In this section we describe how well the IceCube detector will perform and show that it will reach the scientific goals described in Section 3. This performance depends crucially on signal detection efficiency, background rejection, and calibration of the detector response to high-level variables such as energy and direction and low-level variables such as hit times and amplitudes. Therefore, estimates of IceCube signal sensitivities and limit levels for a variety of potential signals are given, as well as descriptions of techniques for high-level calibration of the detector response (low-level calibrations are discussed separately in section 7). We also describe studies of the detector configuration in order to maximize detector performance.
