IceTop as veto for IceCube: results

TL;DR

This paper evaluates IceTop's effectiveness as a veto for IceCube using five years of data, identifying potential neutrino candidates and discussing implications for future larger surface arrays.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of IceTop's veto performance over multiple years and explores its implications for designing larger surface detector arrays.

Findings

Identification of neutrino candidate events passing veto cuts

Assessment of veto efficiency for cosmic ray rejection

Implications for future surface array designs

Abstract

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory features both a kilometer-cubed detector between 1.45 and 2.45 km depth and an array of ice-filled tanks, called IceTop, located at the surface. The presence of both detectors at the same location allows for detailed studies of cosmic rays and their muon content in ice, while the lack of signals in the surface detectors can be used to identify muon tracks in the deep detector as neutrino candidates and to determine the veto efficiency of IceTop. While the solid angle coverage of the current detectors is limited, this has interesting implications for the design of a larger surface array. In this contribution, we present the results from this study applied to 5 years of data. We find a few interesting neutrino candidate events that pass the cuts designed to veto cosmic rays. Thorough simulations are necessary to establish the likelihood for these events to be astrophysical neutrinos or rare cosmic rays.