The ASTRI-Horn telescope validation toward the production of the ASTRI Mini-Array: a proposed pathfinder for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

ASTRI-Horn is a small-sized Cherenkov telescope (SST) developed by the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) for very-high energy gamma-ray astronomy. It is characterized by a dual-mirror optical system and a curved focal surface covered by SiPM sensors managed by a non-conventional fast front-end electronics. Installed in Italy at the INAF "M.C. Fracastoro" observing station (Mt. Etna, Sicily), ASTRI-Horn has been developed implementing a complete end-to-end approach that includes all aspects from the design, construction and implementation of the entire hardware and software system to the final scientific products. ASTRI-Horn is the prototype for nine SSTs that will form the ASTRI mini-array, considered by INAF as pathfinder for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). This phase will permit to exploit previous experimented technologies for the realization of the telescope structure and mirrors in a large production scale. After a short description of the major results obtained by the prototype in Serra La Nave, the proposed design of the new telescope structure and the status of the production of the optics are described. Moreover a review about the integration and alignment strategies to reach the required performance of the mini-array is reported.