Calculation of the Cherenkov light yield from low energetic secondary particles accompanying high-energy muons in ice and water with Geant 4 simulations

TL;DR

This paper models and parameterizes the Cherenkov light yield and angular distribution from low-energy secondary particles generated by high-energy muons in ice and water using Geant 4 simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a new method to calculate the Cherenkov photon distribution from secondary particles accompanying muons, including a generic transformation technique for arbitrary track directions.

Findings

Quantified Cherenkov photon yield from secondary particles as a function of muon energy.

Developed a transformation method for angular distribution of Cherenkov light.

Provided parameterizations for use in neutrino detector simulations.

Abstract

In this work we investigate and parameterize the amount and angular distribution of Cherenkov photons, which are generated by low-energy secondary particles (typically $\lesssim 500 $\,MeV), which accompany a muon track in water or ice. These secondary particles originate from small energy loss processes. We investigate the contributions of the different energy loss processes as a function of the muon energy and the maximum transferred energy. For the calculation of the angular distribution we have developed a generic transformation method, which allows us to derive the angular distribution of Cherenkov photons for an arbitrary distribution of track directions and their velocities.