The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has revealed the existence of sources of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. However, identification of the sources is challenging because astrophysical neutrinos are difficult to separate from the background of atmospheric neutrinos produced in cosmic-ray-induced particle cascades in the atmosphere. The efficient detection of air showers in coincidence with detected neutrinos can greatly reduce those backgrounds and increase the sensitivity of neutrino telescopes. Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) are sensitive to gamma-ray-induced (and cosmic-ray-induced) air showers in the 50 GeV to 50 TeV range, and can therefore be used as background-identifiers for neutrino observatories. This paper describes the feasibility of an array of small scale, wide field-of-view, cost-effective IACTs as an air shower veto for neutrino astronomy. A surface array of 250 to 750 telescopes would significantly improve the performance of a cubic kilometer-scale detector like IceCube, at a cost of a few percent of the original investment. The number of telescopes in the array can be optimized based on astronomical and geometrical considerations.

中文翻译：

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大气切伦科夫望远镜作为中微子天文学的潜在否决阵列

冰立方中微子天文台揭示了高能天体物理中微子来源的存在。然而，来源的识别具有挑战性，因为天体物理中微子很难从宇宙射线诱导的大气粒子级联中产生的大气中微子的背景中分离出来。与检测到的中微子同时进行的空气簇射的有效检测可以大大减少这些背景并提高中微子望远镜的灵敏度。成像空气切伦科夫望远镜 (IACT) 对 50 GeV 至 50 TeV 范围内的伽马射线诱导（和宇宙射线诱导）空气簇射很敏感，因此可用作中微子天文台的背景标识符。本文描述了小尺度、宽视场的阵列的可行性，具有成本效益的 IACT 作为中微子天文学的空气淋浴否决权。一个由 250 到 750 个望远镜组成的表面阵列将显着提高像冰立方这样的立方千米级探测器的性能，而成本仅为原始投资的几个百分点。阵列中望远镜的数量可以根据天文和几何方面的考虑进行优化。