## 7 Discussion and Conclusions  
This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the integration of temporal parameters into the gamma/hadron separation algorithm used in the context of the ASTRI Mini-Array Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs). Our primary objective was to enhance the discrimination capabilities between gamma-ray and hadron-induced showers by selecting a subset of temporal parameters that provide unique and complementary information about the temporal dynamics of the Cherenkov showers. The correlation analysis revealed significant relationships among various temporal parameters, allowing us to identify and exclude redundant features. By carefully selecting eight key parameters--T_RMS, T_GRAD, T_COHER, T_RMS_W, T_LAC, LEN_ST, LEN_DT, and LEN_ST_NORM--we were able to capture diverse aspects of the shower characteristics, ultimately improving the model's performance. The introduction of these temporal parameters into the Random Forest (RF) model resulted in a notable enhancement of the gamma/hadron separation, as evidenced by the increase in the Quality Factor (QF) from 3.32 to 3.68, representing an improvement of approximately 10.8% compared to the current procedure implemented in A-SciSoft and used as a benchmark. This improvement underscores the effectiveness of the selected parameters in refining the discrimination process. Although the improvement is concentrated only at the lowest energies, the result is to be considered promising in every way for observations for which the lowest energies  
Figure 11: **(left)** On-axis energy resolution achieved with the inclusion of the temporal parameters, apart from the standard morphological and stereoscopic ones, in the gamma/hadron separation procedure (orange points) against the benchmark method (i.e., with the use of standard morphological and stereoscopic parameters only, blue points). **(right)** Ratio between the on-axis energy resolutions achieved from the two different analyses. Lower values correspond to better performance. Figure 10: **(left)** On-axis angular resolution achieved with the inclusion of the temporal parameters, apart from the standard morphological and stereoscopic ones, in the gamma/hadron separation procedure (orange points) against the benchmark method (i.e., with the use of standard morphological and stereoscopic parameters only, blue points). **(right)** Ratio between the on-axis angular resolutions achieved from the two different analyses. Lower values correspond to better performance. are particularly important, such as observations of transients and, in general, of extragalactic objects. The more pronounced impact of temporal parameters at lower energies (below \(\sim\)1.5 TeV) can be attributed to several key factors. At these energies, the Cherenkov showers tend to be less developed and have lower photon densities, making the morphological differences between gamma and hadron events more subtle. The temporal evolution of the shower becomes particularly important in this regime as it provides complementary information that the standard morphological parameters alone cannot effectively capture. Additionally, at lower energies, the shorter duration and more coherent development of gamma-ray induced showers stands in greater contrast to the more chaotic temporal structure of hadron showers. This temporal distinction becomes less pronounced at higher energies, where both shower types produce stronger signals with more defined morphological characteristics, making the traditional spatial parameters alone sufficient for effective discrimination. In addition, it is worth noting that the impact of temporal parameters in gamma/hadron separation is expected to be much more efficient in the case of observations performed by a single telescope, since in this case the stereoscopic parameters are not accessible. The study of this use case, which is particularly important in view of the first ASTRI Mini-Array telescope observations (already ongoing), may be considered in future work.