Atmospheric muons measured with the KM3NeT detectors in comparison with updated numeric predictions ...

• Main Author: KM3NeT Collaboration
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: arXiv 2024
• Subjects: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena astro-ph.HE; High Energy Physics - Experiment hep-ex; FOS Physical sciences; Orca
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2403.11946; https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.11946

The measurement of the flux of muons produced in cosmic ray air showers is essential for the study of primary cosmic rays. Such measurements are important in extensive air shower detectors to assess the energy spectrum and the chemical composition of the cosmic ray flux, complementary to the information provided by fluorescence detectors. Detailed simulations of the cosmic ray air showers are carried out, using codes such as CORSIKA, to estimate the muon flux at sea level. These simulations are based on the choice of hadronic interaction models, for which improvements have been implemented in the post-LHC era. In this work, a deficit in simulations that use state-of-the-art QCD models with respect to the measurement deep underwater with the KM3NeT neutrino detectors is reported. The KM3NeT/ARCA and KM3NeT/ORCA neutrino telescopes are sensitive to TeV muons originating mostly from primary cosmic rays with energies around 10 TeV. The predictions of state-of-the-art QCD models show that the deficit with respect ... : 33 pages, 9 figures, submitted to the European Physical Journal C ...