Measurement of the Muon Content of Air Showers with IceTop

14th International Conference on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics

物理学;天文学

Gonzalez, J.G.^1

University of Delaware, United States^1

关键词: Air showers;    Electromagnetic components;    Energy spectra;    Hadronic interaction models;    Mass composition;    Radial distance;    Surface components;    Systematic uncertainties;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/718/5/052017/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/718/5/052017

学科分类：天文学(综合)

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

IceTop, the surface component of the IceCube detector, has measured the energy spectrum of cosmic ray primaries in the range between 1.6 PeV and 1.3 EeV. IceTop can also be used to measure the average density of GeV muons in the shower front at large radial distances (> 300 m) from the shower axis. Wei present the measurement of the muon lateral distribution function for primary cosmic rays with energies between 1.6 PeV and about 0.1 EeV, and compare it to proton and iron simulations. We also discuss how this information can be exploited in the reconstruction of single air shower events. By combining the information on the muon component with that of the electromagnetic component of the air shower, we expect to reduce systematic uncertainties in the inferred mass composition of cosmic rays arising from theoretical uncertainties in hadronic interaction models.