Gamma/hadron discrimination using a small-WCD with four PMTs

Discussion timeslot (ZOOM-Meeting): 16. July 2021 - 18:00
ZOOM-Meeting URL: https://icrc2021.desy.de/pf_access_abstracts
Corresponding Session: https://icrc2021-venue.desy.de/channel/Presenter-Forum-1-Evening-All-Categories/48
Abstract:
"The Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory (SWGO) is the next-generation gamma-ray observatory, currently in a three-year RandD phase. The experiment is expected to have a large array of water Cherenkov detectors (WCD) placed at a high elevation ( larger 4.4 km a.s.l.) in South America. Here we present a WCD concept with reduced surface area and height stations comprising four PMTs at the bottom. We show that it is possible to reach an excellent gamma/hadron discrimination by analysing the data gathered by this station with machine learning techniques. Such performance can be achieved by analysing the shower patterns at the ground or through the PMTs signal time structure to tag muons. Moreover, it is shown that the station's performance does not depend on the array configuration (dense or sparse) nor on the shower inclination (theta smaller 40 deg). Such a concept reduces the cost associated with the transport of massive amounts of water to high elevation sites while keeping a high physics performance. Therefore, it could be a good candidate station for SWGO, enabling it to reach good sensitivities from low energies (~100 GeV) up to the PeV region, covering large ground surface areas (few square km)."

Authors: Ruben Conceição | Pedro Assis | Filipe Assunção | Alena Bakalová | Ulisses Barres de Almeida | Clécio R. Bom | João Correia | Alessandro De Angelis | Luciana Dias | Borja S. Gonzaléz | Alberto Guillén | Giovanni La Mura | Nuno Lourenço | Penousal Machado | Sara Marques | Luís Mendes | Mário Pimenta | Ronald Shellard | Bernardo Tomé | Jakub Vicha | for the SWGO collaboration
Collaboration: SWGO

Indico-ID: 328
Proceeding URL: https://pos.sissa.it/395/707