| RAVEN is a suite of Monte Carlo simulation programs written at the University of Wisconsin for AMANDA, the Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array. RAVEN (Radiating AMANDA Virtual Events, Numerically) is intended to be a comprehensive treatment of most signals and backgrounds present in AMANDA.; This document describes the physics built into RAVEN, especially the generation and propagation of high-energy (multi-GeV) muons and of light in ice with and without scattering impurities. It describes the design and implementation of the software, and contains an appendix which describes how to install and use the system. An comparison of RAVEN to limits that are calculable analytically (ice without scattering, and ice with diffusive propagation of light) is presented. A glossary is provided for terms which may be unfamiliar to readers outside the field.; Applications of RAVEN presented in the text include a simulation of showers produced by supernovae under various assumptions of ice properties. An estimated signal excess of 27 sigma is predicted for a supernova at the center of the galaxy, for the expanded 11-string array currently under construction at the South Pole.; The design of a muon neutrino filter is also presented, which enhances the neutrino event rate relative to cosmic ray muons in the data stream. In presenting the filter, the statistical properties of four-string AMANDA-B data taken in 1996 are compared with events simulated by RAVEN as a check on the Monte Carlo. Finally, an analysis of the 11-string AMANDA array is carried out, predicting atmospheric neutrino and cosmic ray muon rates for three different detector geometries, and a proposal is made for a {dollar}nusbmu{dollar} filter for the expanded array.; This document can be found in PostScript form at: http://alizarin.physics.wisc.edu/jacobsen... |
