PoS - Proceedings of Science
Volume 301 - 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2017) - Session Neutrino. NU-instrumentation
Pointing accuracy of the ANTARES detector: Moon shadow and surface array analysis
M. Sanguineti*  on behalf of the ANTARES Collaboration
Full text: pdf
Pre-published on: August 16, 2017
Published on: August 03, 2018
Abstract
The ANTARES detector is the largest neutrino telescope in operation in the North Hemisphere. One of the main goals of the ANTARES telescope is the search for point-like neutrino sources. For this reason both the pointing accuracy and the angular resolution of the detector are important and a reliable way to evaluate these performances is needed. One standard method used to verify the pointing capability of a detector and to determine the instrument resolution is to observe the Moon shadowing. This corresponds to the measurement of a deficit from a narrow solid angle region centred to the Moon position due to the absorption of primary cosmic rays and a subsequent reduced flux of secondary muons. The analysis of the ANTARES data in the interval between 2008 and 2015 shows the Moon shadow with 3.5σ significance and no evidence of a statistical significant shift from the nominal position. The results from a second, independent, study are also presented. This additional method to evaluate the pointing performance used the combined measurements of the electromagnetic component at sea level and the penetrating muons. A boat with a surface array of scintillators to detect charged particles was circled around the ANTARES telescope at various radii from its centre. The pointing performance was estimated measuring the angular correlations between the down-going showers detected by the surface array and by the muons detected underwater by the ANTARES detector. The results obtained from the two methods are consistent.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22323/1.301.1053
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