Reconstruction of extensive air shower images of the first Large Size Telescope prototype of CTA using a novel likelihood technique

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new likelihood-based reconstruction technique for extensive air shower images in gamma-ray astronomy, improving the accuracy of primary particle characterization using LST-1 telescope data.

Contribution

A novel likelihood maximization method that incorporates pixel-wise charge development over time for enhanced shower image reconstruction.

Findings

More precise reconstruction of shower images.

Effective application to Crab Nebula observations.

Improved accuracy in primary particle property estimation.

Abstract

Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy aims at reconstructing the energy and direction of gamma rays from the extensive air showers they initiate in the atmosphere. Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACT) collect the Cherenkov light induced by secondary charged particles in extensive air showers (EAS), creating an image of the shower in a camera positioned in the focal plane of optical systems. This image is used to evaluate the type, energy and arrival direction of the primary particle that initiated the shower. This contribution shows the results of a novel reconstruction method based on likelihood maximization. The novelty with respect to previous likelihood reconstruction methods lies in the definition of a likelihood per single camera pixel, accounting not only for the total measured charge, but also for its development over time. This leads to more precise reconstruction of shower images. The method is applied to observations of the Crab Nebula acquired with the Large Size Telescope prototype (LST-1) deployed at the northern site of the Cherenkov Telescope Array.