Measuring High-Energy Spectra with HAWC

Understand

The High-Altitude Water-Cherenkov (HAWC) experiment is a TeV $\gamma$-ray observatory located \unit[4100]{m} above sea level on the Sierra Negra mountain in Puebla, Mexico.

• The detector consists of 300 water-filled tanks, each instrumented with 4 photomultiplier tubes that utilize the water-Cherenkov technique to detect atmospheric air showers produced by cosmic $\gamma$ rays.
• Construction of HAWC was completed in March of 2015.
• The experiment's wide instantaneous field of view (\unit[2]{sr}) and high duty cycle (> 95\%) make it a powerful survey instrument sensitive to pulsars, supernova remnants, and other $\gamma$-ray sources.