On the potential of atmospheric Cherenkov telescope arrays for resolving TeV gamma-ray sources in the Galactic plane

Abstract The potential of an array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes to detect gamma-ray sources in complex regions has been investigated. The basic characteristics of the gamma-ray instrument have been parameterized using simple analytic representations. In addition to the ideal (Gaussian form) point spread function (PSF), the impact of more realistic non-Gaussian PSFs with tails has been considered. Simulations of isolated point-like and extended sources have been used as a benchmark to test and understand the response of the instrument. The capability of the instrument to resolve multiple sources has been analyzed and the corresponding instrument sensitivities calculated. The results are of particular interest for weak gamma-ray emitters located in crowded regions of the Galactic plane, where the chance of clustering of two or more gamma-ray sources within 1 deg is high.