https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-08883-6
Regular Article – Experimental Physics
New methods to reconstruct 
and the energy of gamma-ray air showers with high accuracy in large wide-field observatories
1
LIP, Av. Prof. Gama Pinto, 2, 1649-003, Lisbon, Portugal
2
Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001, Lisbon, Portugal
Received:
25
October
2020
Accepted:
14
January
2021
Published online:
25
January
2021
Novel methods to reconstruct the slant depth of the maximum of the longitudinal profile () of high-energy showers initiated by gamma-rays as well as their energy (
) are presented. The methods were developed for gamma rays with energies ranging from a few hundred GeV to 
TeV. An estimator of is obtained, event-by-event, from its correlation with the distribution of the arrival time of the particles at the ground, or the signal at the ground for lower energies. An estimator of is obtained, event-by-event, using a parametrization that has as inputs the total measured energy at the ground, the amount of energy contained in a region near to the shower core and the estimated . Resolutions about 
and about 
for, respectively, and at 
energies are obtained, considering vertical showers. The obtained results are auspicious and can lead to the opening of new physics avenues for large wide field-of-view gamma-ray observatories. The dependence of the resolutions with experimental conditions is discussed.
© The Author(s) 2021
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