This paper presents a flexible approach to a multipurpose, heterogeneous archive and data management system model that merges the robustness of legacy grid-based technologies with modern cloud and edge computing paradigms. It leverages innovations driven by big data, IoT, AI, and machine learning to create an adaptive data storage and processing framework. In today’s digital age, where data are the new intangible gold, the “gold rush” lies in managing and storing massive datasets effectively—especially when these data serve governmental or commercial purposes, raising concerns about privacy and data misuse by third-party aggregators. Astronomical data, in particular, require this same thoughtful approach. Scientific discovery increasingly depends on efficient extraction and processing of large datasets. Distributed archival models, unlike centralized warehouses, offer scalability by allowing data to be accessed and processed across locations via cloud services. Incorporating edge computing further enables real-time access with reduced latency. Major astronomical projects must also avoid common single points of failure (SPOFs), often resulting from suboptimal technological choices driven by collaboration politics or In-Kind Contributions (IKCs). These missteps can hinder innovation and long-term project success. The principal goal of this work is to outline best practices in archival and data management projects—from policy development and task planning to use-case definition and implementation. Only after these steps can a coherent selection of hardware, software, or virtual environments be made. The proposed model—CTAARCHS (Cloud-based Technologies for Astronomical Archiving Research Contents and Handling Systems)—is an open-source, multidisciplinary platform supporting big data needs in astronomy. It promotes broad institutional collaboration, offering code repositories and sample data for immediate use.

The detection of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star merger by Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo (GW170817), along with the discovery of the electromagnetic counterparts of this gravitational wave event, ushered in a new era of multimessenger astronomy, providing the first direct evidence that BNS mergers are progenitors of short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Such events may also produce very-high-energy (VHE, > 100GeV) photons which have yet to be detected in coincidence with a gravitational wave signal. The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a next-generation VHE observatory which aims to be indispensable in this search, with an unparalleled sensitivity and ability to slew anywhere on the sky within a few tens of seconds. New observing modes and follow-up strategies are being developed for CTA to rapidly cover localization areas of gravitational wave events that are typically larger than the CTA field of view. This work will evaluate and provide estimations on the expected number of of gravitational wave events that will be observable with CTA, considering both on- and off-axis emission. In addition, we will present and discuss the prospects of potential follow-up strategies with CTA.

The Astrophysics with Italian Replicating Technology Mirrors (ASTRI) Mini-Array is an international collaboration led by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and devoted to imaging atmospheric Cherenkov light for very-high gamma-ray astrophysics, detection of cosmic-rays, and stellar Hambury-Brown intensity interferometry. The project is deploying an array of nine dual-mirror aplanatic imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes of 4-m class at the Teide Observatory on Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Based on SiPM sensors, the focal plane camera covers an unprecedented field of view of 10.5 deg in diameter. The array is most sensitive to gamma-ray radiation above 1 up to 200 TeV, with an angular resolution of 3 arcmin, better than the current particle arrays, such as LHAASO and HAWC. We describe the overall software architecture of the ASTRI Mini-Array and the software engineering approach for its development. The software covers the entire life cycle of the Mini-Array, from scheduling to remote operations, data acquisition, and processing until data dissemination. The on-site control software allows remote array operations from different locations, including automated reactions to critical conditions. All data are collected every night, and the array trigger is managed post facto. The high-speed networking connection between the observatory site and the Data Center in Rome allows for ready data availability for stereoscopic event reconstruction, data processing, and almost real-time science products generation. (c) The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

Approximately one hundred sources of very-high-energy (VHE) gamma rays are known in the Milky Way. A survey of the entire Galactic Plane in the energy range from a few tens of GeV to a few hundred TeV has been proposed as a Key Science Project for the upcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO). This article presents the status of the studies towards the Galactic Plane Survey (GPS). We build and make publicly available a sky model that combines data from observations of known gamma-ray emitters with state-of-the-art physically-driven models of synthetic populations of the main classes of established Galactic VHE sources, as well as of interstellar emission from cosmic-ray interactions in the Milky Way. We also perform an optimisation of the observation strategy. We use the improved sky model and observation strategy to simulate GPS data that are analysed using the methods and software tools under development for real data. We show that the GPS has the potential to increase the number of known Galactic VHE emitters by almost a factor of five. This corresponds to the detection of more than two hundred pulsar wind nebulae and a few tens of supernova remnants at average integral fluxes one order of magnitude lower than in the existing sample above 1 TeV, therefore opening the possibility to perform unprecedented population studies. The GPS also has the potential to provide new VHE detections of binary systems and pulsars, and to detect bright PeVatrons. Furthermore, the GPS will constitute a pathfinder for deeper follow-up observations of these source classes. Finally, we show that we can extract from GPS data an estimate of the contribution to diffuse emission from unresolved sources, and that there are good prospects of detecting interstellar emission and statistically distinguishing different scenarios. (Abridged)

The ASTRI ("Astrofisica con Specchi a Tecnologia Replicante Italiana") program is a collaborative international effort led by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) for developing and operating an array of nine 4-m class Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs), sensitive to gamma-ray radiation at energies above 1 TeV, under deployment at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. In order to support the development, installation and operations of the ASTRI Mini-Array an on-site Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Infrastructure has been designed. In this paper we describe the main objective of the ICT infrastructure project and its configuration in the initial phase. This ICT infrastructure, which we called mini-ICT (m-ICT), include all hardware and services needed to support the installation and testing of the first three Telescopes Mechanical Structures of the ASTRI Mini-Array that will be installed at the Teide site by 2022, before the definitive ICT infrastructure will be up and running. The m-ICT includes a virtualization system (ProxMox) and a container system to run the ASTRI Mini-Array on-site control and monitoring software. It also includes all interconnection functions of his Local Area Network (LAN) and the necessary network services: Network Time Protocol (NTP), Domain name Server (DNS), Network Address translator (NAT), Virtual Private Network (VPN), Routing. Internet connection will also be supported so that the connection with the ASTRI Data Centre in Italy (Rome) can be tested and all test results transferred to this persistent storage.

The ASTRI ("Astrofisica con Specchi a Tecnologia Replicante Italiana") program, led by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), is an international collaboration focused on developing and operating an array of nine 4-meter class, dual-mirror Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs). These telescopes are designed to detect gamma-ray radiation at energies above 1 TeV. The ASTRI Mini-Array is being constructed at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife, Canary Islands. To support the development, installation, and operation of the ASTRI Mini-Array, a dedicated on-site Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Infrastructure has been designed. This ICT infrastructure hosts the Computing System for the SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) software, which monitors, controls, and acquires data from the ASTRI Mini-Array telescopes and associated auxiliary hardware. The deployment model for SCADA is based on a combination of containers, bare metal servers, and virtual machines, all of which communicate seamlessly. Containerization techniques, paired with advanced orchestration systems such as Kubernetes, enhance the system's efficiency. In this paper, we detail the virtual and containerized environment system, which employs the concept of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) in conjunction with a container orchestration system. IaC enhances portability, automation, agility, and version control, while the orchestration system automates deployment, scalability, load balancing, resource management, recovery, and container version management. Together, IaC and container orchestration significantly simplify the infrastructure and application management. IaC automates the provisioning of basic infrastructure, while container orchestration ensures that containerized applications run efficiently and reliably. This architecture allows us to manage the entire SCADA system with ease, enabling rapid deployment of the entire system-both the environment and applications-at the Teide Observatory or other test sites.

Galaxy clusters are expected to be dark matter (DM) reservoirs and storage rooms for the cosmic-ray protons (CRp) that accumulate along the cluster's formation history. Accordingly, they are excellent targets to search for signals of DM annihilation and decay at gamma-ray energies and are predicted to be sources of large-scale gamma-ray emission due to hadronic interactions in the intracluster medium. We estimate the sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) to detect diffuse gamma-ray emission from the Perseus galaxy cluster. We perform a detailed spatial and spectral modelling of the expected signal for the DM and the CRp components. For each, we compute the expected CTA sensitivity. The observing strategy of Perseus is also discussed. In the absence of a diffuse signal (non-detection), CTA should constrain the CRp to thermal energy ratio within the radius $R_{500}$ down to about $X_{500}<3\times 10^{-3}$, for a spatial CRp distribution that follows the thermal gas and a CRp spectral index $\alpha_{\rm CRp}=2.3$. Under the optimistic assumption of a pure hadronic origin of the Perseus radio mini-halo and depending on the assumed magnetic field profile, CTA should measure $\alpha_{\rm CRp}$ down to about $\Delta\alpha_{\rm CRp}\simeq 0.1$ and the CRp spatial distribution with 10% precision. Regarding DM, CTA should improve the current ground-based gamma-ray DM limits from clusters observations on the velocity-averaged annihilation cross-section by a factor of up to $\sim 5$, depending on the modelling of DM halo substructure. In the case of decay of DM particles, CTA will explore a new region of the parameter space, reaching models with $\tau_{\chi}>10^{27}$s for DM masses above 1 TeV. These constraints will provide unprecedented sensitivity to the physics of both CRp acceleration and transport at cluster scale and to TeV DM particle models, especially in the decay scenario.

Many models of dark matter (DM) are now widely considered and probed intensively with accelerators, underground detectors, and astrophysical experiments. Among the various approaches, high-energy astrophysical observations are extremely useful to complement laboratory searches for some DM candidates. In the near future, the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) should enable us to access much heavier weakly interacting massive particles, as well as a broad range of other DM candidates. In this talk, we describe DM searches with CTA.

Despite the advancement in background rejection techniques, observation of the very-high-energy gamma-ray sky by imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) are subject to an irreducible background from gamma-like hadron- or electron-induced air showers. The determination of this residual background is crucial for accurate spectral and spatial measurements. The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will become the next generation of IACTs. To unveil its full potential, the improved reconstruction performance of CTA needs to be coupled with a reliable background estimate across the entire field of view. This may become especially important in the case of the planned surveys of large areas of the sky. In this contribution we will present pybkgmodel, an open-source python software package developed for CTA. It aims at providing in a consistent way the various background modelling methods, based on the experience from current IACTs such as H.E.S.S, MAGIC, and VERITAS. It is designed as a toolbox allowing a user to easily choose the optimal reconstruction approach for various target regions or a combination of several algorithms. We will introduce the design of the package as well as demonstrate its performance using simulations for the CTA Large-Sized Telescope prototype (LST-1).

Clusters of galaxies are the largest gravitationally-bound structures in the Universe. They are composed of galaxies and gas (approximately 15% of the total mass) mostly dark matter (DM, accounts up to 85% of the total mass). If the DM is composed of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), galaxy clusters represent one of the best targets to search for gamma-ray signals induced by the decay of WIMPs, with masses around the TeV scale. Due to its sensitivity and energy range of operation (from 20 GeV to 300 TeV), the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) Observatory has a unique opportunity to test WIMPs with masses close to the unitarity limit. This will complement the searches for DM from other gamma-ray observatories as well as direct and collider experiments. The CTA Observatory is planning to search for gamma-ray emission, either its origin may be cosmic-ray (CR) or DM related, in the Perseus galaxy cluster during the first years of operation. In this poster, we will present the software created to perform the analysis using the \texttt{ctools} software and the corresponding results.

A deep survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud at ~0.1-100TeV photon energies with the Cherenkov Telescope Array is planned. We assess the detection prospects based on a model for the emission of the galaxy, comprising the four known TeV emitters, mock populations of sources, and interstellar emission on galactic scales. We also assess the detectability of 30 Doradus and SN 1987A, and the constraints that can be derived on the nature of dark matter. The survey will allow for fine spectral studies of N157B, N132D, LMC P3, and 30 Doradus C, and half a dozen other sources should be revealed, mainly pulsar-powered objects. The remnant from SN 1987A could be detected if it produces cosmic-ray nuclei with a flat power-law spectrum at high energies, or with a steeper index 2.3-2.4 pending a flux increase by a factor >3-4 over ~2015-2035. Large-scale interstellar emission remains mostly out of reach of the survey if its >10GeV spectrum has a soft photon index ~2.7, but degree-scale 0.1-10TeV pion-decay emission could be detected if the cosmic-ray spectrum hardens above >100GeV. The 30 Doradus star-forming region is detectable if acceleration efficiency is on the order of 1-10% of the mechanical luminosity and diffusion is suppressed by two orders of magnitude within <100pc. Finally, the survey could probe the canonical velocity-averaged cross section for self-annihilation of weakly interacting massive particles for cuspy Navarro-Frenk-White profiles.

The ASTRI Mini-Array is an international project to build and operate an array of nine small-sized (4-m diameter) Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) at the Observatorio del Teide (Tenerife, Spain). The array is designed to perform deep galactic and extragalactic gamma-ray sky observations in the 1–200 TeV energy band. As part of the overall software system, the ASTRI team is developing a dedicated Data Processing System consisting of specific software components that implement all the functionalities needed to achieve the final science products from raw data. The main software components are the Cherenkov Camera Pre-Processing (for offline conversion from binary to FITS data format of Cherenkov camera raw data), the Stereo Event Builder (for offline stereo array trigger of Cherenkov events), the Cherenkov Data Pipeline (for data reduction and analysis), and the Calibration Software (for all required calibrations). An additional components for Stellar Intensity Interferometry data analysis is also envisaged. Thanks to the high-speed network connection available between Tenerife and Italy and the low data volume produced by the innovative ASTRI cameras, raw data files acquired onsite will be delivered to the ASTRI Data Center in Rome immediately after acquisition. At the Data Center, the Data Processing System will automatically perform the pre-processing, software stereo trigger, calibration, reduction, and analysis of the raw data up to the generation of science-ready data (event-lists and Instrument Response Function, to be delivered to the science community) as well as of automated science products. In this contribution we present the main features and components of the ASTRI Data Processing System and report on the status of its development and implementation.

Gamma-ray observations of the astrophysical neutrino sources are fundamentally important for understanding the underlying neutrino production mechanism. We investigate the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) ability to detect the very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray counterparts to the neutrino-emitting Active Galaxies. The CTA performance under different configurations and array layouts is computed based on the neutrino and gamma-ray simulations of steady and transient types of sources, assuming that the neutrino events are detected with the IceCube neutrino telescope. The CTA detection probability is calculated for both CTA sites taking into account the visibility constraints. We find that, under optimal observing conditions, CTA could observe the VHE gamma-ray emission from at least 3 neutrino events per year.

Dark matter (DM) is one of the major components in the Universe. However, at present its existence is still only inferred through indirect astronomical observations. DM particles can annihilate or decay, producing final-state Standard Model pairs that subsequently annihilate into high-energy $\gamma$-rays. The dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) in the Milky Way DM halo have long been considered optimal targets to search for annihilating DM signatures in GeV-to-TeV $\gamma$-ray spectra due to their high DM densities (hence high astrophysical factors), as well as the expected absence of intrinsic $\gamma$-ray emission of astrophysical origin. For such targets, it is important to compute the amount of DM in their halos in a consistent way to optimize the $\gamma$-ray data analysis. Such estimates directly affect the observability of DM signals in dSphs, as well as the DM constraints that can be derived in case of null detection. In this contribution, we present the results on the sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) for DM annihilation and decay searches using planned observations of the Milky Way dSphs. We select the most promising targets among all presently known dwarf satellites, providing new determinations of their expected DM signal. This study shows an improvement of approximately an order of magnitude in sensitivity compared to current searches in similar targets. We also discuss the results in terms of cuspy and cored DM models, and investigate the sensitivity obtained by the combination of observations from different dSphs. Finally, we explore the optimal strategies for CTA observations of dSphs.

The ASTRI Mini-Array is an international project led by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) to build and operate an array of nine 4-m class Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) at the Observatorio del Teide (Tenerife, Spain). The system is designed to perform deep observations of the galactic and extragalactic gamma-ray sky in the TeV and multi-TeV energy band, with important synergies with other ground-based gamma-ray facilities in the Northern Hemisphere and space-borne telescopes. As part of the overall software system, the ASTRI (Astrofisica con Specchi a Tecnologia Replicante Italiana) Team is developing dedicated systems for Data Processing, Simulation, and Archive to achieve effective handling, dissemination, and scientific exploitation of the ASTRI Mini-Array data. Thanks to the high-speed network connection available between Canary Islands and Italy, data acquired on-site will be delivered to the ASTRI Data Center in Rome immediately after acquisition. The raw data will be then reduced and analyzed by the Data Processing System up to the generation of the final scientific products. Detailed Monte Carlo simulated data will be produced by the Simulation System and exploited in several data processing steps in order to achieve precise reconstruction of the physical characteristics of the detected gamma rays and to reject the overwhelming background due to charged cosmic rays. The data access at different user levels and for different use cases, each one with a customized data organization, will be provided by the Archive System. In this contribution we present these three ASTRI Mini-Array software systems, focusing on their main functionalities, components, and interfaces.

The ASTRI Mini-Array is an International collaboration, led by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, that is constructing and operating an array of nine Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes to study gamma-ray sources at very high energy and perform optical stellar intensity interferometry (SII) observations. Angular resolutions below 100 microarcsec are achievable with stellar intensity interferometry, using telescopes separated by hundreds to thousands of meters baselines. At this level of resolution it turns out to be possible to reveal details on the surface and of the environment surrounding bright stars on the sky. The ASTRI Mini-Array will provide a suitable infrastructure for performing these measurements thanks to the capabilities offered by its 9 telescopes, which provide 36 simultaneous baselines over distances between 100 m and 700 m. After providing an overview of the scientific context and motivations for performing SII science with the ASTRI Mini-Array telescopes, we present the baseline design for the ASTRI Stellar Intensity Interferometry Instrument, a fast single photon counting instrument that will be mounted on the ASTRI telescopes and dedicated to performing SII observations of bright stars.

The ASTRI Mini-Array (MA) is an INAF project to build and operate a facility to study astronomical sources emitting at very high-energy in the TeV spectral band. The ASTRI MA consists of a group of nine innovative Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. The telescopes will be installed at the Teide Astronomical Observatory of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) on the basis of a host agreement with INAF. Thanks to its expected overall performance, better than those of current Cherenkov telescopes' arrays for energies above ∼5 TeV and up to 100 TeV and beyond, the ASTRI MA will represent an important instrument to perform deep observations of the galactic and extragalactic sky at these energies.

The ASTRI Mini-Array is an international collaboration led by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and devoted to the imaging of atmospheric Cherenkov light for very-high gamma-ray astronomy. The project is deploying an array of 9 telescopes sensitive above 1 TeV. In this contribution, we present the architecture of the software that covers the entire life cycle of the observatory, from scheduling to remote operations and data dissemination. The high-speed networking connection available between the observatory site, at the Canary Islands, and the Data Center in Rome allows for ready data availability for stereo triggering and data processing.