  GAW, acronym for Gamma Air Watch, is a Research and Development experiment in
the TeV range, whose main goal is to explore the feasibility of large field of
view Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes. GAW is an array of three
relatively small telescopes (2.13 m diameter) which differs from the existing
and presently planned projects in two main features: the adoption of a
refractive optics system as light collector and the use of single photoelectron
counting as detector working mode. The optics system allows to achieve a large
field of view (24x24 squared degrees) suitable for surveys of large sky
regions. The single photoelectron counting mode in comparison with the charge
integration mode improves the sensitivity by permitting also the reconstruction
of events with a small number of collected Cherenkov photons. GAW, which is a
collaboration effort of Research Institutes in Italy, Portugal and Spain, will
be erected in the Calar Alto Observatory (Sierra de Los Filabres - Andalucia,
Spain), at 2150 m a.s.l.). The first telescope will be settled within Autumn
2007. This paper shows the main characteristics of the experiment and its
expected performance.
