Speaker
Description
Neutrino point-source searches with IceCube rely on accurate directional reconstruction, requiring realistic simulation of all pulse types in the detector. Afterpulses, delayed secondary pulses in photomultiplier tubes caused by ionization of residual gas, are currently simulated based on laboratory measurements rather than in-ice data, and may not fully capture detector-specific behavior. This limitation is particularly important for high-energy events, where large photoelectron yields can produce more afterpulses and bias the charge and timing information used for directional reconstruction. In this work, we perform an in-situ study of afterpulses using IceCube data and develop an improved model for their time and charge distributions, enabling more realistic afterpulse treatment in simulation.
