Studies of the nature of the low-energy, gamma-like background for Cherenkov Telescope Array

TL;DR

This paper investigates the low-energy gamma-like background in the Cherenkov Telescope Array, focusing on the composition of background events and evaluating the effectiveness of standard analysis methods in rejecting these backgrounds.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the background composition at low energies and assesses the need to revise gamma/hadron separation techniques for CTA.

Findings

Identification of electromagnetic subcascade-dominated background events.

Evaluation of standard analysis methods' effectiveness in rejecting gamma-like backgrounds.

Insights into the composition of low-energy background events for CTA.

Abstract

The upcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) project is expected to provide unprecedented sensitivity in the low-energy ( <~100 GeV) range for Cherenkov telescopes. In order to exploit fully the potential of the telescopes the standard analysis methods for gamma/hadron separation might need to be revised. We study the composition of the background by identifying events composed mostly of a single electromagnetic subcascade or double subcascade from a {\pi}0 (or another neutral meson) decay. We apply the standard simulation and analysis chain of CTA to evaluate the potential of the standard analysis to reject such events.