Studies of a muon-based mass sensitive parameter for the IceTop surface array

TL;DR

This paper develops a muon-based parameter derived from charge signals in IceTop to improve the measurement of cosmic ray mass composition, enhancing understanding of primary particle types at high energies.

Contribution

It introduces a new charge signal distribution method to estimate the mass of primary cosmic rays using IceTop data.

Findings

Proposed a charge signal distribution method for mass sensitivity.

Demonstrated potential for improved cosmic ray composition analysis.

Applicable to IceTop surface array measurements.

Abstract

IceTop is the surface instrumentation of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole. It is designed to measure extensive air showers of cosmic rays in the primary energy range from PeV to EeV. Air showers induced by heavier primary particles develop earlier in the atmosphere and produce more muons observable at ground level than lighter cosmic rays with the same primary energy. Therefore, the fraction of muons to all charged particles measured by IceTop characterizes the mass of primary particles. This analysis seeks a muon-based mass sensitive parameter by using the charge signal distribution for each individual cosmic ray event. In this contribution we present the analysis method for the mass-sensitive parameter and our studies of its possible application to the measurement of cosmic ray mass composition with the IceTop surface array.