Performance of the MAGIC telescopes under moonlight

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dc.contributor.authorBarrio Uña, Juan Abel
dc.contributor.authorContreras González, José Luis
dc.contributor.authorDomínguez-Adame Acosta, Francisco
dc.contributor.authorFonseca González, Mª Victoria
dc.contributor.authorFidalgo, David Friedrich Carreto
dc.contributor.authorLópez Moya, Marcos
dc.contributor.authorNievas Rosillo, Mireia
dc.date.accessioned2023-06-17T22:18:33Z
dc.date.available2023-06-17T22:18:33Z
dc.date.issued2017-09
dc.description© Elsevier Science BV. Artículo firmado por más de diez autores. We would like to thank the Instituto de Astrof´ısica de Canarias for the excellent working conditions at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos in La Palma. The financial support of the German BMBF and MPG, the Italian INFN and INAF, the Swiss National Fund SNF, the ERDF under the Spanish MINECO (FPA2015-69818-P, FPA2012- 36668, FPA2015-68378-P, FPA2015-69210-C6-2-R, FPA2015- 69210-C6-4-R, FPA2015-69210-C6-6-R, AYA2015-71042-P, AYA2016-76012-C3-1-P, ESP2015-71662-C2-2-P, CSD2009- 00064), and the Japanese JSPS and MEXT is gratefully acknowledged. This work was also supported by the Spanish Centro de Excelencia “Severo Ochoa” SEV-2012-0234 and SEV-2015-0548, and Unidad de Excelencia “María de Maeztu” MDM-2014-0369, by the Croatian Science Foundation (HrZZ) Project 09/176 and the University of Rijeka Project 13.12.1.3.02, by the DFG ollaborative Research Centers SFB823/C4 and SFB876/C3, and by the Polish MNiSzW grant 2016/22/M/ST9/00382.
dc.description.abstractMAGIC, a system of two imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, achieves its best performance under dark conditions, i.e. in absence of moonlight or twilight. Since operating the telescopes only during dark time would severely limit the duty cycle, observations are also performed when the Moon is present in the sky. Here we develop a dedicated Moon-adapted analysis to characterize the performance of MAGIC under moonlight. We evaluate energy threshold, angular resolution and sensitivity of MAGIC under different background light levels, based on Crab Nebula observations and tuned Monte Carlo simulations. This study includes observations taken under non-standard hardware configurations, such as reducing the camera photomultiplier tubes gain by a factor ∼1.7 (reduced HV settings) with respect to standard settings (nominal HV) or using UV-pass filters to strongly reduce the amount of moonlight reaching the cameras of the telescopes. The Crab Nebula spectrum is correctly reconstructed in all the studied illumination levels, that reach up to 30 times brighter than under dark conditions. The main effect of moonlight is an increase in the analysis energy threshold and in the systematic uncertainties on the flux normalization. The sensitivity degradation is constrained to be below 10%, within 15-30% and between 60 and 80% for nominal HV, reduced HV and UV-pass filter observations, respectively. No worsening of the angular resolution was found. Thanks to observations during moonlight, the maximal duty cycle of MAGIC can be increased from ∼18%, under dark nights only, to up to∼40% in total with only moderate performance degradation.
dc.description.departmentDepto. de Estructura de la Materia, Física Térmica y Electrónica
dc.description.facultyFac. de Ciencias Físicas
dc.description.refereedTRUE
dc.description.sponsorshipMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO)
dc.description.sponsorshipGerman BMBF
dc.description.sponsorshipGerman MPG
dc.description.sponsorshipItalian INFN
dc.description.sponsorshipItalian INAF
dc.description.sponsorshipSwiss National Fund SNF
dc.description.sponsorshipCentro de Excelencia "Severo Ochoa
dc.description.sponsorshipUnidad de Excelencia "Maria de Maeztu"
dc.description.sponsorshipCroatian Science Foundation (HrZZ)
dc.description.sponsorshipUniversity of Rijeka
dc.description.sponsorshipDFG Collaborative Research Center
dc.description.sponsorshipPolish MNiSzW
dc.description.statuspub
dc.eprint.idhttps://eprints.ucm.es/id/eprint/46234
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.astropartphys.2017.08.001
dc.identifier.issn0927-6505
dc.identifier.officialurlhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2017.08.001
dc.identifier.relatedurlhttps://www.sciencedirect.com
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/18353
dc.journal.titleAstroparticle physics
dc.language.isoeng
dc.page.final41
dc.page.initial29
dc.publisherElsevier Science BV
dc.relation.projectIDFPA2015-69818-P
dc.relation.projectIDFPA2012-36668
dc.relation.projectIDPPA2015-68378P
dc.relation.projectIDFPA2015-69210-C6-2-R
dc.relation.projectIDFPA2015-69210-C6-4-R
dc.relation.projectIDFPA2015-69210C6-6-R
dc.relation.projectIDAYA2015-71042-P
dc.relation.projectIDAYA2016-76012-C3-1-P
dc.relation.projectIDESP2015-71662C2-2-P
dc.relation.projectIDCSD2009-00064
dc.relation.projectIDSEV-2012-0234
dc.relation.projectIDSEV-2015-0548
dc.relation.projectIDMDM-2014-0369
dc.relation.projectID09/176
dc.relation.projectID13.12.1.3.02
dc.relation.projectIDSFB823/C4
dc.relation.projectIDSFB876/C3
dc.relation.projectID2016/22/M/ST9/00382
dc.rights.accessRightsopen access
dc.subject.cdu359.1
dc.subject.keywordGamma-ray astronomy
dc.subject.keywordCherenkov telescopes
dc.subject.keywordCrab nebula
dc.subject.ucmElectricidad
dc.subject.ucmElectrónica (Física)
dc.subject.ucmFísica nuclear
dc.subject.unesco2202.03 Electricidad
dc.subject.unesco2207 Física Atómica y Nuclear
dc.titlePerformance of the MAGIC telescopes under moonlight
dc.typejournal article
dc.volume.number94
dspace.entity.typePublication
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relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery11e5fd8b-1a86-4f8d-85c6-135541232be4
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