Detection of short Gamma-Ray Bursts with CTA through real-time analysis

With respect to the current IACTs, CTA will cover a larger energy range (~20 GeV - 300 TeV) with one order of magnitude better sensitivity. The facility will be provided with a real-time analysis (RTA) software that will automatically generate science alerts and analyse data from on-going observations in real-time. The RTA will play a key role in the search and follow-up of transients from external alerts (i.e. from on-space gamma-ray missions, observatories operating at other energy bands or targets of opportunity provided by neutrinos and gravitational waves detectors). The scope of this study was to investigate the ctools software package feasibility for the RTA, adopting a full-field of view maximum likelihood analysis method. A prototype for the RTA was developed, with natively implemented utilities where required. Its performance was extensively tested for very-short exposure times (far below the lower limit of current Cherenkov science) accounting for sensitivity degradation due to the non-optimal working condition expected of the RTA. The latest IRFs, provided by CTA Performance, were degraded via effective area reduction for this purpose. The reliability of the analysis methods was tested by means of the verification of Wilks' theorem. Through statistical studies on the pipeline parameter space (i.e. minimum required exposure time), the performance was evaluated in terms of localization precision, detection significance and detection rates at short-timescales using the latest available GRB afterglow templates for the source simulation. Future improvements involve further tests (i.e. with an updated population synthesis) as well as post-trials correction of the detection significance. Moreover, implementations allowing the pipeline to dynamically adapt to a range of science cases are required. Prospects of forthcoming collaboration may involve the integration of this pipeline within the on-going work of the gamma-ray bursts experts of CTA Consortium.