The Scintillator Upgrade of IceTop: Performance of the prototype array

TL;DR

The paper reports on the performance and initial results of a scintillator detector prototype array designed to upgrade IceTop, aiming to improve air shower measurements and reduce systematic uncertainties in cosmic ray studies.

Contribution

It introduces a new scintillator detector design for IceTop, demonstrating its performance and operational results over a year of deployment.

Findings

Successful detection of air showers in coincidence with IceTop

Effective mitigation of snow effects on shower reconstruction

Operational stability of the prototype stations over one year

Abstract

The IceCube Collaboration foresees to upgrade IceTop, the present surface array, with scintillator detectors augmented by radio antennas. As one of several goals the scintillator detectors will be used to measure and mitigate the effects of snow accumulation on the IceTop tanks: the increasing energy threshold and efficiency loss are nowadays the sources of the largest systematic uncertainties in shower reconstruction and mass composition analysis. In addition, the upgrade will provide useful experience for the development of next generation neutrino detectors proposed for the South Pole. In the Austral summer season, 2017-2018 two full "stations" were installed near the center of the IceTop array. Each station features custom-designed electronics and consists of seven detectors, each having an active area of 1.5m$^{2}$ plastic scintillator and wavelength shifting fibers read out by a Silicon Photomultiplier. In this contribution we review the detector design and performance, and show results from more than one year of operation of the prototype stations. During that year several thousand air shower events have been measured in coincidence with IceTop.