Characterization of the Atmospheric Muon Flux in IceCube
Abstract
Muons produced in atmospheric cosmic ray showers account for the by far dominant part of the event yield in large-volume underground particle detectors. The IceCube detector, with an instrumented volume of about a cubic kilometer, has the potential to conduct unique investigations on atmospheric muons by exploiting the large collection area and the possibility to track particles over a long distance. Through detailed reconstruction of energy deposition along the tracks, the characteristics of muon bundles can be quantified, and individual particles of exceptionally high energy identified. The data can then be used to constrain the cosmic ray primary flux and the contribution to atmospheric lepton fluxes from prompt decays of short-lived hadrons. In this paper, techniques for the extraction of physical measurements from atmospheric muon events are described and first results are presented. The multiplicity spectrum of TeV muons in cosmic ray air showers for primaries in the energy range from the knee to the ankle is derived and found to be consistent with recent results from surface detectors. The single muon energy spectrum is determined up to PeV energies and shows a clear indication for the emergence of a distinct spectral component from prompt decays of short-lived hadrons. The magnitude of the prompt flux, which should include a substantial contribution from light vector meson di-muon decays, is consistent with current theoretical predictions.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1506.07981,
title = {Characterization of the Atmospheric Muon Flux in IceCube},
author = {IceCube Collaboration and M. G. Aartsen and K. Abraham and M. Ackermann and J. Adams and J. A. Aguilar and M. Ahlers and M. Ahrens and D. Altmann and T. Anderson and M. Archinger and C. Arguelles and T. C. Arlen and J. Auffenberg and X. Bai and S. W. Barwick and V. Baum and R. Bay and J. J. Beatty and J. Becker Tjus and K. -H. Becker and E. Beiser and S. BenZvi and P. Berghaus and D. Berley and E. Bernardini and A. Bernhard and D. Z. Besson and G. Binder and D. Bindig and M. Bissok and E. Blaufuss and J. Blumenthal and D. J. Boersma and C. Bohm and M. Börner and F. Bos and D. Bose and S. Böser and O. Botner and J. Braun and L. Brayeur and H. -P. Bretz and N. Buzinsky and J. Casey and M. Casier and E. Cheung and D. Chirkin and A. Christov and B. Christy and K. Clark and L. Classen and S. Coenders and D. F. Cowen and A. H. Cruz Silva and J. Daughhetee and J. C. Davis and M. Day and J. P. A. M. de André and C. De Clercq and E. del Pino Rosendo and H. Dembinski and S. De Ridder and P. Desiati and K. D. de Vries and G. de Wasseige and M. de With and T. DeYoung and J. C. Díaz-Vélez and V. di Lorenzo and J. P. Dumm and M. Dunkman and R. Eagan and B. Eberhardt and T. Ehrhardt and B. Eichmann and S. Euler and P. A. Evenson and O. Fadiran and S. Fahey and A. R. Fazely and A. Fedynitch and J. Feintzeig and J. Felde and K. Filimonov and C. Finley and T. Fischer-Wasels and S. Flis and C. -C. Fösig and T. Fuchs and M. Glagla and T. K. Gaisser and R. Gaior and J. Gallagher and L. Gerhardt and K. Ghorbani and D. Gier and L. Gladstone and T. Glüsenkamp and A. Goldschmidt and G. Golup and J. G. Gonzalez and D. Góra and D. Grant and P. Gretskov and J. C. Groh and A. Groß and C. Ha and C. Haack and A. Haj Ismail and A. Hallgren and F. Halzen and B. Hansmann and K. Hanson and D. Hebecker and D. Heereman and K. Helbing and R. Hellauer and D. Hellwig and S. Hickford and J. Hignight and G. C. Hill and K. D. Hoffman and R. Hoffmann and K. Holzapfe and A. Homeier and K. Hoshina and F. Huang and M. Huber and W. Huelsnitz and P. O. Hulth and K. Hultqvist and S. In and A. Ishihara and E. Jacobi and G. S. Japaridze and K. Jero and M. Jurkovic and B. Kaminsky and A. Kappes and T. Karg and A. Karle and M. Kauer and A. Keivani and J. L. Kelley and J. Kemp and A. Kheirandish and J. Kiryluk and J. Kläs and S. R. Klein and G. Kohnen and R. Koirala and H. Kolanoski and R. Konietz and A. Koob and L. Köpke and C. Kopper and S. Kopper and D. J. Koskinen and M. Kowalski and K. Krings and G. Kroll and M. Kroll and J. Kunnen and N. Kurahashi and T. Kuwabara and M. Labare and J. L. Lanfranchi and M. J. Larson and M. Lesiak-Bzdak and M. Leuermann and J. Leuner and J. Lünemann and J. Madsen and G. Maggi and K. B. M. Mahn and R. Maruyama and K. Mase and H. S. Matis and R. Maunu and F. McNally and K. Meagher and M. Medici and A. Meli and T. Menne and G. Merino and T. Meures and S. Miarecki and E. Middell and E. Middlemas and J. Miller and L. Mohrmann and T. Montaruli and R. Morse and R. Nahnhauer and U. Naumann and H. Niederhausen and S. C. Nowicki and D. R. Nygren and A. Obertacke and A. Olivas and A. Omairat and A. O'Murchadha and T. Palczewski and H. Pandya and L. Paul and J. A. Pepper and C. Pérez de los Heros and C. Pfendner and D. Pieloth and E. Pinat and J. Posselt and P. B. Price and G. T. Przybylski and J. Pütz and M. Quinnan and L. Rädel and M. Rameez and K. Rawlins and P. Redl and R. Reimann and M. Relich and E. Resconi and W. Rhode and M. Richman and S. Richter and B. Riedel and S. Robertson and M. Rongen and C. Rott and T. Ruhe and D. Ryckbosch and S. M. Saba and L. Sabbatini and H. -G. Sander and A. Sandrock and J. Sandroos and S. Sarkar and K. Schatto and F. Scheriau and M. Schimp and T. Schmidt and M. Schmitz and S. Schoenen and S. Schöneberg and A. Schönwald and A. Schukraft and L. Schulte and D. Seckel and S. Seunarine and R. Shanidze and M. W. E. Smith and D. Soldin and G. M. Spiczak and C. Spiering and M. Stahlberg and M. Stamatikos and T. Stanev and N. A. Stanisha and A. Stasik and T. Stezelberger and R. G. Stokstad and A. Stößl and E. A. Strahler and R. Ström and N. L. Strotjohann and G. W. Sullivan and M. Sutherland and H. Taavola and I. Taboada and S. Ter-Antonyan and A. Terliuk and G. Tešić and S. Tilav and P. A. Toale and M. N. Tobin and D. Tosi and M. Tselengidou and A. Turcati and E. Unger and M. Usner and S. Vallecorsa and N. van Eijndhoven and J. Vandenbroucke and J. van Santen and S. Vanheule and J. Veenkamp and M. Vehring and M. Voge and M. Vraeghe and C. Walck and M. Wallraff and N. Wandkowsky and Ch. Weaver and C. Wendt and S. Westerhoff and B. J. Whelan and N. Whitehorn and C. Wichary and K. Wiebe and C. H. Wiebusch and L. Wille and D. R. Williams and H. Wissing and M. Wolf and T. R. Wood and K. Woschnagg and D. L. Xu and X. W. Xu and Y. Xu and J. P. Yanez and G. Yodh and S. Yoshida and P. Zarzhitsky and M. Zoll},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1506.07981},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
36 pages, 39 figures