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All-sky Neutrino Point-source Search with IceCube Combined Track and Cascade Data

The Astrophysical Journal 995:1 (2025)

Authors:

R Abbasi, M Ackermann, J Adams, SK Agarwalla, JA Aguilar, M Ahlers, JM Alameddine, S Ali, NM Amin, K Andeen, C Argüelles, Y Ashida, S Athanasiadou, SN Axani, R Babu, X Bai, J Baines-Holmes, A Balagopal V., SW Barwick, S Bash, V Basu, R Bay, JJ Beatty, J Becker Tjus, P Behrens, J Beise, C Bellenghi, B Benkel, S BenZvi, D Berley, E Bernardini, DZ Besson, E Blaufuss, L Bloom, S Blot, I Bodo, F Bontempo, JY Book Motzkin, C Boscolo Meneguolo, S Böser, O Botner, J Böttcher, J Braun, B Brinson, Z Brisson-Tsavoussis, RT Burley, D Butterfield, MA Campana, K Carloni, J Carpio, S Chattopadhyay, N Chau, Z Chen, D Chirkin, S Choi, BA Clark, A Coleman, P Coleman, GH Collin, DA Coloma Borja, A Connolly, JM Conrad, R Corley, DF Cowen, C De Clercq, JJ DeLaunay, D Delgado, T Delmeulle, S Deng, P Desiati, KD de Vries, G de Wasseige, T DeYoung, JC Díaz-Vélez, S DiKerby, M Dittmer, A Domi, L Draper, L Dueser, D Durnford, K Dutta, MA DuVernois, T Ehrhardt, L Eidenschink, A Eimer, P Eller, E Ellinger, D Elsässer, R Engel, H Erpenbeck, W Esmail, S Eulig, J Evans, PA Evenson, KL Fan, K Fang, K Farrag, AR Fazely, A Fedynitch, N Feigl, C Finley, L Fischer, D Fox, A Franckowiak, S Fukami, P Fürst, J Gallagher, E Ganster, A Garcia, M Garcia, G Garg, E Genton, L Gerhardt, A Ghadimi, C Glaser, T Glüsenkamp, JG Gonzalez, S Goswami, A Granados, D Grant, SJ Gray, S Griffin, S Griswold, KM Groth, D Guevel, C Günther, P Gutjahr, C Ha, C Haack, A Hallgren, L Halve, F Halzen, L Hamacher, M Ha Minh, M Handt, K Hanson, J Hardin, AA Harnisch, P Hatch, A Haungs, J Häussler, K Helbing, J Hellrung, B Henke, L Hennig, F Henningsen, L Heuermann, R Hewett, N Heyer, S Hickford, A Hidvegi, C Hill, GC Hill, R Hmaid, KD Hoffman, D Hooper, S Hori, K Hoshina, M Hostert, W Hou, T Huber, K Hultqvist, K Hymon, A Ishihara, W Iwakiri, M Jacquart, S Jain, O Janik, M Jansson, M Jeong, M Jin, N Kamp, D Kang, W Kang, X Kang, A Kappes, L Kardum, T Karg, M Karl, A Karle, A Katil, M Kauer, JL Kelley, M Khanal, A Khatee Zathul, A Kheirandish, H Kimku, J Kiryluk, C Klein, SR Klein, Y Kobayashi, A Kochocki, R Koirala, H Kolanoski, T Kontrimas, L Köpke, C Kopper, DJ Koskinen, P Koundal, M Kowalski, T Kozynets, N Krieger, J Krishnamoorthi, T Krishnan, K Kruiswijk, E Krupczak, A Kumar, E Kun, N Kurahashi, N Lad, C Lagunas Gualda, L Lallement Arnaud, M Lamoureux, MJ Larson, F Lauber, JP Lazar, K Leonard DeHolton, A Leszczyńska, J Liao, C Lin, YT Liu, M Liubarska, C Love, L Lu, F Lucarelli, W Luszczak, Y Lyu, J Madsen, E Magnus, Y Makino, E Manao, S Mancina, A Mand, IC Mariş, S Marka, Z Marka, L Marten, I Martinez-Soler, R Maruyama, J Mauro, F Mayhew, F McNally, JV Mead, K Meagher, S Mechbal, A Medina, M Meier, Y Merckx, L Merten, J Mitchell, L Molchany, T Montaruli, RW Moore, Y Morii, A Mosbrugger, M Moulai, D Mousadi, E Moyaux, T Mukherjee, R Naab, M Nakos, U Naumann, J Necker, L Neste, M Neumann, H Niederhausen, MU Nisa, K Noda, A Noell, A Novikov, A Obertacke Pollmann, V O’Dell, A Olivas, R Orsoe, J Osborn, E O’Sullivan, V Palusova, H Pandya, A Parenti, N Park, V Parrish, EN Paudel, L Paul, C Pérez de los Heros, T Pernice, J Peterson, M Plum, A Pontén, V Poojyam, Y Popovych, M Prado Rodriguez, B Pries, R Procter- Murphy, GT Przybylski, L Pyras, C Raab, J Rack-Helleis, N Rad, M Ravn, K Rawlins, Z Rechav, A Rehman, I Reistroffer, E Resconi, S Reusch, CD Rho, W Rhode, L Ricca, B Riedel, A Rifaie, EJ Roberts, S Robertson, M Rongen, A Rosted, C Rott, T Ruhe, L Ruohan, D Ryckbosch, J Saffer, D Salazar-Gallegos, P Sampathkumar, A Sandrock, G Sanger-Johnson, M Santander, S Sarkar, J Savelberg, M Scarnera, P Schaile, M Schaufel, H Schieler, S Schindler, L Schlickmann, B Schlüter, F Schlüter, N Schmeisser, T Schmidt, FG Schröder, L Schumacher, S Schwirn, S Sclafani, D Seckel, L Seen, M Seikh, S Seunarine, PA Sevle Myhr, R Shah, S Shefali, N Shimizu, B Skrzypek, R Snihur, J Soedingrekso, A Sègaard, D Soldin, P Soldin, G Sommani, C Spannfellner, GM Spiczak, C Spiering, J Stachurska, M Stamatikos, T Stanev, T Stezelberger, T Stürwald, T Stuttard, GW Sullivan, I Taboada, S Ter-Antonyan, A Terliuk, A Thakuri, M Thiesmeyer, WG Thompson, J Thwaites, S Tilav, K Tollefson, S Toscano, D Tosi, A Trettin, AK Upadhyay, K Upshaw, A Vaidyanathan, N Valtonen-Mattila, J Valverde, J Vandenbroucke, T Van Eeden, N van Eijndhoven, L Van Rootselaar, J van Santen, J Vara, F Varsi, M Venugopal, M Vereecken, S Vergara Carrasco, S Verpoest, D Veske, A Vijai, J Villarreal, C Walck, A Wang, EHS Warrick, C Weaver, P Weigel, A Weindl, J Weldert, AY Wen, C Wendt, J Werthebach, M Weyrauch, N Whitehorn, CH Wiebusch, DR Williams, L Witthaus, M Wolf, G Wrede, XW Xu, JP Yanez, E Yildizci, S Yoshida, R Young, F Yu, S Yu, T Yuan, A Zegarelli, S Zhang, Z Zhang, P Zhelnin, P Zilberman, IceCube Collaboration

Abstract:

Despite extensive efforts, discovery of high-energy astrophysical neutrino sources remains elusive. We present an event-level simultaneous maximum likelihood analysis of tracks and cascades using IceCube data collected from 2008 April 6 to 2022 May 23 to search the whole sky for neutrino sources, and using a source catalog, for coincidence of neutrino emission with gamma-ray emission. This is the first time a simultaneous fit of different detection channels is used to conduct a time-integrated all-sky scan with IceCube. Combining all-sky tracks, with superior pointing power and sensitivity in the northern sky, with all-sky cascades, with good energy resolution and sensitivity in the southern sky, we have developed the most sensitive point-source search to date by IceCube that targets the entire sky. The most significant point in the northern sky aligns with NGC 1068, a Seyfert II galaxy, which, from the catalog search, shows a 3.5σ excess over background after accounting for trials. The most significant point in the southern sky does not align with any source in the catalog and is not significant after accounting for trials. A search for the single most significant Gaussian flare at the locations of NGC 1068, PKS 1424+240, and the southern highest-significance point shows results consistent with expectations for steady emission. Notably, this is the first time that a flare shorter than four years has been excluded as being responsible for NGC 1068’s emergence as a neutrino source. Our results show that combining tracks and cascades when conducting neutrino source searches improves sensitivity and can lead to new discoveries.
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High-frequency Gravitational Waves from Superstring Phases in the Early Universe

e-Print: 2511.16404 [hep-ph]

Authors:

Joseph P. Conlon (Oxford U., Theor. Phys.), Edmund J. Copeland (Nottingham U.), Edward Hardy (Oxford U., Theor. Phys.), Noelia Sánchez González (Oxford U., Theor. Phys.)

Abstract:

When moduli roll in the early universe, all physical scales - including string tensions - simultaneously evolve. The dynamics of cosmic string loops with time-varying tension can produce cosmic string loop trackers in which most of the energy density of the universe lies in the form of string loops. This solution can exist as an attractor until the rolling modulus reaches its minimum, when the loops ultimately decay through gravitational wave emission. We explore the spectrum of gravitational waves produced by such string loop trackers. The resulting spectrum is high-frequency and peaks in the GHz regime today. The amplitude of the signal is diluted by any subsequent matter-dominated epochs, and thus the potential observability of the signal crucially depends on the duration of the moduli-dominated epoch that follows once the moduli settle down and oscillate about their minimum.
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Suppression of pair beam instabilities in a laboratory analogue of blazar pair cascades

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences National Academy of Sciences 122:45 (2025) e2513365122

Authors:

Charles Arrowsmith, Francesco Miniati, Pablo J Bilbao, Pascal Simon, Archie Bott, Stephane Burger, Hui Chen, Filipe D Cruz, Tristan Davenne, Anthony Dyson, Ilias Efthymiopoulos, Dustin H Froula, Alice Goillot, Jon T Gudmundsson, Dan Haberberger, Jack WD Halliday, Thomas Hodge, Brian T Huffman, Sam Iaquinta, G Marshall, Brian Reville, Subir Sarkar, Alexander Schekochihin, Luis O Silva, Raspberry Simpson, Vasiliki Stergiou, Raoul MGM Trines, Thibault Vieu, Nikolaos Charitonidis, Robert Bingham, Gianluca Gregori

Abstract:

The generation of dense electron-positron pair beams in the laboratory can enable direct tests of theoretical models of γ-ray bursts and active galactic nuclei. We have successfully achieved this using ultrarelativistic protons accelerated by the Super Proton Synchrotron at (CERN). In the first application of this experimental platform, the stability of the pair beam is studied as it propagates through a meter-length plasma, analogous to TeV γ-ray-induced pair cascades in the intergalactic medium. It has been argued that pair beam instabilities disrupt the cascade, thus accounting for the observed lack of reprocessed GeV emission from TeV blazars. If true, this would remove the need for a moderate strength intergalactic magnetic field to explain the observations. We find that the pair beam instability is suppressed if the beam is not perfectly collimated or monochromatic, hence the lower limit to the intergalactic magnetic field inferred from γ-ray observations of blazars is robust.
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The LED calibration systems for the mDOM and D-Egg sensor modules of the IceCube Upgrade: Design, production, testing and use in module calibration

Journal of Instrumentation 20:11 (2025)

Authors:

R Abbasi, M Ackermann, J Adams, SK Agarwalla, JA Aguilar, M Ahlers, JM Alameddine, S Ali, NM Amin, K Andeen, C Argüelles, Y Ashida, S Athanasiadou, SN Axani, R Babu, X Bai, J Baines-Holmes, A Balagopal V., SW Barwick, S Bash, V Basu, R Bay, JJ Beatty, J Becker Tjus, P Behrens, J Beise, C Bellenghi, B Benkel, S BenZvi, D Berley, E Bernardini, DZ Besson, E Blaufuss, L Bloom, S Blot, I Bodo, F Bontempo, JY Book Motzkin, C Boscolo Meneguolo, S Böser, O Botner, J Böttcher, J Braun, B Brinson, Z Brisson-Tsavoussis, RT Burley, D Butterfield, MA Campana, K Carloni, J Carpio, S Chattopadhyay, N Chau, Z Chen, D Chirkin, S Choi, BA Clark, A Coleman, P Coleman, GH Collin, DA Coloma Borja, A Connolly, JM Conrad, R Corley, DF Cowen, C De Clercq, JJ DeLaunay, D Delgado, T Delmeulle, S Deng, P Desiati, KD de Vries, G de Wasseige, T DeYoung, JC Díaz-Vélez, S DiKerby, M Dittmer, A Domi, L Draper, L Dueser, D Durnford, K Dutta, MA DuVernois, T Ehrhardt, L Eidenschink, A Eimer, P Eller, E Ellinger, D Elsässer, R Engel, H Erpenbeck, W Esmail, S Eulig, J Evans, PA Evenson, KL Fan, K Fang, K Farrag, AR Fazely, A Fedynitch, N Feigl, C Finley, L Fischer, D Fox, A Franckowiak, S Fukami, P Fürst, J Gallagher, E Ganster, A Garcia, M Garcia, G Garg, E Genton, L Gerhardt, A Ghadimi, C Glaser, T Glüsenkamp, JG Gonzalez, S Goswami, A Granados, D Grant, SJ Gray, M Gravois, S Griffin, S Griswold, KM Groth, D Guevel, C Günther, P Gutjahr, C Ha, C Haack, A Hallgren, L Halve, F Halzen, L Hamacher, M Ha Minh, M Handt, K Hanson, J Hardin, AA Harnisch, P Hatch, A Haungs, J Häußler, K Helbing, J Hellrung, B Henke, L Hennig, F Henningsen, L Heuermann, R Hewett, N Heyer, S Hickford, A Hidvegi, C Hill, GC Hill, R Hmaid, KD Hoffman, D Hooper, S Hori, K Hoshina, M Hostert, W Hou, T Huber, K Hultqvist, K Hymon, A Ishihara, W Iwakiri, M Jacquart, S Jain, O Janik, M Jansson, M Jeong, M Jin, N Kamp, D Kang, W Kang, X Kang, A Kappes, L Kardum, T Karg, M Karl, A Karle, A Katil, M Kauer, JL Kelley, M Khanal, A Khatee Zathul, A Kheirandish, H Kimku, J Kiryluk, C Klein, SR Klein, Y Kobayashi, A Kochocki, R Koirala, H Kolanoski, T Kontrimas, L Köpke, C Kopper, DJ Koskinen, P Koundal, M Kowalski, T Kozynets, N Krieger, J Krishnamoorthi, T Krishnan, K Kruiswijk, E Krupczak, A Kumar, E Kun, N Kurahashi, EA Kurt, N Lad, C Lagunas Gualda, L Lallement Arnaud, M Lamoureux, MJ Larson, F Lauber, JP Lazar, K Leonard DeHolton, A Leszczyńska, J Liao, C Lin, YT Liu, M Liubarska, C Love, L Lu, F Lucarelli, W Luszczak, Y Lyu, J Madsen, E Magnus, Y Makino, E Manao, S Mancina, A Mand, IC Mariş, S Marka, Z Marka, L Marten, I Martinez-Soler, R Maruyama, J Mauro, F Mayhew, F McNally, JV Mead, K Meagher, S Mechbal, A Medina, M Meier, Y Merckx, L Merten, T Meures, J Mitchell, L Molchany, T Montaruli, RW Moore, Y Morii, A Mosbrugger, M Moulai, D Mousadi, E Moyaux, T Mukherjee, R Naab, M Nakos, U Naumann, J Necker, L Neste, M Neumann, H Niederhausen, MU Nisa, K Noda, A Noell, A Novikov, A Obertacke Pollmann, V O'Dell, A Olivas, R Orsoe, J Osborn, E O'Sullivan, V Palusova, H Pandya, A Parenti, N Park, V Parrish, EN Paudel, L Paul, C Pérez de los Heros, T Pernice, J Peterson, M Plum, A Pontén, V Poojyam, Y Popovych, M Prado Rodriguez, B Pries, R Procter-Murphy, GT Przybylski, L Pyras, C Raab, J Rack-Helleis, N Rad, M Ravn, K Rawlins, Z Rechav, A Rehman, I Reistroffer, E Resconi, S Reusch, CD Rho, W Rhode, L Ricca, B Riedel, A Rifaie, EJ Roberts, S Robertson, M Rongen, A Rosted, C Rott, T Ruhe, L Ruohan, D Ryckbosch, J Saffer, D Salazar-Gallegos, P Sampathkumar, A Sandrock, P Sandstrom, G Sanger-Johnson, M Santander, S Sarkar, J Savelberg, M Scarnera, P Schaile, M Schaufel, H Schieler, S Schindler, L Schlickmann, B Schlüter, F Schlüter, N Schmeisser, T Schmidt, FG Schröder, L Schumacher, K Schunter, S Schwirn, S Sclafani, D Seckel, L Seen, M Seikh, S Seunarine, PA Sevle Myhr, R Shah, S Shefali, N Shimizu, B Skrzypek, R Snihur, J Soedingrekso, A Søgaard, D Soldin, P Soldin, G Sommani, C Spannfellner, GM Spiczak, C Spiering, J Stachurska, M Stamatikos, T Stanev, T Stezelberger, T Stürwald, T Stuttard, K-H Sulanke, GW Sullivan, I Taboada, S Ter-Antonyan, A Terliuk, A Thakuri, P Theobald, M Thiesmeyer, WG Thompson, J Thwaites, S Tilav, K Tollefson, S Toscano, D Tosi, P Trevarrow, A Trettin, AK Upadhyay, K Upshaw, A Vaidyanathan, N Valtonen-Mattila, J Valverde, J Vandenbroucke, T Van Eeden, N van Eijndhoven, L Van Rootselaar, J van Santen, J Vara, F Varsi, M Venugopal, M Vereecken, S Vergara Carrasco, S Verpoest, D Veske, A Vijai, J Villarreal, C Walck, A Wang, EHS Warrick, C Weaver, P Weigel, A Weindl, J Weldert, AY Wen, C Wendt, J Werthebach, M Weyrauch, N Whitehorn, CH Wiebusch, DR Williams, L Witthaus, M Wolf, G Wrede, XW Xu, JP Yanez, Y Yao, E Yildizci, S Yoshida, R Young, F Yu, S Yu, T Yuan, A Zegarelli, S Zhang, Z Zhang, P Zhelnin, P Zilberman, The IceCube collaboration

Abstract:

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, instrumenting about 1 km3 of deep, glacial ice at the geographic South Pole, is due to be enhanced with the IceCube Upgrade. The IceCube Upgrade, to be deployed during the 2025/26 Antarctic summer season, will consist of seven new strings of photosensors, densely embedded near the bottom center of the existing array. Aside from a world-leading sensitivity to neutrino oscillations, a primary goal is the improvement of the calibration of the optical properties of the instrumented ice. This calibration will be applied to the entire archive of IceCube data, improving the angular and energy resolution of the detected neutrino events. For this purpose, the Upgrade strings include a host of new calibration devices. Aside from dedicated calibration modules, several thousand LED flashers have been incorporated into the photosensor modules. We describe the design, production, and testing of these LED flashers before their integration into the sensor modules as well as the use of the LED flashers during lab testing of assembled sensor modules.
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Measurement of the mean number of muons with energies above 500 GeV in air showers detected with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

Physical Review D American Physical Society (APS) 112:8 (2025) 082004

Authors:

R Abbasi, M Ackermann, J Adams, SK Agarwalla, JA Aguilar, M Ahlers, JM Alameddine, NM Amin, K Andeen, C Argüelles, Y Ashida, S Athanasiadou, SN Axani, R Babu, X Bai, J Baines-Holmes, A Balagopal V., SW Barwick, S Bash, V Basu, R Bay, JJ Beatty, J Becker Tjus, P Behrens, J Beise, C Bellenghi, B Benkel, S BenZvi, D Berley, E Bernardini, DZ Besson, E Blaufuss, L Bloom, S Blot, I Bodo, F Bontempo, JY Book Motzkin, C Boscolo Meneguolo, S Böser, O Botner, J Böttcher, J Braun, B Brinson, Z Brisson-Tsavoussis, RT Burley, D Butterfield, MA Campana, K Carloni, J Carpio, S Chattopadhyay, N Chau, Z Chen, D Chirkin, S Choi, BA Clark, A Coleman, P Coleman, GH Collin, A Connolly, JM Conrad, R Corley, DF Cowen, C De Clercq, JJ DeLaunay, D Delgado, T Delmeulle, S Deng, P Desiati, KD de Vries, G de Wasseige, T DeYoung, JC Díaz-Vélez, S DiKerby, M Dittmer, A Domi, L Draper, L Dueser, D Durnford, K Dutta, MA DuVernois, T Ehrhardt, L Eidenschink, A Eimer, P Eller, E Ellinger, D Elsässer, R Engel, H Erpenbeck, W Esmail, S Eulig, J Evans, PA Evenson, KL Fan, K Fang, K Farrag, AR Fazely, A Fedynitch, N Feigl, C Finley, L Fischer, D Fox, A Franckowiak, S Fukami, P Fürst, J Gallagher, E Ganster, A Garcia, M Garcia, G Garg, E Genton, L Gerhardt, A Ghadimi, C Glaser, T Glüsenkamp, JG Gonzalez, S Goswami, A Granados, D Grant, SJ Gray, S Griffin, S Griswold, KM Groth, D Guevel, C Günther, P Gutjahr, C Ha, C Haack, A Hallgren, L Halve, F Halzen, L Hamacher, M Ha Minh, M Handt, K Hanson, J Hardin, AA Harnisch, P Hatch, A Haungs, J Häußler, K Helbing, J Hellrung, L Hennig, L Heuermann, R Hewett, N Heyer, S Hickford, A Hidvegi, C Hill, GC Hill, R Hmaid, KD Hoffman, D Hooper, S Hori, K Hoshina, M Hostert, W Hou, T Huber, K Hultqvist, K Hymon, A Ishihara, W Iwakiri, M Jacquart, S Jain, O Janik, M Jeong, M Jin, N Kamp, D Kang, X Kang, A Kappes, L Kardum, T Karg, M Karl, A Karle, A Katil, M Kauer, JL Kelley, M Khanal, A Khatee Zathul, A Kheirandish, H Kimku, J Kiryluk, C Klein, SR Klein, Y Kobayashi, A Kochocki, R Koirala, H Kolanoski, T Kontrimas, L Köpke, C Kopper, DJ Koskinen, P Koundal, M Kowalski, T Kozynets, N Krieger, J Krishnamoorthi, T Krishnan, K Kruiswijk, E Krupczak, A Kumar, E Kun, N Kurahashi, N Lad, C Lagunas Gualda, L Lallement Arnaud, M Lamoureux, MJ Larson, F Lauber, JP Lazar, K Leonard DeHolton, A Leszczyńska, J Liao, YT Liu, M Liubarska, C Love, L Lu, F Lucarelli, W Luszczak, Y Lyu, J Madsen, E Magnus, KBM Mahn, Y Makino, E Manao, S Mancina, A Mand, IC Mariş, S Marka, Z Marka, L Marten, I Martinez-Soler, R Maruyama, F Mayhew, F McNally, JV Mead, K Meagher, S Mechbal, A Medina, M Meier, Y Merckx, L Merten, J Mitchell, L Molchany, T Montaruli, RW Moore, Y Morii, A Mosbrugger, M Moulai, D Mousadi, T Mukherjee, R Naab, M Nakos, U Naumann, J Necker, L Neste, M Neumann, H Niederhausen, MU Nisa, K Noda, A Noell, A Novikov, A Obertacke Pollmann, V O’Dell, A Olivas, R Orsoe, J Osborn, E O’Sullivan, V Palusova, H Pandya, A Parenti, N Park, V Parrish, EN Paudel, L Paul, C Pérez de los Heros, T Pernice, J Peterson, M Plum, A Pontén, V Poojyam, Y Popovych, M Prado Rodriguez, B Pries, R Procter-Murphy, GT Przybylski, L Pyras, C Raab, J Rack-Helleis, N Rad, M Ravn, K Rawlins, Z Rechav, A Rehman, I Reistroffer, E Resconi, S Reusch, CD Rho, W Rhode, B Riedel, A Rifaie, EJ Roberts, S Robertson, M Rongen, A Rosted, C Rott, T Ruhe, L Ruohan, J Saffer, D Salazar-Gallegos, P Sampathkumar, A Sandrock, G Sanger-Johnson, M Santander, S Sarkar, J Savelberg, P Schaile, M Schaufel, H Schieler, S Schindler, L Schlickmann, B Schlüter, F Schlüter, N Schmeisser, T Schmidt, FG Schröder, L Schumacher, S Schwirn, S Sclafani, D Seckel, L Seen, M Seikh, S Seunarine, PA Sevle Myhr, R Shah, S Shefali, N Shimizu, B Skrzypek, R Snihur, J Soedingrekso, A Søgaard, D Soldin, P Soldin, G Sommani, C Spannfellner, GM Spiczak, C Spiering, J Stachurska, M Stamatikos, T Stanev, T Stezelberger, T Stürwald, T Stuttard, GW Sullivan, I Taboada, S Ter-Antonyan, A Terliuk, A Thakuri, M Thiesmeyer, WG Thompson, J Thwaites, S Tilav, K Tollefson, S Toscano, D Tosi, A Trettin, AK Upadhyay, K Upshaw, A Vaidyanathan, N Valtonen-Mattila, J Valverde, J Vandenbroucke, T Van Eeden, N van Eijndhoven, J van Santen, J Vara, F Varsi, M Venugopal, M Vereecken, S Vergara Carrasco, S Verpoest, D Veske, A Vijai, J Villarreal, C Walck, A Wang, E Warrick, C Weaver, P Weigel, A Weindl, AY Wen, C Wendt, J Werthebach, M Weyrauch, N Whitehorn, CH Wiebusch, DR Williams, L Witthaus, M Wolf, G Wrede, XW Xu, JP Yañez, Y Yao, E Yildizci, S Yoshida, R Young, F Yu, S Yu, T Yuan, A Zegarelli, S Zhang, Z Zhang, P Zhelnin, P Zilberman

Abstract:

We present a measurement of the mean number of muons with energies larger than 500 GeV in near-vertical extensive air showers initiated by cosmic rays with primary energies between 2.5 and 100 PeV. The measurement is based on events detected in coincidence between the surface and in-ice detectors of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. Air showers are recorded on the surface by IceTop, while a bundle of high-energy muons (TeV muons) from the shower can subsequently produce a tracklike event in the IceCube in-ice array. Results are obtained assuming the hadronic interaction models Sibyll 2.1, QGSJet-II.04, and EPOS-LHC. The measured number of TeV muons is found to be in agreement with predictions from air-shower simulations. The results have also been compared to a measurement of low-energy muons by IceTop, indicating an inconsistency between the predictions for low- and high-energy muons in simulations based on the EPOS-LHC model.
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