Prompt and conventional high-energy muon spectra from a full Monte Carlo simulation via CORSIKA7
Journal article, 2025
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 conventional muons, while a smaller fraction, referred to as prompt muons, arises from the decay of heavier, short-lived hadrons. The EHISTORY option of the air shower simulation tool CORSIKA7 is used in this work to investigate the prompt and conventional muon flux in the energy range of 100TeV–100PeV, utilizing the newly developed open-source python software 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 CORSIKA7 are compared to MCEq results. The relevance to large-volume neutrino detectors, such as IceCube and KM3NeT, and the connection to hadronic interaction models is discussed.
Author
L. Neste
Oskar Klein Centre
Technische Universität Dortmund
P. Gutjahr
Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Technische Universität Dortmund
M. Hünnefeld
Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Technische Universität Dortmund
University of Wisconsin Madison
J. M. Alameddine
Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Technische Universität Dortmund
W. Rhode
RAPP Center
Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Technische Universität Dortmund
Julia Tjus
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
RAPP Center
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Felix Riehn
Technische Universität Dortmund
Kevin Kröninger
Technische Universität Dortmund
RAPP Center
Johannes Albrecht
Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
RAPP Center
Technische Universität Dortmund
European Physical Journal C
1434-6044 (ISSN) 1434-6052 (eISSN)
Vol. 85 7 759Subject Categories (SSIF 2025)
Subatomic Physics
DOI
10.1140/epjc/s10052-025-14444-y