Simulation study for the future IceCube-Gen2 surface array

TL;DR

This paper presents a simulation study of the proposed IceCube-Gen2 surface array, evaluating its potential to detect cosmic rays and enhance the observatory's capabilities in understanding astrophysical accelerators.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed simulation analysis of the IceCube-Gen2 surface array's response to air showers, informing its design and scientific potential.

Findings

The surface array can effectively detect high-energy cosmic rays.

Simulation results support the feasibility of the proposed detector design.

The array will improve measurements of the Galactic-extragalactic transition.

Abstract

The next generation of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, IceCube-Gen2, will constitute a much larger detector, increasing the rate of high-energy neutrinos. IceCube-Gen2 will address the long-standing questions about astrophysical accelerators. The experiment will also include a surface air-shower detector which will allow for measurements of cosmic rays in the energy region where a transition between Galactic and extragalactic accelerators is expected. As a baseline design for the surface detector, we consider a surface array above the optical in-ice array consisting of the same type of stations used for the IceTop enhancement, i.e., scintillation detectors and radio antennas. In order to better understand the capabilities of such an array, we performed simulations of its response to air showers, including both detector types. We will show the results of this simulation study and discuss the prospects for the surface array of IceCube-Gen2.