Charge Calibration of the ANTARES high energy neutrino telescope

TL;DR

This paper discusses the charge calibration process of the ANTARES neutrino telescope's photomultipliers, crucial for accurate signal measurement and physics analysis, including calibration methods, chip performance, and gain stability.

Contribution

It introduces the calibration procedures and performance assessments of the ANTARES photomultiplier electronics, enhancing the accuracy of neutrino detection.

Findings

Successful calibration of photomultiplier charge response

Stable gain over time demonstrated

Improved energy and track reconstruction accuracy

Abstract

ANTARES is a deep-sea, large volume Mediterranean neutrino telescope installed off the Coast of Toulon, France. It is taking data in its complete configuration since May 2008 with nearly 900 photomultipliers installed on 12 lines. It is today the largest high energy neutrino telescope of the northern hemisphere. The charge calibration and threshold tuning of the photomultipliers and their associated front-end electronics is of primary importance. It indeed enables to translate signal amplitudes into number of photo-electrons which is the relevant information for track and energy reconstruction. It has therefore a strong impact on physics analysis. We will present the performances of the front-end chip, so-called ARS, including the waveform mode of acquisition. The in-laboratory as well as regularly performed in situ calibrations will be presented together with related studies like the time evolution of the gain of photomultipliers