Interstellar molecular clouds play an essential role in the Universe. Such clouds are invoked for the production and destruction of stars, galaxies and gas and also for energy transport in galaxies. The Galaxy, or the Milky Way, is a large spiral galaxy, with a central bar structure, that harbours a few hundred billion stars and large amounts of gas and dust. At the centre of the Galaxy, a 4 million solar mass supermassive black hole resides, surrounded by a dense core of millions of stars, as well as molecular and dust clouds. The Galactic centre (GC) is hidden by gas and dust, such that only astronomical observations of radio-, infrared-, X-rays and gamma-rays are available for a gathering of information at the centre. In this work, I have studied neutral molecular clouds in absorption at the innermost 50 light years from the centre with the Karl Jansky Very Large Array Observatory in New Mexico in the USA, and with data from observations with the Swedish-ESO Submillimetre Telescope in Chile, and also from the orbital observatory Odin. I have detected a new stream-like feature of gas that seems to link a previously known ring of gas clouds (the CND) and the GC. Moreover, the hypothesis of feeding the CND from an outside cloud is supported by this work. Contemporary discussions in the literature that the central bar structure would act as a pump of material inwards from the spiral arms towards the GC via molecular clouds are also suggested by the data. A number of maser sources have been observed and some of those are shown to reside at shock fronts or anticipated regions of collisions between molecular clouds or at star forming regions. Unusually high water abundance was detected at the south-west part of the CND, indicative of shocks and strong turbulence. Moreover, I have produced high-resolution spectral line maps of hydroxyl (OH) absorption intensity in the four main transition lines of OH at 1612, 1720, 1665 and 1667 MHz, as well as apparent opacity and position-velocity maps of the GC region.

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The centre of the Milky Way, commonly referred to as the Galactic Centre, is roughly that region within 500 pc of the central black hole, Sagittarius A*. Within the innermost parsec around the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* are more than a hundred massive young stars whose orbits align to form one or possibly two discs. At about 100 pc is a ring containing more than ten million solar masses of molecular gas which could be the origin of some of the most massive star clusters in the Galaxy. I have performed a number of numerical simulations to help us understand how it is that these structures may have been formed. I firstly describe and test an improvement to the smoothed particle hydrodynamics code I used. This improves conservation of energy and momentum in certain situations such as in strong shocks from supernovae, which were to be included in a later chapter. The discs of massive stars around Sagittarius A* are believed to have been born there within fragmenting gaseous discs. This is problematic, as the formation of two stellar discs would require two gaseous counterparts. A method is described of forming multiple discs around a black hole from a single cloud's infall and subsequent tidal destruction. This is due to its prolate shape providing a naturally large distribution in the direction of the angular momentum vectors within the cloud. The resulting discs may then go on to form stars. Energetically, it would appear that a sequence of supernovae could potentially cause a giant molecular cloud to fall inwards towards the central black hole from an originally large orbit around the Galactic Centre. I simulate the impact on a giant molecular cloud of supernovae originating from a massive stellar cluster located a parsec away. Ultimately, the supernovae are found to have little effect. Finally, I simulate the formation of the dense ring of clouds observed in the Central Molec- ular Zone at a distance of about 100 pc from Sgr A*. Infalling gas is shown to be subject to such extreme tidal forces that a single cloud of gas is extended to form a long stream. The ribbon grows to the point that it self-intersects and forms a ring-like structure. Its complexity depends on the orbit of the original cloud. The position-velocity data is compared with observations, and similarities are noted.

An accretion torus is an important astrophysical phenomenon which is be- lieved to account for various features of mass inflow and release of radiation on diverse scales near stellar-mass as well as supermassive black holes. When the stationary torus is perturbed it starts to oscillate and once some part of the torus overflows the closed equipotential surface, defined by the stationary solution, this material is accreted or ejected. These oscillations reveal both spacetime properties and the intrinsic characteristics of the torus model. We study the oscillation and accretion properties of geometrically thick accretion tori using general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations. Assuming axial symmetry these simulations are restricted to 2-D approximation. We discuss the impact of the presence of the large scale magnetic field and the profile of the specific angular momentum on the oscillation properties and on the accretion flow motion. 1

In the presented thesis, the most advanced photon reconstruction technique of ground-based γ-ray astronomy is adapted to the H.E.S.S. 28 m telescope. The method is based on a semi-analytical model of electromagnetic particle showers in the atmosphere. The properties of cosmic γ-rays are reconstructed by comparing the camera image of the telescope with the Cherenkov emission that is expected from the shower model. To suppress the dominant background from charged cosmic rays, events are selected based on several criteria. The performance of the analysis is evaluated with simulated events. The method is then applied to two sources that are known to emit γ-rays. The first of these is the Crab Nebula, the standard candle of ground-based γ-ray astronomy. The results of this source confirm the expected performance of the reconstruction method, where the much lower energy threshold compared to H.E.S.S. I is of particular importance. A second analysis is performed on the region around the Galactic Centre. The analysis results emphasise the capabilities of the new telescope to measure γ-rays in an energy range that is interesting for both theoretical and experimental astrophysics. The presented analysis features the lowest energy threshold that has ever been reached in ground-based γ-ray astronomy, opening a new window to the precise measurement of the physical properties of time-variable sources at energies of several tens of GeV. / In der vorliegenden Dissertation wird die zur Zeit sensitivste Methode zur Photonrekonstruktion in der bodengebundenen Gammastrahlungsastronomie an das 28 m H.E.S.S. Teleskop angepasst. Die Analyse basiert auf einem semi-analytischen Modell von elektromagnetischen Teilchenschauern in der Erdatmosphäre. Die Rekonstruktion erfolgt durch den Vergleich des Bildes der Teleskopkamera mit der Tscherenkow-Emission, die mittels des Schauermodells berechnet wurde. Zur Verringerung des dominanten Untergrundes, der hauptsächlich durch Teilchen der geladenen kosmischen Strahlung hervorgerufen wird, werden Ereignisse anhand bestimmter Kriterien ausgewählt. Die Leistungsfähigkeit der Analyse wird unter Verwendung simulierter Ereignisse evaluiert. Die Methode wird anschließend auf zwei Gammastrahlungsquellen angewendet. Zuerst wird der Krebsnebel analysiert, die Standardkerze der bodengebundenen Gammastrahlungsastronomie. Die Resultate der Analyse des Krebsnebels bestätigen die bereits zuvor erwartete Leistungsfähigkeit der Rekonstruktionsmethode, wobei hier insbesondere die im Vergleich zu H.E.S.S. I stark verringerte Energieschwelle hervorzuheben ist. Als Zweites werden Beobachtungen der Region um das galaktische Zentrum ausgewertet. Die Analyseergebnisse dieser Daten unterstreichen die Fähigkeiten des neuen Teleskops zur Messung kosmischer Gammastrahlung in einem für die theoretische und experimentelle Astrophysik interessanten Energiebereich. Die vorgestellte Analyse besitzt die niedrigste Energieschwelle, die in der bodengebundenen Gammastrahlungsastronomie je erreicht wurde. Sie ermöglicht damit präzise Messungen der physikalischen Eigenschaften von zeitabhängigen Quellen im Energiebereich von 10 bis 100 GeV.

La phase II de l’expérience H.E.S.S. (High Energy Stereoscopic System) est constituée de cinq télescopes à imagerie Cherenkov dédiés à l’observation de sources astrophysiques de l’hémisphère sud émettant des photons au-delà de 30 GeV. Cette thèse présente le fonctionnement de cet instrument ainsi que toute la chaîne d’analyse associée avec une attention particulière sur le cinquième télescope mis en opération en juillet 2012. Les méthodes d’étalonnage du système sont détaillées. Ensuite, une méthode d’analyse des données, basée sur un modèle semi-analytique de développement des gerbes électromagnétiques dans l’atmosphère, est expliquée. Une méthode de reconstruction du spectre en énergie des sources de photon gamma de haute énergie est présentée. Les méthodes de sélection des photons gamma parmi le bruit de fond de hadrons sont étudiées. En particulier, le développement d’une nouvelle variable de rejet du bruit de fond utilisant les données temporelles du cinquième télescope est exposé. Une étude systématique des performances de l’analyse ainsi que des coupures de sélection des photons gamma est effectuée dans le but d’atteindre le plus bas seuil en énergie possible en contrôlant la soustraction du bruit de fond. Le Centre Galactique a longuement été observé par H.E.S.S., qui a mis à jour une source ponctuelle très brillante à très haute énergie ainsi qu’une une émission diffuse le long du plan Galactique. Les observations du Centre Galactique par la phase II de H.E.S.S. au cours de l’année 2014 sont présentées. Une reconstruction spectrale de la source centrale est effectuée. / The phase II of the H.E.S.S. experiment (High Energy Stereoscopic System) consists of five imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes to study the southern astrophysical sources above 30 GeV. This thesis present the detector as well as the analysis chain, with a deep look on the fifth telescope commissioned on July 2012. The calibration method are described in detail. Then, an analysis based on a semi-analytical model of the electromagnetic shower development in the atmosphere is explained. A tool to reconstruct the energy spectrum of the very high energy gamma ray sources is presented. The methods of gamma ray selection among the hadron background are studied. Especially, the development of a new variable using the temporal data of the fifth telescope for the background rejection is shown. A systematic study of the analysis performances and of the selection cuts is accomplished, in order to reach the lowest energy threshold while keeping control of the background subtraction. The Galactic Centre has long been observed by H.E.S.S., which has detected a bright and punctual source at very-high energy as well as a diffuse emission along the Galactic plan. The Galactic Centre observations performed by the phase II of H.E.S.S. during the year 2014 are presented. A spectral reconstruction of the central source is performed.