@article{22d7af2a2da042b6ab60f5ef5342c3e7,
title = "Application of the optimised next neighbour image cleaning method to the VERITAS array",
abstract = "Imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, such as the VERITAS array, are subject to the Night Sky Background (NSB) and electronic noise, which contribute to the total signal of pixels in the telescope camera. The contribution of noise photons in event images is reduced with the application of image cleaning methods. Conventionally, high thresholds must be employed to ensure the removal of pixels containing noise signal. On that account, low-energy gamma-ray showers might be suppressed during the cleaning. We present here the application of an optimised next neighbour image cleaning for the VERITAS array. With this technique, differential noise rates are estimated for each individual observation and thus changes in the NSB and afterpulsing are consistently being accounted for. We show that this method increases the overall rate of reconstructed gamma-rays, lowers the energy threshold of the array and allows the reconstruction of low energy (E > 70 GeV) source events which were suppressed by the conventional cleaning method.",
author = "{The VERITAS Collaboration} and Maria Kherlakian and A. Acharyya and Adams, {C. B.} and A. Archer and P. Bangale and Bartkoske, {J. T.} and P. Batista and W. Benbow and Christiansen, {J. L.} and Chromey, {A. J.} and A. Duerr and M. Errando and Q. Feng and Foote, {G. M.} and L. Fortson and A. Furniss and W. Hanlon and O. Hervet and Hinrichs, {C. E.} and J. Hoang and J. Holder and Z. Hughes and Humensky, {T. B.} and W. Jin and Johnson, {M. N.} and M. Kertzman and M. Kherlakian and D. Kieda and Kleiner, {T. K.} and N. Korzoun and S. Kumar and Lang, {M. J.} and M. Lundy and G. Maier and McGrath, {C. E.} and Millard, {M. J.} and Mooney, {C. L.} and P. Moriarty and R. Mukherjee and S. O{\textquoteright}Brien and Ong, {R. A.} and N. Park and C. Poggemann and M. Pohl and E. Pueschel and J. Quinn and Rabinowitz, {P. L.} and K. Ragan and Reynolds, {P. T.} and D. Ribeiro and E. Roache and Ryan, {J. L.} and I. Sadeh and L. Saha and M. Santander and Sembroski, {G. H.} and R. Shang and M. Splettstoesser and Talluri, {A. K.} and Tucci, {J. V.} and Vassiliev, {V. V.} and A. Weinstein and Williams, {D. A.} and Wong, {S. L.} and J. Woo",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons.; 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference, ICRC 2023 ; Conference date: 26-07-2023 Through 03-08-2023",
year = "2024",
month = sep,
day = "27",
language = "English",
volume = "444",
journal = "Proceedings of Science",
issn = "1824-8039",
}