Muon track reconstruction and data selection techniques in AMANDA

J. Ahrens, X. Bai, R. Bay, S. W. Barwick, T. Becka, J. K. Becker, K. H. Becker, E. Bernardini, D. Bertrand, A. Biron, D. J. Boersma, S. Böser, O. Botner, A. Bouchta, O. Bouhali, T. Burgess, S. Carius, T. Castermans, D. Chirkin, B. CollinJ. Conrad, J. Cooley, D. F. Cowen, A. Davour, C. De Clercq, T. DeYoung, P. Desiati, J. P. Dewulf, P. Ekström, T. Feser, M. Gaug, T. K. Gaisser, R. Ganugapati, H. Geenen, L. Gerhardt, A. Groß, A. Goldschmidt, A. Hallgren, F. Halzen, K. Hanson, R. Hardtke, T. Harenberg, T. Hauschildt, K. Helbing, M. Hellwig, P. Herquet, G. C. Hill, D. Hubert, B. Hughey, P. O. Hulth, K. Hultqvist, S. Hundertmark, J. Jacobsen, A. Karle, M. Kestel, L. Köpke, M. Kowalski, K. Kuehn, J. I. Lamoureux, H. Leich, M. Leuthold, P. Lindahl, I. Liubarsky, J. Madsen, P. Marciniewski, H. S. Matis, C. P. McParland, T. Messarius, Y. Minaeva, P. Miočinović, P. C. Mock, R. Morse, K. S. Münich, J. Nam, R. Nahnhauer, T. Neunhöffer, P. Niessen, D. R. Nygren, H. Ögelman, Ph Olbrechts, C. Pérez De Los Heros, A. C. Pohl, R. Porrata, P. B. Price, G. T. Przybylski, K. Rawlins, E. Resconi, W. Rhode, M. Ribordy, S. Richter, J. Rodríguez Martino, D. Ross, H. G. Sander, K. Schinarakis, S. Schlenstedt, T. Schmidt, D. Schneider, C. H. Wiebusch

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

241 Scopus citations

Abstract

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 1500 and 2000 m. 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° accuracy.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)169-194
Number of pages26
JournalNuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Volume524
Issue number1-3
DOIs
StatePublished - 21 May 2004
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • AMANDA
  • Neutrino astrophysics
  • Neutrino telescope
  • Track reconstruction

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