An improved muon track reconstruction for IceCube

• Main Authors: Bradascio, Federica, Glüsenkamp, Thorsten
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: arXiv 2019
• Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics astro-ph.IM; High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena astro-ph.HE; FOS Physical sciences; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1908.07961; https://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. : Presented at the 36th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2019). See arXiv:1907.11699 for all IceCube contributions