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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Replication Data for: Measurement of the mean number of muons with energies above 500 GeV in air showers detected with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

<b>Measurement of the mean number of muons with energies above 500 GeV in air showers detected with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory</b> <br><br> This data release accompanies results submitted to Physical Review D describing the measurement of the average multiplicity of TeV muons with IceCube. It contains the data necessary to reproduce the main plots from the paper (Figs. 7 and 9), i.e. the numerical results for the average number of muons with energies above 500 GeV as a function of primary cosmic ray energy. <br><br> For any questions about this data release, please write to analysis@icecube.wisc.edu. <br><br> Files included in this release: <ul> <li>A README file <li>Files including data to reproduce the results plots from the paper (see below for details) <li>An example python script showing how to read and plot the data </ul> <br> <u>What is in the files icecube_Nmu500_X_Y.txt:</u> <br> Y indicates wether the file contains values obtained from experimental data (Y="data") or air-shower simulations (Y="MC"). <br> X indicates the hadronic interaction model for which the plot is made. If Y="data", this means that the experimental data was interpreted using this model. If Y="MC", it means that the simulations were performed with this model. The three models included are Sibyll 2.1, QGSJet-II.04, and EPOS-LHC (see paper for references). The file with X="modelaverage" gives the average over the three individual results with the deviations from the average included in the systematic uncertainties. <br><br> Please see the README file for details on how the data is structured in the files.

Astroparticle Physics↗
NASA NTRS1985

Sub-luminal pulses from cosmic ray air showers

Some of the signals produced by air showers in scintillators possess a distinctive feature, a sub-luminal pulse (SLP) following the normal one with a time delay of approximately 1.5 r/c. The average amplitude of the SLP corresponds to an energy deposit of about 50 MeV, three times as much as is deposited in a typical scintillator by vertical minimum ionizing muons. The SLP account for approximately 5% of the energy deposited in the atmosphere by IR showers with energy 10 to the 10th power GeV at impact parameters 1 km. Assuming that these pulses are due to neutrons travelling with a speed slightly less than c, they provide a unique means of estimating E sub h, the energy deposited by slow hadrons, in showers of this very high energy. On the other hand, if not allowed for properly, these pulses are liable to cause errors in estimating the impact parameters of large showers from pulse width observations.

Linsley, J.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Expected rates with mini-arrays for air showers

As a guide in the design of mini-arrays used to exploit the Linsley effect in the study of air showers, it is useful to calculate the expected rates. The results can aid in the choice of detectors and their placement or in predicting the utility of existing detector systems. Furthermore, the potential of the method can be appraised for the study of large showers. Specifically, we treat the case of a mini-array of dimensions small enough compared to the distance of axes of showers of interest so that it can be considered a point detector. The input information is taken from the many previous studies of air showers by other groups. The calculations will give: (1) the expected integral rate, F(sigma, rho), for disk thickness, sigma, or rise time, t sub 1/2, with local particle density, rho, as a parameter; (2) the effective detection area A(N) with sigma (min) and rho (min) and rho (min) as parameters; (3) the expected rate of collection of data F sub L (N) versus shower size, N.

Hazen, W. E.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Composition of primary cosmic rays near the bend from a study of hadrons in air showers at sea level

Data on hadrons in air showers arriving at sea level were studied to find sensitivity to primary cosmic ray composition. The rate of showers which satisfy minimum shower density and hadron energy requirements as well as the rate of showers containing hadrons delayed with respect to the electron shower front are compared to Monte Carlo simulations. The data on the rate of total triggers and delayed hadrons are compared to predicted rates for two models of primary composition. The data are consistent with models which require an increasing heavy nuclei fraction near 10 to the 15th power eV. The spectra which are consistent with the observed rate are also compared to the observed shower size spectrum at sea level and mountain level.

Mincer, A. I.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Longitudinal development of muons in large air showers studies from the arrival time distributions measured at 900m above sea level

The arrival time distributions of muons with energies above 1.0GeV and 0.5GeV have been measured in the Akeno air-shower array to study the longitudinal development of muons in air showers with primary energies in the range 10 to the 17th power to 10 to the 18th power ev. The average rise times of muons with energies above 1.0GeV at large core distances are consistent with those expected from very high multiplicity models and, on the contrary, with those expected from the low multiplicity models at small core distances. This implies that the longitudinal development at atmospheric depth smaller than 500 cm square is very fast and that at larger atmospheric depths is rather slow.

Kakimoto, F.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Measuring the muon content of inclined air showers using AERA and the water-Cherenkov detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory

We present a novel approach for assessing the muon content of air showers with large zenith angles on a combined analysis of their radio emission and particle footprint. We use the radiation energy reconstructed by the Auger engineering radio array (AERA) as an energy estimator and determine the muon number independently with the water-Cherenkov detector array of the Pierre Auger Observatory, deployed on a 1500 m grid. We focus our analysis on air showers with primary energy above 4 EeV to ensure full detection efficiency. Over approximately ten years of accumulated data, we identify a set of 40 high-quality events that are used in the analysis. The estimated muon contents in data are compatible with those for iron primaries as predicted by current-generation hadronic interaction models. This result can be interpreted as a deficit of muons in simulations as a lighter mass composition has been established from X max measurements. This muon deficit was already observed in previous analyses of the Auger Collaboration and is confirmed using hybrid events that include radio measurements for the first time.

Abdul Halim, A. [Adelaide U.]↗
NASA NTRS1985

Search for tachyons associated with extensive air showers in the ground level cosmic radiation

Events detected in a shielded plastic scintillation counter occurring in the 26 microsec preceding the arrival of an extensive air shower at ground level with local electron density or = 20 m to the -2 power and the 240 microsec after its arrival have been studied. No significant excess of events (tachyons) arriving in the early time domain have been observed in a sample of 11,585 air shower triggers.

Masjed, H. F.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Testing hadronic-model predictions of depth of maximum of air-shower profiles and ground-particle signals using hybrid data of the Pierre Auger Observatory

We test the predictions of hadronic interaction models regarding the depth of maximum of air-shower profiles, X max , and ground-particle signals in water-Cherenkov detectors at 1000 m from the shower core, S ( 1000 ) , using the data from the fluorescence and surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The test consists of fitting the measured two-dimensional ( S ( 1000 ) , X max ) distributions using templates for simulated air showers produced with hadronic interaction models pos-, et--04, 2.3d and leaving the scales of predicted X max and the signals from hadronic component at ground as free-fit parameters. The method relies on the assumption that the mass composition remains the same at all zenith angles, while the longitudinal shower development and attenuation of ground signal depend on the mass composition in a correlated way. The analysis was applied to 2239 events detected by both the fluorescence and surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory with energies between 10 18.5 eV to 10 19.0 eV and zenith angles below 60°. We found, that within the assumptions of the method, the best description of the data is achieved if the predictions of the hadronic interaction models are shifted to deeper X max values and larger hadronic signals at all zenith angles. Given the magnitude of the shifts and the data sample size, the statistical significance of the improvement of data description using the modifications considered in the paper is larger than 5 σ even for any linear combination of experimental systematic uncertainties. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Analysis of a tau neutrino origin for the near-horizon air shower events observed by the fourth flight of the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna

In this work, we study in detail the sensitivity of the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) to possible ν τ point source fluxes detected via τ-lepton-induced air showers. This investigation is framed around the observation of four upward-going extensive air shower events very close to the horizon seen in ANITA-IV. We find that these four upgoing events are not observationally inconsistent with τ-induced EASs from Earth-skimming ν τ both in their spectral properties as well as in their observed locations on the sky. These four events as well as the overall diffuse and point source exposure to Earth-skimming ν τ are also compared against published ultrahigh-energy neutrino limits from the Pierre Auger Observatory. While none of these four events occurred at sky locations simultaneously visible by Auger, the implied fluence necessary for ANITA to observe these events is in strong tension with limits set by Auger across a wide range of energies and is additionally in tension with ANITA’s Askaryan in-ice neutrino channel above 10 19 eV. We conclude by discussing some of the technical challenges with simulating and analyzing these near horizon events and the potential for future observatories to observe similar events.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1975

Atmospheric effects and sidereal-diurnal variations in extended air showers

Observations are presented on the variations of extended air shower intensity with an average power of 1.4 x 10,000 and 1.4 x 100,000 particles at sea level. The effect of disintegrating particles and the essential role of cascades formed above the lower third of the atmosphere are examined. However, the authors failed to discover anisotropy of initial particles with an energy of 10 to the 14th power to 10 to the 15th power eV with an accuracy of up to 0.1%.

Efimov, N. N.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Testing of Large Diameter Fresnel Optics for Space Based Observations of Extensive Air Showers

The JEM-EUSO mission will detect extensive air showers produced by extreme energy cosmic rays. It operates from the ISS looking down on Earth's night time atmosphere to detect the nitrogen fluorescence and Cherenkov produce by the charged particles in the EAS. The JEM-EUSO science objectives require a large field of view, sensitivity to energies below 50 EeV, and must fit within available ISS resources. The JEM-EUSO optic module uses three large diameter, thin plastic lenses with Fresnel surfaces to meet the instrument requirements. A bread-board model of the optic has been manufactured and has undergone preliminary tests. We report the results of optical performance tests and evaluate the present capability to manufacture these optical elements.

Adams, James H.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Cosmic Ray-Air Shower Measurement from Space

A feasibility study has been initiated to observe from space the highest energy cosmic rays above 1021 eV. A satellite observatory concept, the Maximum-energy Auger (Air)-Shower Satellite (MASS), is recently renamed as the Orbital Wide-angle Collector (OWL) by taking its unique feature of using a very wide field-of-view (FOV) optics. A huge array of imaging devices (about 10(exp 6) pixels) is required to detect and record fluorescent light profiles of cosmic ray cascades in the atmosphere. The FOV of MASS could extend to as large as about 60 in. diameter, which views (500 - 1000 km) of earth's surface and more than 300 - 1000 cosmic ray events per year could be observed above 1020 eV. From far above the atmosphere, the MASS/OWL satellite should be capable of observing events at all angles including near horizontal tracks, and would have considerable aperture for high energy photon and neutrino observation. With a large aperture and the spatial and temporal resolution, MASS could determine the energy spectrum, the mass composition, and arrival anisotropy of cosmic rays from 1020 eV to 1022 eV; a region hitherto not explored by ground-based detectors such as the Fly's Eye and air-shower arrays. MASS/OWL's ability to identify cosmic neutrinos and gamma rays may help providing evidence for the theory which attributes the above cut-off cosmic ray flux to the decay of topological defects. Very wide FOV optics system of MASS/OWL with a large array of imaging devices is applicable to observe other atmospheric phenomena including upper atmospheric lightning. The wide FOV MASS optics being developed can also improve ground-based gamma-ray observatories by allowing simultaneous observation of many gamma ray sources located at different constellations.

Takahashi, Yoshiyuki↗
NASA NTRS1985

A search for sources of ultra high energy gamma rays at air shower energies with Ooty EAS array

A 24 detector extensive air shower array is being operated at Ootacamund (2200 m altitude, 11.4 deg N latitude) in southern India to search for sources of Cosmic gamma rays of energies greater then 5 x 10 to the 13th power eV. The angular resolution of the array has been experimentally estimated to be better than about 2 deg. Since June '84, nearly 2.5 million showers have been collected and their arrival directions determined. These showers are being studied to search for very high energy gamma ray emission from interesting astrophysical objects such as Cygnus X-3, Crab pulsar and Geminga.

Tonwar, S. C.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Air shower arrival directions measured at Buckland Park

The Buckland Park air shower array was operated for 3 years from 1979 to 1981 particularly for the study of anisotropies in the region of the knee of the size spectrum. The array which has been described in detail elsewhere was situated at a latitude of 35 S and had an effective size threshold of approx 3 x 10 to the 5th power particles (approx 3 x 10 to the 15th power Ev for vertical showers). A number of results from this experiment have already been published including anisotropy analyses (Gerhardy and Clay, 1983) and searches for very high energy gamma ray sources. The final distribution of measured shower arrival directions are presented here. These 1.3 x 10 to the 5th power events were selected as indicated in detail in Gerhardy and Clay (1983) and were essentially those events with well measured arrival directions. They are the same data set used in the above reference but no complete sky map has previously been presented.

Gerhardy, P. R.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Character of energy flow in air shower core

Energy per charged particle near the core of air showers was measured by 9 energy flow detectors, which were the combination of Cerenkov counters and scintillators. Energy per particle of each detector was normalized to energy at 2m from the core. The following results were obtained as to the energy flow: (1) integral frequency distribution of mean energy per particle (averaged over 9 detectors) is composed of two groups separated distinctly; and (2) showers contained in one group show an anisotropy of arrival direction.

Mizushima, K.↗
NASA NTRS1985

High energy hadrons in extensive air showers

Experimental data on the high energy hadronic component in extensive air showers of energies approx. 10 to the 14 to 10 to the 16 eV when compared with expectations from Monte Carlo simulations have shown the observed showers to be deficient in high energy hadrons relative to simulated showers. An attempt is made to understand these anomalous features with more accurate comparison of observations with expectations, taking into account the details of the experimental system. Results obtained from this analysis and their implications for the high energy physics of particle interactions at energy approx. 10 to the 15 eV are presented.

Tonwar, S. C.↗