Prompt and Conventional High-Energy Muon Spectra from a full Monte Carlo Simulation via $\texttt{CORSIKA7}$

TL;DR

This study uses CORSIKA7 simulations and PANAMA software to analyze high-energy muon spectra from extensive air showers, distinguishing between prompt and conventional muons to aid in understanding hadronic interactions relevant to neutrino detectors.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of CORSIKA7's EHISTORY option combined with PANAMA to differentiate muon origins and compare prompt muon fluxes with MCEq results.

Findings

Prompt muon spectra are obtained and characterized.

Comparison shows consistency with MCEq results.

Implications for neutrino detector background modeling.

Abstract

Extensive air showers produce high-energy muons that can be utilized to probe hadronic interaction models in cosmic ray interactions. Most muons originate from pion and kaon decays, called $\textit{conventional}$ muons, while a smaller fraction, referred to as $\textit{prompt}$ muons, arises from the decay of heavier, short-lived hadrons. The $\texttt{EHISTORY}$ option of the air shower simulation tool $\texttt{CORSIKA7}$ is used in this work to investigate the prompt and conventional muon flux in the energy range of 100 TeV to 100 PeV, utilizing the newly developed open-source python software $\texttt{PANAMA}$. Identifying the muon parent particles allows for scaling the contribution of prompt particles, which can be leveraged by future experimental analyses to measure the normalization of the prompt muon flux. Obtained prompt muon spectra from $\texttt{CORSIKA7}$ are compared to $\texttt{MCEq}$ results. The relevance to large-volume neutrino detectors, such as IceCube and KM3NeT, and the connection to hadronic interaction models is discussed.