Speaker
Description
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole has instrumented one cubic kilometer of ice by deploying digital optical modules (DOMs) in 86 drill holes, each containing a string of DOMs So far IceCube has used the GPS-determined location of the drill tower for the positions of DOMs in the transverse directions ($x$ and $y$) while the depth ($z$) is calibrated in situ. The large inter-string spacing makes higher precision (~1m) localization of the x and y positions of the DOMs in the ice challenging. This talk presents a new method for calibrating the positions of the DOMs. For a large selection of muon tracks, a maximum likelihood-based approach is used to determine the positions of DOMs. As a proof of concept, four central strings are studied to keep systematic uncertainties as low as possible. The method can find $x$ and $y$ positions to 0.2m as found using simulation corresponding to four days of data. In four days of real data, we find that for the $x$ and $y$ positions the results are consistent with nominal positions except for string 36. I will discuss how this method in combination with additional developments in IceCube calibration will provide improved event reconstructions, applicable to both existing and future data.
