The ASTRI project: Prototype status and future plans for a Cherenkov dual-mirror small-telescope array

ASTRI ("Astrofisica con Specchi a Tecnologia Replicante Italiana") is a flagship project of the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research. Within this framework, INAF is currently developing a wide field of view (9.6° in diameter) end-to-end prototype of the CTA smallsize telescope (SST), devoted to the investigation of the energy range from a fraction of TeV up to (possibly) hundreds of TeV, and scheduled to start data acquisition in 2014. For the first time, a dualmirror Schwarzschild-Couder optical design will be adopted on a Cherenkov telescope, in order to obtain a compact (F♯ = 0.5) optical configuration. A second challenging, but innovative technical solution consists of a focal plane camera based on Silicon photo-multipliers with a logical pixel size of 0.17° (6.2mm × 6.2mm). We will describe the current status of the project, the results obtained so far, the expected performance, and its possible evolution in terms of a SST mini-array (composed of 5-7 SSTs and developed in collaborat...