ИСТИНА

The TAIGA experiment is aiming to address important tasks in ground-based gamma-ray astronomy at energies from a few TeV – to several PeV. TAIGA combines almost all the techniques for gamma-ray air shower detection. First, an array of the imaging air Cherenkov telescopes is planned (three telescopes located at the distance of 800m in 2019). Second, an array of the wide angle Cherenkov timing detectors (currently 28 detector stations; up to 120 for covering 1km² area in 2018). Finally, the array of muon detectors, currently of ~200m² size, is planned to increase up to an area of 3000m² to cover 1km² total. The shower parameters are estimated by the data of the wide angle Cherenkov timing detectors, whereas gamma-ray induced showers are selected by the image data of the telescopes in combination with the timing array as well as with the muon array data. The low investments together with the high sensitivity (2.5x10⁻¹³ TeV/(cm²sec) for 300h of local sources observation at 100TeV, 1km² array) make this pioneering approach very attractive for exploring the galactic PeVatrons. The status and perspectives of the project as well as the first results of the prototype stage are reported.