ARGO-YBJ experiment in Tibet

Abstract

The ARGO-YBJ detector is an extensive air shower array consisting of a carpet of Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs). The main scientific goal of this Chinese-Italian experiment is the observation of very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays from astrophysical sources. High altitude and full coverage ensure a low energy threshold (few hundreds of GeV for gamma-initiated showers). High duty-cycle and large field of view allow a continuous sky survey. The data collected with the central carpet during the detector debugging have been analysed. First results about detector performance, gamma astronomy and cosmic ray physics are presented.