Simulation study for the proposed wide field-of-view gamma-ray detector array ALTO

TL;DR

This paper presents a simulation study of the ALTO gamma-ray detector array, combining water Cherenkov and scintillator detectors to improve sensitivity, energy, and angular resolution for VHE gamma-ray astronomy.

Contribution

It introduces a novel design of the ALTO array with combined detectors and provides Monte Carlo simulation results of its expected performance.

Findings

Improved background rejection through detector design and arrangement.

Estimated energy threshold and reconstruction accuracy for gamma-ray detection.

Simulation results indicating enhanced sensitivity for VHE gamma-ray sources.

Abstract

ALTO is a wide field-of-view air shower detector array for very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray astronomy, proposed to be installed in the Southern Hemisphere at an altitude of about 5.1 km above sea level. The array will use water Cherenkov detectors, as in the HAWC observatory, but combined with scintillator detectors, to detect air showers induced by VHE gamma rays in the atmosphere. It is being designed to attain a lower energy threshold, better energy and angular resolution, and improved sensitivity. The array will consist of about 1250 small-sized (3.6 m diameter) detector units distributed over a circular area of about 160 m in diameter. Each detector unit will consist of a water Cherenkov detector and a liquid scintillation detector underneath which will preferentially identify muons, facilitating the background (cosmic ray) rejection, thereby improving the sensitivity. The background rejection will be further enhanced by the close-packed arrangement and the small size of the detectors which will allow a fine sampling of air-shower footprints at the ground. In this contribution, we present the Monte-Carlo simulation of the experiment performed using CORSIKA and GEANT4 simulation packages. The expected performance of the array in terms of reconstruction accuracies of the shower core and arrival direction, as well as preliminary estimate of the trigger energy threshold after preliminary selection cuts for a point-like gamma-ray source are presented.