ARGO-YBJ: STATUS AND HIGHLIGHTS

The ARGO-YBJ experiment has been gathering data steadily since November 2007 at the YangBaJing Cosmic Ray Laboratory (Tibet, P.R. China, 4300m a.s.l., 606 g/cm2). ARGO-YBJ is confronting various open problems in Cosmic Ray (CR) physics. The search for CR sources is carried out by observing TeV gamma-ray sources, both galactic and extra-galactic. The CR spectrum, composition and anisotropy are measured in a wide energy range (TeV ÷ PeV), thus overlapping direct measurements for the first time. This paper summarizes the current status of the experiment and describes some of the scientific highlights since 2007.