The next generation of imaging air Cherenkov telescopes (IACT) will aim to lower the energy threshold accessible to earthbound gamma-ray astronomy down to 20-40 GeV. Based on the experience with the design of the MAGIC telescope now being commissioned, we started the design of the next major Cherenkov telescope of 30 meters diameter and with a novel camera of high quantum efficiency hybrid photodetectors (HPDs). In this paper we present the expected performance of such an IACT which will lower the energy threshold down to around 5 GeV, the practical limit at which the secondary particles produce enough Cherenkov photons. We also discuss the challenges arising from the different background (mainly due to the cosmic ray electrons instead of cosmic ray hadrons) at such a low energy threshold and the achievable sensitivity for a single such telescopes.
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