Advanced Event Reconstruction and the Study of Prompt Muons in Ultrahigh Energy Extensive Air Showers in IceCube

South Dakota School Of Mines And Technology, Rapid City SD

Investigators

Abstract

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has discovered an extraterrestrial component of high-energy neutrinos in the energy range between 20 TeV and 10 PeV, yet their specific sources remain unidentified. To better understand the atmospheric and astrophysical nature of these neutrinos, precise modeling of atmospheric muons and neutrinos in the corresponding energy region is among the top priorities. In a related field, there have been discoveries regarding the origin and propagation of Galactic cosmic rays in past decades. One key question concerns the transition to cosmic rays of extragalactic origin at ultrahigh energies. Answering this question requires reliable measurements of both the energy and mass composition of cosmic ray primary particles between 10^15 eV (PeV) and 10^18 eV (EeV). This group will develop new analysis methods for better determining the energies and directions of these very high energy particles based on the data obtained from the IceCube Observatory. The broader impacts of this project will be both educational and synergistic. This award will provide funds for the support of a graduate student and some travel. With its surface array IceTop, IceCube provides unique data for the study of cosmic rays in the entire Galactic to extragalactic transition region and the atmospheric muons and neutrinos induced by them. The goals of this award are: --The study of prompt muons in ultrahigh energy extensive air showers (EASs) with a new analysis technique. Comparing to other approaches, this technique has the unique advantage that the prompt muon signature is insensitive to the cosmic ray primary particle mass composition; --Characterization of the time residual fluctuation of particles in the ultrahigh energy EAS front and its relation to the angular resolution in a newly improved reconstruction algorithm that solved a long-standing problem in high energy EAS direction reconstruction in IceTop; --R&D toward a unified 3-dimensional reconstruction that derives cosmic ray primary mass and energy directly from IceTop and InIce coincident data. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.