Analysis techniques at large core distances for multi-TeV gamma ray astronomy

Abstract

We present analysis techniques specific to multi-TeV extensive air showers (EAS). Our emphasis is on Cherenkov imaging at large core distances. Such techniques are being developed for the simulation study of TenTen, a proposed array of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) optimized for the multi-TeV regime, which aims for a collecting area of 10 km2 above energies of 10 TeV. Preliminary results using timing information from EAS are discussed with a view to improving shower reconstruction and background rejection for one simulated cell of the array. Based on these findings a direction reconstruction algorithm is implemented that gives an improvement in angular resolution of ∼ 30% over our standard geometric reconstruction for shower energies above 10 TeV. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.