An algorithm for the reconstruction of high-energy neutrino-induced particle showers and its application to the ANTARES neutrino telescope

A. Albert (1) , M. André , M. Anghinolfi , G. Anton , M. Ardid , J.-J. Aubert (2) , T. Avgitas (3) , B. Baret (3) , J. Barrios-Martí , S. Basa (4) , V. Bertin (2) , S. Biagi , R. Bormuth , S. Bourret (3) , M.C. Bouwhuis , R. Bruijn , J. Brunner (2) , J. Busto (2) , A. Capone , L. Caramete , J. Carr (2) , S. Celli , T. Chiarusi , M. Circella , J.A.B. Coelho (3) , A. Coleiro (3) , R. Coniglione , H. Costantini (2) , P. Coyle (2) , A. Creusot (3) , A. Deschamps (5) , G. de Bonis , C. Distefano , I. Di Palma , A. Domi , C. Donzaud (3, 6) , D. Dornic (2) , D. Drouhin (1) , T. Eberl , I. El Bojaddaini , D. Elsässer , A. Enzenhöfer (2) , I. Felis , F. Folger , L.A. Fusco , S. Galatà (3) , P. Gay (3, 7) , V. Giordano , H. Glotin (8, 9, 10) , T. Grégoire (3) , R. Gracia Ruiz (3) , K. Graf , S. Hallmann , H. van Haren , A.J. Heijboer , Y. Hello (5) , J.J. Hernández-Rey , J. Hössl , J. Hofestädt , C. Hugon , G. Illuminati , C.W. James , M. de Jong , M. Jongen , M. Kadler , O. Kalekin , U. Katz , D. Kiessling , A. Kouchner (3, 10) , M. Kreter , I. Kreykenbohm , V. Kulikovskiy (2) , C. Lachaud (3) , R. Lahmann , D. Lefèvre (11) , E. Leonora , M. Lotze , S. Loucatos (3, 12) , M. Marcelin (4) , A. Margiotta , A. Marinelli , J.A. Martínez-Mora , R. Mele , K. Melis , T. Michael , P. Migliozzi , A. Moussa , E. Nezri (4) , M. Organokov (13) , G.E. Păvălaş , C. Pellegrino , C. Perrina , P. Piattelli , V. Popa , T. Pradier (13) , L. Quinn (2) , C. Racca (1) , G. Riccobene , A. Sánchez-Losa , M. Saldaña , I. Salvadori (2) , D.F.E. Samtleben , M. Sanguineti , P. Sapienza , F. Schüssler (12) , C. Sieger , M. Spurio , Th. Stolarczyk (12) , M. Taiuti , Y. Tayalati , A. Trovato , D. Turpin (2) , C. Tönnis , B. Vallage (3, 12) , V. van Elewyck (3, 10) , F. Versari , D. Vivolo , A. Vizzoca , J. Wilms , J.D. Zornoza , J. Zúñiga

1 GRPHE - Groupe de Recherche en Physique des Hautes Energies
2 CPPM - Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille
3 APC (UMR_7164) - AstroParticule et Cosmologie
4 LAM - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille
5 OCA - Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur
6 UP11 - Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11
7 LPC - Laboratoire de Physique de Clermont
8 LSIS - Laboratoire des Sciences de l'Information et des Systèmes
9 UTLN - Université de Toulon
10 IUF - Institut universitaire de France
11 MIO - Institut méditerranéen d'océanologie
12 DPhP - Département de Physique des Particules (ex SPP)
13 IPHC - Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien

A novel algorithm to reconstruct neutrino-induced particle showers within the ANTARES neutrino telescope is presented. The method achieves a median angular resolution of $6^\circ $ for shower energies below 100 TeV. Applying this algorithm to 6 years of data taken with the ANTARES detector, 8 events with reconstructed shower energies above 10 TeV are observed. This is consistent with the expectation of about 5 events from atmospheric backgrounds, but also compatible with diffuse astrophysical flux measurements by the IceCube collaboration, from which 2–4 additional events are expected. A $90\%$ C.L. upper limit on the diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux with a value per neutrino flavour of $\text {E}^2\cdot \Phi ^{90\%} = 4.9 \cdot 10^{-8}\,\mathrm {GeV} \cdot \mathrm {cm^{-2} \cdot s^{-1}\cdot sr^{-1}}$ is set, applicable to the energy range from 23 TeV to 7.8 PeV, assuming an unbroken $\text {E}^{-2}$ spectrum and neutrino flavour equipartition at Earth.

Mots clés: neutrino: detector; neutrino: flavor; showers: energy; neutrino: flux; neutrino: UHE; atmosphere: background; ANTARES; angular resolution; IceCube

Domaines: Astrophysique [astro-ph]

A. Albert, M. André, M. Anghinolfi, G. Anton, M. Ardid, et al.. An algorithm for the reconstruction of high-energy neutrino-induced particle showers and its application to the ANTARES neutrino telescope. Eur.Phys.J.C, 2017, 77 (6), pp.419. ⟨10.1140/epjc/s10052-017-4979-2⟩. ⟨hal-01554915⟩