http://arxiv.org/abs/1908.07961
IceCube is a cubic-kilometer Cherenkov telescope operating at the South Pole. One of its main objectives is to detect astrophysical neutrinos and identify their sources. High-energy muon neutrinos are identified through the secondary muons produced via charge current interactions with the ice. The present best-performing directional reconstruction of the muon track is a maximum likelihood method which uses the arrival time distribution of Cherenkov photons registered by the experiment’s photomultipliers. A known systematic shortcoming of the prevailing method is to assume a continuous energy loss along the muon track. This contribution discusses a generalized Ansatz where the expected arrival time distribution is parametrized by a stochastic muon energy loss pattern. This more realistic parametrization of the muon energy loss profile leads to an improvement of about 20% to the muon angular resolution of IceCube.
F. Bradascio and T. Glüsenkamp
Thu, 22 Aug 19
27/70
Comments: Presented at the 36th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2019). See arXiv:1907.11699 for all IceCube contributions