Gamma/hadron separation with the HAWC observatory
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-11-2022
Department
Department of Physics
Abstract
The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) gamma-ray observatory observes atmospheric showers produced by incident gamma rays and cosmic rays with energy from 300 GeV to more than 100 TeV. A crucial phase in analyzing gamma-ray sources using ground-based gamma-ray detectors like HAWC is to identify the showers produced by gamma rays or hadrons. The HAWC observatory records roughly 25,000 events per second, with hadrons representing the vast majority (>99.9%) of these events. The standard gamma/hadron separation technique in HAWC uses a simple rectangular cut involving only two parameters. This work describes the implementation of more sophisticated gamma/hadron separation techniques, via machine learning methods (boosted decision trees and neural networks), and summarizes the resulting improvements in gamma/hadron separation obtained in HAWC.
Publication Title
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Recommended Citation
Alfaro, R.,
Alvarez, C.,
Álvarez, J.,
Angeles Camacho, J.,
Arteaga-Velázquez, J.,
Avila Rojas, D.,
Babu, R.,
Huang, D.,
Huntemeyer, P.,
Turner, R.,
&
et. al.
(2022).
Gamma/hadron separation with the HAWC observatory.
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment,
1039.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2022.166984
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/16192