Towards a more robust reconstruction method for IceCube's real-time program

Abstract

Sources of astrophysical neutrinos can potentially be discovered through the detection of neutrinos in coincidence with electromagnetic counterparts. Real-time alerts generated by IceCube play an important role in this search, acting as triggers for follow-up observations with instruments sensitive to electromagnetic signals in various wavelengths. In previous studies, we investigated the treatment of the systematic uncertainties on the reconstruction method currently used in IceCube's real-time program, concluding that a new approach, more robust against systematic variations, is needed. Here we present the state-of-the-art of these analyses, and discuss a modification to an already-existing and reliable reconstruction method that results in an improved solution under many metrics. The proposed reconstruction method is faster, more precise, and significantly less influenced by systematic uncertainties, than the current one. This system provides a more robust estimate of angular uncertainties than the previous algorithm, making it a solid benchmark for real-time event analyses.

arXiv commentPresented at the 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2023). See arXiv:2307.13047 for all IceCube contributions

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