Search for short bursts of gamma rays with SGARFACE

The Short GAmma Ray Front Air Cherenkov Experiment (SGARFACE) is designed to search for bursts of γ rays above 200 MeV lasting from 1 ns to 16 μs. The custom-designed trigger and dataacquisition system is coupled to the camera on the Whipple 10m telescope, an air-Cherenkov telescope in southern Arizona. The experiment has operated for more than 3 years during which time about 1 million events were recorded. Rejection of the cosmic-ray background and of atmospheric phenomena is accomplished through time-resolved imaging of the recorded Cherenkov light. Potential sources of bursts of γ rays are the final explosion of primordial black holes within about 200 pc and γ-ray emission accompanying giant radio pulses. Results of the search for explosions of primordial black holes will be given in a future publication.