https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-11067-5
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Background rejection using image residuals from large telescopes in imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope arrays
1
Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, P.O. Box 103980, 69029, Heidelberg, Germany
2
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, 91058, Erlangen, Germany
a
Laura.Olivera-Nieto@mpi-hd.mpg.de
Received:
10
August
2022
Accepted:
23
November
2022
Published online:
10
December
2022
Identification of Cherenkov light generated by muons has been suggested as a promising way to dramatically improve the background rejection power of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope (IACT) arrays at high energies. However, muon identification remains a challenging task, for which efficient algorithms are still being developed. We present an approach in which, rather than identifying Cherenkov light from muons, we simply consider the presence of Cherenkov light other than the main shower image in IACTs with large mirror area. We show that in the case of the H.E.S.S. array of five telescopes this approach results in background rejection improvements at all energies above 1 TeV. In particular, the rejection power can be improved by a factor 
–4 at energies above 20 TeV while keeping 
of the original gamma-ray efficiency.
© The Author(s) 2022
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