A lot of epoch-making discoveries have been revealed by the century long study of cosmic rays. However, issues related to the origin, acceleration and propagation of cosmic rays remain to be mysterious. The large high altitude air shower observatory (LHAASO) is a unique experiment having both advantages of high altitude and large effective area. Besides, LHAASO will greatly improve the discrimination power between gamma ray and cosmic rays by using the hybrid detector technology. LHAASO is expected to obtain unprecedented gamma ray detection sensitivity and to make very precise measurement in cosmic ray spectrum in a very wide energy range. LHAASO will make important contribution to understanding fundamental problem of cosmic ray, to the research in high-energy astrophysics, cosmology and the exploration of new physics. This paper briefly describes the concept and structure of LHAASO detectors, the advanced performance, and scientific goal of LHAASO.

cosmic rays  /  gamma rays  /  LHAASO