2019/09/05 by Agnieszka Leszczyńska, M. Plum, Leszczyńska, Agnieszka +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Neutrino Physics Research #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1909.02258
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole is a multi-component\nparticle detector consisting of the IceTop surface array and the deep in-ice\nIceCube array. The foreseen enhancement of the surface instrumentation will\nconsist of plastic scintillator panels read out by silicon photomultipliers.\nThis additional detector component will calibrate the effect of snow\naccumulation on the IceTop tanks, improve the measurement of cosmic rays, and\nenhance the atmospheric background rejection for the high-energy astrophysical\nneutrino detection. Two scintillator prototype stations were deployed at IceTop\nin the austral summer of 2017/18 to test the detector design and have started\ntaking data. In order to understand the properties of the scintillator panel\nresponse a detailed Geant4 simulation of a single detector, including the\nphoton propagation and simulated SiPM response, is being developed and\nparameterized. We investigate the capabilities of the IceTop upgrade with an\noptimized layout of the new detectors and the accuracy of the reconstruction.\nWe will present the details of the simulation and reconstruction studies for\nthe proposed IceTop enhancement and report the capabilities of the combined\ninstallation.\n