Monte Carlo studies for the optimisation of the Cherenkov Telescope Array layout

• Published in: Astroparticle physics Vol. 111; no. C; pp. 35 - 53
• Main Authors: Balbo, M., Barai, P., Barrio, J.A., Becker Tjus, J., Bernardos, M.I., Bernlöhr, K., Bertucci, B., Bonardi, A., Brill, A., Bruno, P., Capalbi, M., Capuzzo-Dolcetta, R., Caraveo, P., Casanova, S., Cascone, E., Cauz, D., Cerruti, M., Conforti, V., Dazzi, F., de Cássia dos Anjos, R., de Palma, F., Di Venere, L., Dorner, D., Doro, M., Ferrand, G., Fiasson, A., Fioretti, V., Fontaine, G., Funk, S., Gaggero, D., Gaug, M., Giglietto, N., Gourgouliatos, K.N., Greenshaw, T., Hadasch, D., Hassan, T., Heller, M., Hnatyk, B., Hrupec, D., Jean, P., Jouvin, L., Karkar, S., Khélifi, B., Knapp, J., Knödlseder, J., Kong, A., Kushida, J., Leigui de Oliveira, M.A., Longo, F., López, M., Lopez-Oramas, A., Loporchio, S., Martí, J., Martínez-Huerta, H., Micanovic, S., Mizuno, T., Morcuende, D., Morselli, A., Moulin, E., Niemiec, J., Nikołajuk, M., Nöthe, M., Okumura, A., Ostrowski, M., Otte, N., Ou, Z., Palatiello, M., Paredes, J.M., Pareschi, G., Parsons, R.D., Pe’er, A., Persic, M., Pietropaolo, E., Prandini, E., Rainò, S., Rando, R., Razzaque, S., Rizi, V., Roncadelli, M., Rowell, G., Salesa Greus, F., Sciacca, E., Sergijenko, O., Sironi, G., Stefanik, S., Suomijarvi, T., Temnikov, P., Tibaldo, L., Torres, D.F., Tosti, G., Vallage, B., Vergani, S., Vigorito, C.F., Vink, J., Wagner, S.J., Werner, F., White, R., Will, M., Zavrtanik, D., Zechlin, H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier B.V 01.09.2019; Elsevier
• Subjects: ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; Astroparticle Physics; Astropartikelfysik; Cherenkov telescopes; Cosmic rays; Gamma rays; IACT technique; Instrumentation and Detectors; Monte Carlo simulations; Physics; Gamma rays; IACT technique; Monte Carlo simulations; Cosmic rays; Cherenkov telescopes; energy resolution; Cherenkov Telescope Array; observatory; Cherenkov counter: imaging; site; performance; Monte Carlo; energy dependence; gamma ray: VHE; sensitivity
• ISSN: 0927-6505; 1873-2852; 1873-2852
• DOI: 10.1016/j.astropartphys.2019.04.001

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the major next-generation observatory for ground-based very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy. It will improve the sensitivity of current ground-based instruments by a factor of five to twenty, depending on the energy, greatly improving both their angular and energy resolutions over four decades in energy (from 20 GeV to 300 TeV). This achievement will be possible by using tens of imaging Cherenkov telescopes of three successive sizes. They will be arranged into two arrays, one per hemisphere, located on the La Palma island (Spain) and in Paranal (Chile). We present here the optimised and final telescope arrays for both CTA sites, as well as their foreseen performance, resulting from the analysis of three different large-scale Monte Carlo productions.