THE WIDE-ANGLE AIR CERENKOV DETECTOR AIROBICC, A PROTOTYPE FOR A FUTURE LOW-THRESHOLD COSMIC-RAY DETECTOR

The novel wide angle air Cerenkov detector AIROBICC, built by the HEGR A collaboration, can be considered as a prototype for a future high se nsitivity, low threshold cosmic ray detector. The performance of AIROB ICC will be presented. Prospects for lowering the energy threshold and increasing the sensitivity while retaining a large angular acceptance and a high gamma/hadron separation power will be discussed.