a near-earth orbit on 11 June 2008. The LAT is an imaging high-energy gamma-ray telescope covering the energy range from about 20 MeV to more than 300 GeV. Such gamma rays are emitted only in the most extreme conditions, by particles moving very nearly at the speed of light. The LAT's field of view covers about 20% of the sky at any time, and it scans continuously, covering the whole sky every three hours.

Link to Fermi web site.

The Institute of Particle Physics and Cosmos (IPARCOS) is a research institute of the Complutense University of Madrid. Its main areas of interest include Astrophysics and Cosmology, Nuclear and Particle Physics, and Advanced Scientific Instrumentation. GAE-UCM was one of the founder members of IPARCOS in 2018 and it is still one of the most important research groups in the institute.