MACE telescope: data analysis package

The MACE gamma-ray telescope has the capability to observe Galactic and extra-galactic sources in the sky at very high energy (VHE; E > 20 GeV). The detection principle of MACE telescope is based on the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Technique (IACT). Whenever an ultra-relativistic cosmic ray particle or VHE gamma-ray from an astrophysical source enters into the Earth's atmosphere, a cascade of relativistic particles and photons is initiated. Such a cascade is known as extensive air shower (EAS). The secondary relativistic charged particles, produced in the EAS, eventually generate a large number of Cherenkov photons which are detected by the telescope to form an image of the air shower at the camera. Since the shapes of the cascades are different for the different types of primary particles, the images of the air showers initiated by gamma rays and cosmic-ray particles (mainly proton) show some fundamental differences at the camera of the telescope. These differences are used to segregate cosmic-ray background to detect VHE gamma-rays coming from an astrophysical source. The MAP software provides a single platform for end-to-end analysis of the data collected by MACE telescope to study various astrophysical objects in gamma-ray energies. The package is developed in C⁺⁺ using ROOT data analysis framework. MAP also provides various user interfaces, developed in TCL/Tk, to make the analysis user-friendly.