# Detection Techniques of Microsecond Gamma-Ray Bursts using Ground-Based Telescopes

## 1 Introduction

The astrophysical band for the detection of high energy $`\gamma `$-rays has been recently expanded to energies between hundreds of GeV (Weekes et al. 1989) up to beyond 10 TeV (Aharonian et al. 1997; Tanimori et al. 1998a; Krennrich et al. 1999a) using the ground-based atmospheric Cherenkov imaging technique. The proposed coverage from 20 MeV - 300 GeV with the future satellite-based GLAST detector (Gehrels & Michelson 1999) providing a large field of view is complemented by the proposals of ground-based detectors such as VERITAS (Weekes et al. 1999), HESS (Hofmann et al. 1997) and MAGIC (Barrio et al. 1998) with an energy threshold in the tens of GeV range. Ground-based Cherenkov imaging detectors provide large collection areas of the order of $`10^5\mathrm{m}^2`$ and hence, are well suited to the study of $`\gamma `$-ray flare phenomena. This technique has already proven successful in the study of AGN flares on minute time scales (Gaidos et al. 1996) and is expected to improve in sensitivity by an order of magnitude with future detectors.

In this paper we explore the possibility of using imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes to detect $`\gamma `$-ray flare phenomena on shorter time scales of microseconds and with energies in the sub-GeV regime. Astrophysical phenomena producing extremely short bursts of $`\gamma `$-rays could be the signature of Hawking’s prediction of $`\gamma `$-ray burst radiation from the evaporation of primordial black holes (Hawking 1974). The lifetime of a black hole is proportional to the mass cubed. In the early Universe primordial black holes (PBHs) of small mass may have formed (Hawking 1971; Carr 1976). PBHs created with initial masses slightly greater than $`5\times 10^{14}\mathrm{grams}`$ would be evaporating now by the quantum-gravitational Hawking mechanism. A PBH’s existence ends in a dramatic explosion where the final stage of the evaporation is determined by particle physics at extremely high energies. Hagedorn (1970) suggested a particle physics model in which the number of species of particles increases exponentially with energy. In this scenario, a black hole loses its energy quickly when reaching a critical temperature. A burst of $`\gamma `$-rays as short as $`10^7\mathrm{s}`$, with a total energy of $`10^{34}`$ ergs, would be the signature of such an event. However, the burst time scale and average photon energy depends on the particle physics model, with highly uncertain predictions at high energies. This has prompted searches over much larger time and energy scales ranging from $`10^7\mathrm{s}`$ at 250 MeV to seconds at 10 TeV, as suggested by the standard model of particle physics (Halzen et al. 1991). Cline & Hong (1992), using a mixture of a Hagedorn and QCD-like spectrum, suggested that these bursts occur on the millisecond time scale in the MeV range.

Classical $`\gamma `$-ray bursts (GRBs) detected with the satellite-experiment BATSE on CGRO show $`\gamma `$-ray emission on surprisingly short time scales. GRB time scales in the millisecond range have been reported by Kouveliotou et al. (1994) - the detection of the so-called “Superbowl” burst (GRB930131) has revealed temporal variations on time scales as short as 2 ms. In fact, evidence for sub-millisecond (200 $`\mu \mathrm{sec}`$) structures was found in the BATSE data of GRB910305 (Bhat et al. 1992). EGRET, which was sensitive from 30 MeV to 30 GeV, due to an instrumental dead time effect, was limited in sensitivity for short bursts to time scales above 200 ms.

A search for microsecond scale bursts using EGRET has been made by looking for multiple-$`\gamma `$-ray events arriving almost simultaneously (within a single spark chamber gate, i.e., 600 ns); it produced only an upper limit of $`5\times 10^2/\mathrm{yr}/\mathrm{pc}^3`$ (Fichtel et al. 1994). Searches by Cline et al. (1997) using archival data from the BATSE experiment found some events on millisecond time scales, but it was not possible to prove that they were not just classical $`\gamma `$-ray bursters. Also in an early experiment, first generation ground-based atmospheric Cherenkov detectors were used to search on the shortest time-scales predicted ($`10^7\mathrm{s}`$), giving an upper limit of $`4\times 10^2/\mathrm{yr}/\mathrm{pc}^3`$ (Porter & Weekes 1978). The possibility of using atmospheric Cherenkov imaging telescopes to detect wavefront events was considered elsewhere (Connaughton, 1996); for a single telescope with a camera with relatively small field of view it was shown to be difficult to recognize the bursts and distinguish them from background cosmic-ray events.

The technique described here can be used to search for microsecond $`\gamma `$-ray emission in the sub-GeV regime with a more sensitive ground-based instrument. The proposed detection technique will clearly identify these events. A short burst can be approximated as a thin plane wavefront of $`\gamma `$-rays traveling through space (wavefront event, hereafter), starting a multi-photon-initiated cascade when entering the earth’s atmosphere. Measuring the angular distribution of Cherenkov light from a short burst using an atmospheric Cherenkov imaging detector is a new approach to distinguish short bursts from background by cosmic rays. Previous efforts (Porter & Weekes 1978) used non-imaging Cherenkov detectors, and the suppression of cosmic rays was achieved by simultaneous recording by two telescopes separated at a distance of 400 km. Imaging enables the identification of a $`\gamma `$-ray wavefront event in a single telescope and the measurement of its arrival direction. With some modifications (§4) future ground-based $`\gamma `$-ray detectors using arrays of imaging telescopes, e.g., VERITAS (Weekes et al. 1999) and HESS (Hofmann et al. 1997), would be ideally suited for exploring this observational window of microsecond bursts.

In §2 we describe the phenomenology of the wavefront events and how they differ from single-particle-initiated air showers. In §3, using Monte Carlo simulations, we describe an analysis technique including timing characteristics to separate wavefront events from background arising from cosmic-ray showers. We also discuss the design considerations (§4) for the implementation in imaging Cherenkov telescopes. In §5, an estimate of flux sensitivity and the energy range of the existing Whipple Observatory 10 m instrument are shown.

## 2 Phenomenology of multi-photon-initiated showers

The technique proposed here builds upon the atmospheric Cherenkov imaging technique that has been pivotal in establishing the field of TeV $`\gamma `$-ray astrophysics (for review see Ong et al. 1998). The technique provides the highest sensitivity for detecting $`\gamma `$-ray sources above 200 GeV. In this technique, Cherenkov light from an electromagnetic atmospheric cascade is focused onto a camera of fast photomultiplier tubes. The images are analyzed to select $`\gamma `$-ray events while rejecting over 99.7% of cosmic-ray background events. This has led to the discovery of TeV $`\gamma `$-rays from the Crab Nebula (Weekes et al. 1989), PSR 1706-44 (Kifune et al. 1995), Vela (Yoshikoshi et al. 1997) and SN 1006 (Tanimori et al. 1998b) and from three active galactic nuclei: Mrk 421 (Punch et al. 1992), Mrk 501 (Quinn et al. 1996) and 1ES 2344+514 (Catanese et al. 1998). Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes have a high collection area ($`50,000\mathrm{m}^2`$ for a single 250 GeV $`\gamma `$-ray) making them uniquely sensitive to short time-scale phenomena.

Cherenkov light from a plane wavefront of multiple $`\mathrm{E}>`$ 200 MeV $`\gamma `$-rays can be detected with ground-based optical telescopes. A low energy multi-photon-initiated cascade differs significantly from a single-particle-initiated cascade e.g., a TeV photon or proton induced shower. Individual low energy $`\gamma `$-rays, when reaching the upper atmosphere, will typically generate one or a few (depending on energy) generations of electrons and positrons (collectively called electrons hereafter) by pair production and subsequent bremsstrahlung. The electrons, before falling below the critical energy, radiate Cherenkov light (6000 photons per electron for one radiation length) which can be collected by an optical reflector at ground level. The average number of Cherenkov photons associated with a single sub-GeV $`\gamma `$-ray is small, and therefore, its Cherenkov flash is too faint to be detectable at ground level. However, a large number of $`\gamma `$-rays arriving within a short time can produce a Cherenkov signal strong enough to be detectable by an atmospheric Cherenkov telescope.

Previous efforts to detect wavefront events were based on the fact that multi-photon-initiated showers have a large lateral extent. They can be detected by using relatively simple non-imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (Porter & Weekes 1978). For logistical and cost reasons it is difficult to operate two telescopes at a distance several hundred miles apart, solely dedicated to a search for bursts. On the contrary, existing imaging telescopes or future arrays of imaging telescopes, can be used in parallel with standard TeV $`\gamma `$-ray observations to search for wavefront events from microsecond bursts. These instruments also provide a significant improvement to previous efforts: the imaging capability provides clear recognition of the wavefront events from the measurement of the angular Cherenkov light distribution in the focal plane combined with the Cherenkov pulse width.

There are three unique characteristics of the Cherenkov light image produced by a wavefront event.

a) The first is the very large extent of the wavefront, which means it can be detected simultaneously by telescopes over vast distances. The images in all telescopes in an array (for example the VERITAS array) should be identical, regardless of their distance. This is different from single-particle-initiated shower images which are detectable over a limited area on the ground and, if detected, show a parallactic displacement between telescopes.

b) The second characteristic is the time profile of the Cherenkov pulse which can range from $``$ 100 nanoseconds to microseconds - and thus is quite different from Cherenkov flashes of conventional air showers showing durations of 5-30 nanosecond. The Cherenkov light time profile of relatively long (microsecond) bursts is dominated by the intrinsic width of the burst itself. However, the time profile of a wavefront event is also determined by the geometry of the multi-photon-initiated cascade: the detection is based on collecting Cherenkov photons that have been emitted by secondary electrons of the cascades initiated by $`\gamma `$-ray primaries with a large range of impact points. Cherenkov photons can be collected up to several hundred meters distance from the extrapolated impact point of the primary at ground-level. The intrinsic differences in time-of-flight between Cherenkov photons from different primary particle impact points causes multi-photon-initiated showers to have a minimum width of $`40`$ nanoseconds (see §3.3), assuming the time profile of the $`\gamma `$-rays is a delta function. The time structure of the images shows a concentric symmetry: the closer to the center, the earlier the pulse.

c) The third characteristic, which is hinted at by Figure 1, but is not entirely obvious, is that the images in the camera plane from a wavefront event are circular. They also will provide information about the arrival direction of the wavefront: the displacement of the image centroid from the optic axis of the telescope measures the arrival direction of the burst.

Figure 2 shows the simulated image (see §3.1) of a Cherenkov flash from a 300 MeV $`\gamma `$-ray burst (pulse width of 100 ns with 0.5 $`\gamma ^{}\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{m}^2`$; fluence = $`2.4\times 10^8\mathrm{ergs}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$) in the focal plane of the Whipple Observatory 10 m telescope. The background from night-sky fluctuations for a 100 ns exposure has been included and a standard image cleaning procedure (Reynolds et al. 1993) applied. The light distribution in the image center is relatively flat and smooth. The flatness of the light distribution arises from a uniform lateral density distribution of electrons. Shower fluctuations have very little effect on the Cherenkov light distribution because of the huge number of showers contributing to the Cherenkov flash. This results in a smooth light distribution with mainly statistical variations due to the night sky background and instrumental noise.

The Cherenkov light angular distribution is determined by the Cherenkov angle at a given height ($`0.4^{}`$ at 15 km height) and the multiple-scattering angle of the electrons in the cascade. The convolution of both effects leads to images that show a prominent plateau with a radial extension of $`0.3^{}`$ with a “halo” extending further with a scale of $`2^{}`$ F.W.H.M. These image shapes clearly differ from single $`\gamma `$-ray or cosmic-ray initiated Cherenkov images (Hillas 1996) and provide an important constraint for classifying these short bursts. Together, with the timing information of the Cherenkov pulse-shape, imaging can be used to reject background events from cosmic rays.

Because we are describing a burst detection technique, fluence and sensitive area are used to describe the detector properties and are defined as follows:

1. Fluence: A detector is triggered whenever the number of $`\gamma `$-rays during an integration time bin of some duration exceeds a threshold. In the following, we use the term fluence, the total energy S received from a given burst in units of $`\mathrm{ergs}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$ over the full duration of the burst. Since we are not trying to resolve individual photons during the burst such an integral measure is sufficient.

2. Sensitive area: Cherenkov photons emitted by an electron at 20 km atmospheric height are most likely spread over an area of 500 m in radius. However, a few photons, emitted from electrons with large multiple-scattering angles, reach up to 800 m from the impact point of the primary $`\gamma `$-ray. This results in a large sensitive area ($`2\times 10^6\mathrm{m}^2`$) over which individual $`\gamma `$-rays make a contribution to the total amount of light of a Cherenkov flash. The efficiency for a single sub-GeV $`\gamma `$-ray triggering a reasonable sized atmospheric Cherenkov imaging telescope ($`<\mathrm{\hspace{0.25em}20}`$ m reflector diameter) is essentially zero. For a 300 MeV $`\gamma `$-ray, the efficiency for contributing a single photoelectron in the photomultiplier camera of the Whipple Observatory 10 m telescope reaches a maximum of approximately 1%. The sensitive area is the area for which an individual low energy shower makes a significant contribution to the Cherenkov light flash.

## 3 Simulations

We have carried out Monte Carlo simulations to characterize the signatures of multi-photon-initiated cascades. The Monte Carlo code ISUSIM (Mohanty et al. 1998) was used which includes the detector model of the Whipple Observatory 10 m telescope equipped with a $`4.8^{}`$ field-of-view 331-photomultiplier camera (Quinn et al. 1999). The underlying goal was to achieve good background suppression while maintaining maximum detection efficiency.

A microsecond burst consists of multiple primary $`\gamma `$-rays producing independent cascades. We have generated $`10^8`$ individual $`\gamma `$-rays randomly spread out over a range of impact radius 0 - 1000 m to study the properties of bursts. The Cherenkov photons which hit the mirror and are reflected into the focal plane detector have been superimposed. In order to trigger on a wavefront event, the number of photoelectrons created in several photomultipliers used for forming a coincidence has to significantly exceed the number of photoelectrons initiated by fluctuations from the night-sky background. Therefore, a minimum number of $`\gamma `$-rays per square meter (Cherenkov photon yield $``$ number of primary $`\gamma `$-rays) is required to detect a signal in the photomultiplier camera (for trigger specifications, see §4). The fluence required for the detection of a wavefront event of given $`\gamma `$-ray energies is proportional to the number of incoming $`\gamma `$-rays$`/\mathrm{m}^2`$ during the time of the burst, ultimately determining the number of Cherenkov photons arriving at the detector.

### 3.1 Image characteristics

The technique of recording the Cherenkov images of single-particle-induced showers has proven to be effective in distinguishing $`\gamma `$-ray induced showers from the more numerous background images from cosmic rays. The usefulness of imaging to identify wavefront events is addressed in this section.

Figure 2 shows the Cherenkov light image from a simulated wavefront event (300 MeV $`\gamma `$-rays traveling parallel to the optic axis) in the 331-phototube camera of the Whipple Observatory 10 m telescope. The area and the gray-scale of the filled circles indicates the number of photoelectrons detected in each pixel. The fluence of the event in Figure 2 is $`2.4\times 10^8\mathrm{ergs}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$ (0.5 $`\gamma `$-rays$`/\mathrm{m}^2`$ at 300 MeV). Figure 3 shows the image of a wavefront event arriving $`1.13^{}`$ off-axis, and it can be seen that the image is off-set by $`1.1^{}`$ from the center of the camera. The image center can be used to measure the arrival direction of the burst. In both cases the light distribution shows a circular image. In the case of the image in Figure 3, the fluence is two times higher than in Figure 2 and a smoothly decreasing “halo” can be seen. The light beyond the central plateau ($`0.3^{}`$ in radius) is caused mainly by the multiple-scattering of relatively low energy electrons. This halo is not easily recognizable in Figure 2 (where the burst has a lower fluence), because the amount of light is comparable to the noise fluctuations from the night-sky background.

The structure of the image can be described by its circular shape and its characteristic radius. The image shape is described here using a combination of the parameters, Width and $`Length`$ (Hillas 1985). The $`Eccentricity`$ of an image, characterizing its circular shape is defined by: $`Eccentricity=\sqrt{1Width^2/Length^2}`$. A perfectly circular image would have an $`Eccentricity`$ equals zero. The radial extend of the images is described by $`Radius`$, defined by: $`Radius=(Width+Length)/2`$. The $`Radius`$ and $`Eccentricity`$ distribution for wavefront events (individual $`\gamma `$-rays of 200 MeV-5 GeV sampled from a power-law distribution with a differential spectral index of -2.5) are shown in Figure 4b and Figure 5a, respectively. The $`Radius`$ of the images is well defined and substantially bigger than for most cosmic-ray showers. A selection of images with $`Radius`$ $`>0.70^{}`$ would reject most cosmic-ray images. The $`Eccentricity`$ distribution peaks at 0.2 (Figure 5a) which corresponds to mostly circular images, establishing their circular shape. Given the $`Radius`$ and $`Eccentricity`$ distribution of recorded cosmic-ray showers (dotted line in Figure 4b, 5a), a strong background suppression can be achieved in the search for multi-photon-initiated cascades.

An additional feature that can be used is the relatively smooth light distribution which is very different from most cosmic-ray shower images. The images from wavefront events reflect the fact that many showers contribute to an image: their light distribution is extremely smooth. The smoothness of an image can be quantified, e.g., by calculating the R.M.S. of the light content of all pixels.

### 3.2 Angular resolution

The image center position provides an estimate of the true arrival direction of a wavefront event. The angle $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ is the difference between the reconstructed and the true arrival direction in degrees. Figure 5b shows the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^2`$ distribution of simulated bursts with each burst containing energies between 0.2 - 5 GeV sampled from power-law of $`\mathrm{E}^{2.5}`$. The reconstruction accuracy also depends on the total amount of light collected and therefore the fluence of the burst. The angular resolution $`\sigma _\mathrm{\Theta }`$ is defined here so that 72% of the image centers would fall within a radius of $`\sigma _\mathrm{\Theta }`$. The resolution for a burst with a fluence of $`1.5\times 10^8\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$ is $`\sigma _\mathrm{\Theta }=0.12^{}`$. However, for a burst with a fluence of $`6.0\times 10^8\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$ the resolution is $`\sigma _\mathrm{\Theta }=0.06^{}`$ and improves approximately with the square root of the fluence.

### 3.3 Timing characteristics

Images of wavefront events have a characteristic shape, but even so, image analysis might not remove the background from cosmic-ray induced showers completely. The pulse shape of the Cherenkov light pulse provides an additional signature to identify and distinguish multi-photon-initiated cascades from single-particle-initiated air showers. Pulse shapes from cosmic-ray air showers are typically a few nanoseconds wide. Multi-particle-initiated showers from bursts show a minimum time scale of at least 40 ns.

We have used the Whipple Observatory 10 m telescope to record pulse shapes of cosmic-ray induced air showers utilizing a 4-channel digital oscilloscope (Hewlett-Packard 54540A) with a 500 Mhz sampling time. Four channels were used to record pulses from phototubes which were spread out over an area of $`0.5^{}\times 0.5^{}`$ in the focal plane. The trigger requires all four channels to ensure that the system would only record pulses from fairly extended images, similar to multi-photon-initiated events. Smaller images can be distinguished by imaging, e.g., by measuring their $`Radius`$ and $`Eccentricity`$. The oscilloscope readout was initiated whenever four channels exceeded a threshold of 30 mV with a time overlap of at least 10 ns. The length of each record was chosen to be 2 microseconds with a time resolution of 4 nanoseconds. The recording system including the photomultiplier, cables and amplifiers used was sensitive to pulse widths ranging from 10 ns up to several hundred ns.

Figure 6a shows the pulse shape of a typical Cherenkov light flash recorded with the Whipple Observatory 10 m telescope. In comparison we show (Figure 6b) the simulated pulse profiles from a multi-photon-initiated cascade from a 100 ns burst of 500 MeV $`\gamma `$-rays of two different pixels: in the center of the image (solid line) and a pixel $`1^{}`$ off-center (dashed line). The pulse profiles of the multi-photon-initiated cascade are broad and only slightly shifted with respect to each other. The fluence for the simulated wavefront event is $`1.1\times 10^7\mathrm{ergs}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$, about 7 times higher than the sensitivity limit of the technique using the Whipple Observatory 10 m telescope. It is important to point out that our measurement gives a limit for the background expected for a burst sensitivity $`1.1\times 10^7\mathrm{ergs}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$. Operating at a lower threshold might imply a higher background.

Figure 7 shows the distribution of pulse widths for a data sample consisting of 10,000 events taken during 6 hours of observation time. The longest pulse recorded shows a F.W.H.M. of 33 nanoseconds. It is important to notice, that the pulse widths presented here are broadened by 180 foot of coax cable (RG-58). The intrinsic pulse width of Cherenkov pulses are somewhat shorter. This clearly indicates that pulse profiles provide excellent background discrimination of cosmic rays. Note, that even with this relatively simple set-up a sensitivity of $`1.1\times 10^7\mathrm{ergs}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$ for bursts of 500 MeV $`\gamma `$-rays would be reached.

### 3.4 Other sources of background

A second background showing similar time profiles to those of multi-photon-initiated cascades could arise from fluorescence light of ultra-high energy cosmic-rays (UHECR) at E $`>10^{16}`$ eV. Although rare, they could constitute a background of slow pulses. The recorded image of the event will help to reject fluorescence events: the image would appear as an extended band through the camera, as opposed to a circular flat image from a wavefront of multiple $`\gamma `$-rays. The pulse profiles of fluorescence light depends on the impact parameter and the arrival direction of the UHECR-shower (Baltrusaitis et al. 1985). For the pixellation of the Whipple camera ($`0.25^{}`$), the pulse width of a UHECR-shower ranges from 70 ns to 350 ns for an impact parameter of 5 km and 1 km, respectively. Fluorescence light events can be distinguished from wavefront events by the average arrival time of photons (center of the pulse) in various pixels across the field of view. They differ according to the geometrical time-of-flight difference between the telescope and different parts of the shower. As a consequence, the pulses in different pixels of a fluorescence event should be substantially shifted with respect to each other along the shower axis, whereas the average arrival times of pulses from a wavefront event have a small intrinsic time spread and a circular symmetric arrival time pattern. Therefore, it is expected that even with a single telescope, rare fluorescence events could be eliminated.

Light flashes from meteors and lightning have to be considered as a potential source of background. The time constant of faint meteors is of order 10 msec or greater (Cook et al. 1980) and is not in the range of microsecond bursts. Lightning pulses are in the range of tens to hundreds of microseconds (Krider 1999).

## 4 Trigger criteria

The properties of images from wavefront events are vastly different than typical $`\gamma `$-ray images, for which imaging Cherenkov telescopes are usually optimized. Images from TeV $`\gamma `$-ray primaries exhibit a small angular spread requiring a trigger sensitive to an elliptical image extending over an area of $`0.15^{}\times 0.30^{}`$ in the field-of-view. Thus Cherenkov telescopes often have a trigger requirement of a two-fold (four-fold for high resolution cameras) coincidence. The large angular extent of wavefront images puts a very different requirement on the trigger geometry - covering a solid angle of $`1.5^{}`$ in diameter. The limiting factor in both cases is fluctuations from the night-sky background light. The signal to noise ratio needs to be optimized in order to achieve the highest sensitivity. In case of wavefront events, the image is bright within the central $`1.5^{}`$, the highest signal-to-noise ratio would be achieved by triggering on the total light covering the central $`1.5^{}`$ of the image. A high-fold coincidence over pixels could be used to trigger efficiently on wavefront events helping to reduce the random triggers arising from the night-sky background light fluctuations. Using a pixellation of $`0.25^{}`$ (see Figure 2), a high-fold coincidence of 40 pixels would provide a reasonable trigger condition.

Also, the timing characteristics of the trigger, providing a good sensitivity for wavefront events is different than for TeV $`\gamma `$-ray observations. Single $`\gamma `$-ray detection uses a typical coincidence time of 10 nanoseconds. Wavefront event recording would be based on the integration time scale in the order of 100 nanoseconds up to a few microseconds depending on the putative astrophysical burst time scale. It is important to point out that in case of wavefront detection an integration of the signal over the burst time scale is most efficient to increase the signal-to-noise ratio at the trigger level. To search for astrophysical phenomena whose emission time scale is uncertain a trigger operating at several different time scales in parallel is necessary, similar to the technique used for the Fly’s Eye detector (Baltrusaitis et al. 1985).

## 5 Sensitivity

The detection of bursts using the imaging technique as described in this paper involves two steps: triggering on the Cherenkov light flash associated by the multi-photon-initiated cascade and discriminating a wavefront event from cosmic-ray showers. Both requirements impact the sensitivity at a given energy and burst time scale. The sensitivity for a Whipple type 10 m telescope equipped with a $`4.8^{}`$ field-of-view camera with 331 pixels is estimated (see also Quinn et al. 1999).

The trigger threshold for the detection of short bursts is a function of the fluence of the burst, expressed in $`\mathrm{ergs}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$. The fluence is the product of the energy of the incoming particles and the number of particles per unit area impinging on the upper atmosphere. In order to trigger on a wavefront event we require 40 pixels to exceed the night-sky background fluctuations by $`3\sigma `$. This not only prevents triggering on night-sky background fluctuations, it also ensures a good image reconstruction. Figure 8 shows the fluence sensitivity as a function of energy for 100 ns and 1 $`\mu \mathrm{s}`$ burst time scale. For comparison to previous efforts we also show the sensitivity of the EGRET detector. EGRET had a sensitivity for bursts lasting for 600 ns where it records multiple events within one readout cycle. We have assumed here a collection area of $`0.15\mathrm{m}^2`$ and a minimum of 5 $`\gamma `$-rays to be detected. Over the energy range of 300 MeV to 1 GeV the sensitivity of the wavefront technique could exceed EGRET’s sensitivity by a factor of 100 to 500 for 100 ns bursts.

The energy threshold for the detection of wavefront events is limited to lower energies by the multiple scattering angle and by the Cherenkov threshold for radiation by electrons of 90 MeV at 20 km atmospheric height. This results in a natural barrier for the atmospheric Cherenkov technique. We have limited our simulations to energies between 200 MeV to 5 GeV.

## 6 Summary

We have shown that sub-GeV $`\gamma `$-ray bursts lasting for $`>`$ 100 nanoseconds to microseconds could be efficiently detected using a single ground-based imaging Cherenkov telescope. The technique described is based on previous attempts to detect multi-photon-initiated cascades from short bursts. However, we show for the first time that the angular Cherenkov light distribution together with the pulse shape can be used to advantage to search for short bursts with a single imaging telescope.

Measurements of Cherenkov pulse shapes of cosmic-ray induced showers indicates that pulse shapes from multi-photon-initiated cascades are well separated from background showers. A search for microsecond bursts would use this criterion as a first filter. If events with long pulse durations were found, image analysis could verify if those events are consistent with the very distinct image shapes of a multi-photon-initiated cascade. The image also contains valuable information of the arrival direction with an angular resolution of $`0.06^{}0.12^{}`$, depending on the fluence. The fluence sensitivity of the Whipple telescope with a microsecond trigger exceeds EGRET’s sensitivity by more than two orders of magnitude.

In addition, arrays of telescope could be used to further improve this technique. In contrast to air showers, wavefront events would appear identical in the field-of-view of arrays of telescopes with a typical spacing of $`100`$ m. Single-particle initiated air showers show a parallactic displacement because of the different distances to the shower core. In view of several proposed next generation detectors (VERITAS, HESS; overview see Krennrich 1999b), the implementation of this technique in telescope arrays could provide the highest fluence sensitivity of any existing $`\gamma `$-ray detector for microsecond bursts at sub-GeV - several-GeV energies.

This research is supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Energy.