Improving the precision of measurements for the highest energy gamma rays via a Bayesian formalism

• Grant number: 22/07692-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: October 03, 2022
• End date: March 02, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Astronomy - Extragalactic Astrophysics
• Principal Investigator: Edivaldo Moura Santos
• Grantee: Matheus Genaro Dantas Xavier
• Supervisor: Stefan Funk
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física (IF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/01473-6 - Studies of gamma-ray absorption in the extragalactic medium, BP.MS

Abstract

This is a research project focused on data analyses optimization for measurements of gamma-rays performed with Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs). The main goal is to eliminate explicit background rejection cuts, by incorporating into the likelihood the probabilities for a given event to come from background or signal, in order to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio. As an application, we should use data taken with the H.E.S.S. telescopes to which the host researcher abroad of this proposal has full access to. Improvements in the signal-to-noise ratio are bound to influence any higher level physics analyses like, for example, the study of gamma-ray absorption by interaction with the extragalactic background light (EBL) which is the core subject of the Master's student thesis. (AU)