ROBAST: Development of a ROOT-Based Ray-Tracing Library for Cosmic-Ray Telescopes and its Applications in the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Abstract

We have developed a non-sequential ray-tracing simulation library, ROOT-based simulator for ray tracing (ROBAST), which is aimed to be widely used in optical simulations of cosmic-ray (CR) and gamma-ray telescopes. The library is written in C++, and fully utilizes the geometry library of the ROOT framework. Despite the importance of optics simulations in CR experiments, no open-source software for ray-tracing simulations that can be widely used in the community has existed. To reduce the dispensable effort needed to develop multiple ray-tracing simulators by different research groups, we have successfully used ROBAST for many years to perform optics simulations for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). Among the six proposed telescope designs for CTA, ROBAST is currently used for three telescopes: a Schwarzschild-Couder (SC) medium-sized telescope, one of SC small-sized telescopes, and a large-sized telescope (LST). ROBAST is also used for the simulation and development of hexagonal light concentrators proposed for the LST focal plane. Making full use of the ROOT geometry library with additional ROBAST classes, we are able to build the complex optics geometries typically used in CR experiments and ground-based gamma-ray telescopes. We introduce ROBAST and its features developed for CR experiments, and show several successful applications for CTA.

Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics. 11 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables

References in corpus (8)

• The First VERITAS Telescope
• Wide field aplanatic two-mirror telescopes for ground-based gamma-ray astronomy
• Design, optimization and characterization of the light concentrators of the single-mirror small size telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Optimization of the Collection Efficiency of a Hexagonal Light Collector using Quadratic and Cubic Bézier Curves
• SST-GATE: A dual mirror telescope for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• The Cherenkov Telescope Array Large Size Telescope
• ROBAST: Development of a Non-Sequential Ray-Tracing Simulation Library and its Applications in the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Monte Carlo Studies of the GCT Telescope for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Characterization of SiPM Optical Crosstalk and its Dependence on the Protection-Window Thickness
• Direct Comparison of SiPM and PMT Sensor Performances in a large-size imaging air Cherenkov telescope
• Development of an optical photon-counting imager with a monolithic Geiger APD array
• Development and Quality Control of PMT Modules for the Large-Sized Telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory
• Monte Carlo Studies of the GCT Telescope for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Gamma-ray detector and mission design simulations
• Monte Carlo Simulations and Validation of NectarCAM, a Medium Sized Telescope Camera for CTA
• Development of a blue-mirror multilayer coating on light concentrators for future SiPM cameras
• Evaluation of the effective mirror area of CTA Small-Sized Telescopes for camera design and Monte Carlo simulation
• Development of a UV-transparent Lens Array for Enlarging the Effective Area of Multichannel SiPMs
• Prototyping of Hexagonal Light Concentrators for the Large-Sized Telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Exploring one giga electronvolt cosmic gamma rays with a Cherenkov plenoscope capable of recording atmospheric light fields, Part 1: Optics