Related papers: Tests of Statistical Significance and Background E…
We describe a straightforward modification of frequently invoked methods for the determination of the statistical significance of a gamma-ray signal observed in a counting process. A simple criterion is proposed to decide whether a set of…
Background estimation is essential when studying TeV gamma-ray astronomy for extensive air shower arrays. In this work, by applying four applying four different methods including equi-zenith angle method, surrounding window method, direct…
The measurement of large scale anisotropies in cosmic ray arrival directions at energies above 10^13 eV is performed through the detection of Extensive Air Showers produced by cosmic ray interactions in the atmosphere. The observed…
Static gamma-ray detector systems that are deployed outdoors for radiological monitoring purposes experience time- and spatially-varying natural backgrounds and encounters with man-made nuisance sources. In order to be sensitive to illicit…
The measurement of large scale patterns or anisotropies in the arrival direction of high energy cosmic rays is an important step towards the understanding of their origin. Such measurements rely on an accurate estimation of the detector…
Several experiments in high-energy physics and astrophysics can be treated as on/off measurements, where an observation potentially containing a new source or effect ("on" measurement) is contrasted with a background-only observation free…
The study of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays, neutrinos and gamma rays is one of the most important challenges in astrophysics. The low fluxes of these particles do not allow one to detect them directly. The detection is performed by the…
Orbiting x-ray and gamma ray instruments are subject to large background count rates due to local particle fluxes in the space environment. The ability of an instrument to make calibrated measurements of the flux from a source of interest…
We consider several factors concerning the design of observing strategies in Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy experiments. First we consider the number of independent points on the sky one should observe given a fixed observing…
In High-Energy Physics experiments it is often necessary to evaluate the global statistical significance of apparent resonances observed in invariant mass spectra. One approach to determining significance is to use simulated events to find…
I develop a method for assessing the ability of an instrument, coupled with an observing strategy, to measure the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). It allows for efficient calculation of expected parameter…
The spatial distribution of the background events may affect the source detection capability of IBIS at high energies (> 200 keV) for both ISGRI and PICsIT layers. The observed background is found to be variable and spatially structured,…
Ground based Cherenkov telescope systems measure astrophysical gamma-ray emission against a background of cosmic-ray induced air showers. The subtraction of this background is a major challenge for the extraction of spectra and morphology…
Airborne gamma-ray surveys are useful for many applications, ranging from geology and mining to public health and nuclear security. In all these contexts, the ability to decompose a measured spectrum into a linear combination of background…
Very high energy gamma-ray astronomy based on the measurement of air shower particles at ground-level has only recently been established as a viable approach, complementing the well established air Cherenkov technique. This approach…
Analysis of pulsar timing data have provided evidence for a stochastic gravitational wave background in the nHz frequency band. The most plausible source of such a background is the superposition of signals from millions of supermassive…
Several classes of astrophysical sources contribute to the approximately isotropic gamma-ray background measured by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. In this paper, we use Fermi's catalog of gamma-ray sources (along with corresponding…
Accurate quantitative mapping of gamma-ray sources is critical for applications ranging from radiological emergency response and environmental monitoring to nuclear security and deep space exploration. Here, we show that integrating…
The lower energy thresholds of large wide-field gamma-ray observatories are often determined by their capability to deal with the very low-energy cosmic ray background. In fact, in observatories with areas of tens or hundreds of thousands…
Gamma ray emission lines resulting from accelerated particle bombardment of ambient gas can serve as an important spectroscopic tool for abundance determinations. The method is illustrated by considering the gamma ray line emission observed…