In recognition of research groups or individuals who have completed or demonstrated significant achievements within the past five years, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) awarded the 2023 Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize on Dec. 23, 2023. The research group of Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) was honored with the 2023 Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize of CAS.

   LHAASO research group has built the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO), the most sensitive gamma ray detector in the ultra-high-energy band and wide-field-of-view survey telescope in the very-high-energy band, and the compound stereoscopic measuring system for cosmic rays around the “knee” with the widest energy coverage in the world. The LHAASO team has developed many key technologies, including new clock distribution technology with high synchronization accuracy, very large photomultiplier tubes, silicon PM based focal-plane camera and “trigger-less” data acquisition system. LHAASO project passed the national acceptance review in May 2023 with many specifications better than design requirements.


    In the early stages of operation, LHAASO has demonstrated its absolute discovery power due to its super sensitivity and wide field of view by discovering that our Galaxy is full of PeVatrons, the accelerators that boost particles to energies above 1 PeV. Thus, an era of “ultra-high-energy gamma astronomy” is launched. LHAASO also accurately measured the brightness of the "standard candle" Crab Nebula in the ultra-high-energy band and unveiled the existence of "extreme accelerator" that accelerates electrons to at least a few PeV. LHAASO also made history in gamma-ray-burst detection by precisely measuring the entire afterglow of the brightest gamma-ray-burst of all time.

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