Licentiate thesis: Methods for high energy neutrino searches and calibration of photon detection efficiency in IceCube

by Henrik Johansson (SU Fysikum)

Friday 7 Nov 2008, 10:00 → 12:00 Europe/Stockholm

A4:1003

This thesis is a compilation of work performed in order to improve the understanding and capability of the IceCube neutrino telescope. The fundamental detector element is the digital optical module (DOM). A method is developed to compare the photon detection efficiency between DOMs using atmospheric muons. Analyses performed in 2000-2003 using the AMANDA-II detector discovered a class of signal like events suspected of being a detector artifact. The characteristics of these events are quantified in order to exclude them from the signal region. The reconstruction of high energy muon events has traditionally been difficult. Here a high energy reconstruction method based on extracting the Cherenkov wave front information is developed.