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

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 π 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.