Correction of Single Photon or Particle Timing Measurements for Multiparticle Events

Abstract

In particle time of flight or photon timing measurements, usually only the first event can be timed. An algorithm is derived which uses the measured distribution of first arrivals and a measured or assumed distribution of events per sweep to generate the desired distribution of all arrivals. The theory is shown to work at all values of the average count rate per sweep by comparison with computer simulated experiments. It is found that the optimum recovery of information at long times occurs at an average count rate per sweep of 1.