Accuracy of muon transport simulation

Abstract

Chain of calculations which have to be performed to predict any kind of signal in a deep underwater/ice neutrino detector necessarily includes the lepton propagation through thick layers of matter, as neutrino can be observed only by means of leptons (muons, first of all, due to their large ranges) that are generated in $νN \to l N$ interactions. Thus, the muon propagation plays a key role when analyzing data and it is important to understand clearly how transportation part of simulation chain contributes to total inaccuracy of final results. Here we consider sources of uncertainties that appear in Monte Carlo algorithms for simulation of muon transport. The trivial but effective test is proposed to measure the propagation algorithm accuracy. The test is applied to three MC muon transport codes (PROPMU, MUSIC, MUM) and results are reported.