Expected performance of the ALTO particle detector array designed for 200 GeV - 50 TeV gamma-ray astronomy

Mohanraj Senniappan, Yvonne Becherini, Michael Punch, Satyendra Thoudam, Tomas Bylund, Gašper Kukec Mezek, Jean Pierre Ernenwein

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The CoMET is an R&D project aiming to design a very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray observatory sensitive to energies above ∼200 GeV. The science goals include continuous observation of soft-spectrum VHE gamma-ray sources such as Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) and transients like Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). With these objectives, CoMET is designed to have a low energy threshold with a wide field-of-view of about 2 sr, at a high altitude, and combines ALTO particle detectors with CLiC air-Cherenkov detectors. In this contribution, we focus on the ALTO particle detector array performance only. Water Cherenkov detectors are used for the detection of secondary particles in atmospheric air showers while scintillators serve as muon counters. A detailed study is presented through air-shower, detector and trigger simulations, followed by the reconstruction of the event parameters and the extraction of the signal (gamma-rays) from the background (cosmic-rays). We present the sensitivity of the ALTO detectors to a list of astrophysical sources using two SEMLA analysis configurations.

Original languageBritish English
Article number761
JournalProceedings of Science
Volume395
StatePublished - 18 Mar 2022
Event37th International Cosmic Ray Conference, ICRC 2021 - Virtual, Berlin, Germany
Duration: 12 Jul 202123 Jul 2021

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