Observations of the Crab Nebula and Pulsar with the Large-sized Telescope Prototype of the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Abe, H.; Abe, K.; Abe, S.; Aguasca-Cabot, A.; Agudo, I.; Alvarez Crespo, N.; Antonelli, L. A.; Aramo, C.; Arbet-Engels, A.; Arcaro, C.; Artero, M.; Asano, K.; Aubert, P.; Baktash, A.; Bamba, A.; Baquero Larriva, A.; Baroncelli, L.; Barres de Almeida, U.; Barrio, J. A.; Batkovic, I.; Baxter, J.; Becerra González, J.; Bernardini, E.; Bernardos, M. I.; Bernete Medrano, J.; Berti, A.; Bhattacharjee, P.; Biederbeck, N.; Bigongiari, C.; Bissaldi, E.; Blanch, O.; Bonnoli, G.; Bordas, P.; Borghese, A.; Bulgarelli, A.; Burelli, I.; Buscemi, M.; Cardillo, M.; Caroff, S.; Carosi, A.; Cassol, F.; Cauz, D.; Ceribella, G.; Chai, Y.; Cheng, K.; Chiavassa, A.; Chikawa, M.; Chytka, L.; Cifuentes, A.; Contreras, J. L.; Cortina, J.; Costantini, H.; D'Amico, G.; Dalchenko, M.; De Angelis, A.; de Bony de Lavergne, M.; De Lotto, B.; de Menezes, R.; Deleglise, G.; Delgado, C.; Delgado Mengual, J.; della Volpe, D.; Dellaiera, M.; Depaoli, D.; Di Piano, A.; Di Pierro, F.; Di Tria, R.; Di Venere, L.; Díaz, C.; Dominik, R. M.; Dominis Prester, D.; Donini, A.; Dorner, D.; Doro, M.; Elsässer, D.; Emery, G.; Escudero, J.; Fallah Ramazani, V.; Ferrara, G.; Ferrarotto, F.; Fiasson, A.; Freixas Coromina, L.; Fröse, S.; Fukami, S.; Fukazawa, Y.; Garcia, E.; Garcia López, R.; Gasbarra, C.; Gasparrini, D.; Geyer, F.; Paiva, J. Giesbrecht; Giglietto, N.; Giordano, F.; Giro, E.; Gliwny, P.; Godinovic, N.; Grau, R.; Green, D.; Green, J.; Gunji, S. et al.
Bibliographical reference

The Astrophysical Journal

Advertised on:
10
2023
Number of authors
290
IAC number of authors
8
Citations
16
Refereed citations
8
Description
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a next-generation ground-based observatory for gamma-ray astronomy at very high energies. The Large-Sized Telescope prototype (LST-1) is located at the CTA-North site, on the Canary Island of La Palma. LSTs are designed to provide optimal performance in the lowest part of the energy range covered by CTA, down to ≃20 GeV. LST-1 started performing astronomical observations in 2019 November, during its commissioning phase, and it has been taking data ever since. We present the first LST-1 observations of the Crab Nebula, the standard candle of very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy, and use them, together with simulations, to assess the performance of the telescope. LST-1 has reached the expected performance during its commissioning period-only a minor adjustment of the preexisting simulations was needed to match the telescope's behavior. The energy threshold at trigger level is around 20 GeV, rising to ≃30 GeV after data analysis. Performance parameters depend strongly on energy, and on the strength of the gamma-ray selection cuts in the analysis: angular resolution ranges from 0.°12-0.°40, and energy resolution from 15%-50%. Flux sensitivity is around 1.1% of the Crab Nebula flux above 250 GeV for a 50 hr observation (12% for 30 minutes). The spectral energy distribution (in the 0.03-30 TeV range) and the light curve obtained for the Crab Nebula agree with previous measurements, considering statistical and systematic uncertainties. A clear periodic signal is also detected from the pulsar at the center of the Nebula.
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