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arXiv · 1607.03051

Design and expected performance of a novel hybrid detector for very-high-energy gamma astrophysics

P. Assis·U. Barres de Almeida·A. Blanco·R. Conceição·B. D'Ettore Piazzoli·A. De Angelis·M. Doro·P. Fonte·L. Lopes·G. Matthiae·M. Pimenta·R. Shellard·B. Tomé
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Abstract

Current detectors for Very-High-Energy $\gamma$-ray astrophysics are either pointing instruments with a small field of view (Cherenkov telescopes), or large field-of-view instruments with relatively large energy thresholds (extensive air shower detectors). In this article, we propose a new hybrid extensive air shower detector sensitive in an energy region starting from about 100 GeV. The detector combines a small water-Cherenkov detector, able to provide a calorimetric measurement of shower particles at ground, with resistive plate chambers which contribute significantly to the accurate shower geometry reconstruction. A full simulation of this detector concept shows that it is able to reach better sensitivity than any previous gamma-ray wide field-of-view experiment in the sub-TeV energy region. It is expected to detect with a $5\sigma$ significance a source fainter than the Crab Nebula in one year at $100\,$GeV and, above $1\,$TeV a source as faint as 10\% of it. As such, this instrument is suited to detect transient phenomena making it a very powerful tool to trigger observations of variable sources and to detect transients coupled to gravitational waves and gamma-ray bursts.

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P. Assis, U. Barres de Almeida, A. Blanco, R. Conceição, B. D'Ettore Piazzoli, A. De Angelis, M. Doro, P. Fonte, L. Lopes, G. Matthiae, M. Pimenta, R. Shellard, B. Tomé. 2016-07-11. Design and expected performance of a novel hybrid detector for very-high-energy gamma astrophysics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2018.02.004

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