Density of GeV muons in air showers measured with IceTop

Abstract

We present a measurement of the density of GeV muons in near-vertical air showers using three years of data recorded by the IceTop array at the South Pole. Depending on the shower size, the muon densities have been measured at lateral distances between 200 m and 1000 m. From these lateral distributions, we derive the muon densities as functions of energy at reference distances of 600 m and 800 m for primary energies between 2.5 PeV and 40 PeV and between 9 PeV and 120 PeV, respectively. The muon densities are determined using, as a baseline, the hadronic interaction model Sibyll 2.1 together with various composition models. The measurements are consistent with the predicted muon densities within these baseline interaction and composition models. The measured muon densities have also been compared to simulations using the post-LHC models EPOS-LHC and QGSJet-II.04. The result of this comparison is that the post-LHC models together with any given composition model yield higher muon densities than observed. This is in contrast to the observations above 1 EeV where all model simulations yield for any mass composition lower muon densities than the measured ones. The post-LHC models in general feature higher muon densities so that the agreement with experimental data at the highest energies is improved but the muon densities are not correct in the energy range between 2.5 PeV and about 100 PeV.

20 pages, 17 captioned figures

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• Hadronic Multiparticle Production at Ultra-High Energies and Extensive Air Showers
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• Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays: The Intersection of the Cosmic and Energy Frontiers
• Sibyll${}^{★}$
• Determination of the Cosmic-Ray Chemical Composition: Open Issues and Prospects
• Hypothetical Lorentz invariance violation and the muon content of extensive air showers
• Deep learning method for identifying mass composition of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays
• Muon lateral distribution function of extensive air showers: results of the Sydney University Giant Air-shower Recorder versus modern Monte-Carlo simulations
• Studying the mass sensitivity of air-shower observables using simulated cosmic rays
• Looking forward to forward physics at the CERN's LHC
• Measurement of attenuation length of the muon content in extensive air showers from 0.3 to 30 PeV with LHAASO
• Measurement of the mean number of muons with energies above 500 GeV in air showers detected with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory
• The Forward Physics Facility at the High-Luminosity LHC
• Unified Origin of Dirac Neutrino and Asymmetric Dark Matter Masses via a Dirac-Type Leptogenesis
• Recent results of cosmic-ray studies with IceTop at the IceCube Neutrino