# ICRC2015

July 29, 2015 to August 6, 2015
World Forum
Europe/Amsterdam timezone

## High $p_\mathrm{T}$ muons from cosmic ray air showers in IceCube

Jul 30, 2015, 3:30 PM
1h
Amazon Foyer (World Forum)

### Amazon Foyer

#### World Forum

Churchillplein 10 2517 JW Den Haag The Netherlands
Board: 208
Poster contribution CR-EX

### Speaker

Mr Dennis Soldin (University of Wuppertal)

### Description

Cosmic ray air showers with primary energies above $\sim 1$ TeV can produce muons with high transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T} > 2$ GeV). These isolated muons can have large transverse separations from the shower core up to several hundred meters. Together with the muon bundle they form a double track signature in km$^3$-scale neutrino telescopes such as IceCube. These muons originate from the decay of heavy hadrons, pions, and kaons produced very early in the shower development, typically in (multiple) high $p_\mathrm{T}$ jets. If high $p_\mathrm{T}$ muons are produced simultaneously in two jets that are oriented back-to-back such interactions can also produce distinctive triple track signatures in IceCube. The separation from the core is a measure of the transverse momentum of the muon’s parent particle and the muon lateral distribution depends on the composition of the incident nuclei. Hence, the composition of high energy cosmic rays can be determined from muon separation measurements. Moreover for $p_\mathrm{T} > 2$ GeV particle interactions can be described in the context of perturbative quantum chromodynamics (pQCD) which can be used to calculate the muon lateral separation distribution. Thus these muons may help to test pQCD predictions of high energy interactions involving heavy nuclei. We discuss the contributions from different components of air showers to the high $p_\mathrm{T}$ muon flux. Based on dedicated simulations the prospects of composition measurements using high $p_\mathrm{T}$ muons in km$^3$-scale neutrino telescopes are studied. We present analysis methods to study laterally separated muons in IceCube with lateral separations larger than 150 m using data taken from May 2012 to May 2013
Registration number following "ICRC2015-I/" 295 IceCube

### Primary author

Mr Dennis Soldin (University of Wuppertal)

### Presentation materials

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