Potential of EBL and cosmology studies with the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Very high energy (VHE, E > 100 GeV) gamma-rays are absorbed via interaction with low-energy photons from the extragalactic background light (EBL) if the involved photon energies are above the threshold for electron-positron pair creation. The VHE gamma-ray absorption, which is energy dependent and increases strongly with redshift, distorts the VHE spectra observed from distant objects. The observed energy spectra of the AGNs carry, therefore, an imprint of the EBL. The detection of VHE gamma-ray spectra of distant sources (z = 0.11 - 0.54) by current generation Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) enabled to set strong upper limits on the EBL density, using certain basic assumptions about blazar physics. In this paper it is studied how the improved sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) and its extended energy coverage will enlarge our knowledge about the EBL and its sources. CTA will deliver a large sample of AGN at different redshifts with detailed measured spectra. In addition, CTA will provide the exciting opportunity to use gamma ray bursts (GRBs) as probes for the EBL density at high redshifts. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.