Muon Track Reconstruction and Data Selection Techniques in AMANDA

• Main Authors: Ahrens, J, Bai, X, Bay, R, Barwick, S W, Becka, T, Becker, J K, Becker, K H, Bernardini, E, Bertrand, D, Biron, A, Boersma, D J, Boser, S, Botner, O, Bouchta, A, Bouhali, O, Burgess, T, Carius, S, Castermans, T, Chirkin, D, Collin, B, Conrad, J, Cooley, J, Cowen, D F, Davour, A, De Clercq, C, De Young, T R, Desiati, P, Dewulf, J P, Ekstrom, P, Feser, T, Gaug, M, Gaisser, T K, Ganugapati, R, Geenen, H, Gerhardt, L, Gross, A, Goldschmidt, A, Hallgren, A, Halzen, F, Hanson, K, Hardtke, R, Harenberg, T, Hauschildt, T, Helbing, K, Hellwig, M, Herquet, P, Hill, G C, Hubert, D, Hughey, B, Hulth, P O, Hultqvist, K, Hundertmark, S, Jacobsen, J, Karle, A, Kestel, M, Köpke, L, Kowalski, M, Kühn, K, Lamoureux, J I, Leich, H, Leuthold, M, Lindahl, P, Liubarsky, I, Madsen, J, Marciniewski, P, Matis, H S, McParland, C P, Messarius, T, Minaeva, Y, Miocinovic, P, Mock, P C, Morse, R, Munich, K S, Nam, J, Nahnhauer, R, Neunhoffer, T, Niessen, P, Nygren, D R, Ögelman, H B, Olbrechts, P, Pérez de los Heros, C, Pohl, A C, Porrata, R, Price, P B, Przybylski, G T, Rawlins, K, Resconi, E, Rhode, W, Ribordy, M, Richter, S, Rodríguez-Martino, J, Ross, D, Sander, H G, Schinarakis, K, Schlenstedt, S, Schmidt, T, Schneider, D, Schwarz, R, Silvestri, A, Solarz, M, Spiczak, G M, Spiering, C, Stamatikos, M, Steele, D, Steffen, P, Stokstad, R G, Sulanke, K H, Streicher, O, Taboada, I, Thollander, L, Tilav, S, Wagner, W, Walck, C, Wang, Y R, Wiebusch, C, Wiedemann, C, Wischnewski, R, Wissing, H, Woschnagg, K, Yodh, G
• Language: English
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: Astrophysics and Astronomy; Antarctic; South Pole; The Antarctic; Antarc*; South pole
• Online Access: http://cds.cern.ch/record/768165

The Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA) is a high-energy neutrino telescope operating at the geographic South Pole. It is a lattice of photo-multiplier tubes buried deep in the polar ice between 1500m and 2000m. The primary goal of this detector is to discover astrophysical sources of high energy neutrinos. A high-energy muon neutrino coming through the earth from the Northern Hemisphere can be identified by the secondary muon moving upward through the detector. The muon tracks are reconstructed with a maximum likelihood method. It models the arrival times and amplitudes of Cherenkov photons registered by the photo-multipliers. This paper describes the different methods of reconstruction, which have been successfully implemented within AMANDA. Strategies for optimizing the reconstruction performance and rejecting background are presented. For a typical analysis procedure the direction of tracks are reconstructed with about 2 degree accuracy.