Monte Carlo Studies of Geomagnetic Field Effects on the Imaging Air Cherenkov Technique for the MAGIC Telescope Site
arXiv:0802.2551 · doi:10.1016/j.nima.2008.07.144
Abstract
Imaging air Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) detect the Cherenkov light from extensive air showers (EAS) initiated by very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays impinging on the Earth's atmosphere. Due to the overwhelming background from hadron induced EAS, the discrimination of the rare gamma-like events is vital. The influence of the geomagnetic field (GF) on the development of EAS can further complicate the imaging air Cherenkov technique. The amount and the angular distribution of Cherenkov light from EAS can be obtained by means of Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. Here we present the results from dedicated MC studies of GF effects on images from gamma-ray initiated EAS for the MAGIC telescope site, where the GF strength is ~40 micro Tesla. The results from the MC studies suggest that GF effects degrade not only measurements of very low energy gamma-rays below ~100 GeV but also those at TeV-energies.
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Cited by in corpus (7)
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- Nature of the low-energy, γ-like background for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
- Asymmetry of the angular distribution of Cherenkov photons of extensive air showers induced by the geomagnetic field
- How to detect gamma-rays from ground: an introduction to the detection concepts
- A novel energy reconstruction method for the MAGIC stereoscopic observation