In imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope (IACT) arrays, the standard method of statistically inferring the existence of a source is based on the maximum likelihood method of Li&Ma (1983). We present a new statistical approach, also based on maximum likelihood theory, which takes into account a priori knowledge of the source light curve. This approach is especially useful for observations of rapidly decaying gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). We also discuss results established by using this technique to analyze VERITAS GRB observations.
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