Reconstruction of extensive air showers and measurement of the cosmic ray energy spectrum in the range of 1 - 80 PeV at the South Pole

• Other Authors: Klepser, Stefan
• Language: English
• Published: Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek 2008
• Subjects: 530; 16,12; ast; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/dissertationen/klepser-stefan-2008-06-24/PDF/klepser.pdf; http://d-nb.info/990227650/34; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-10091202

IceTop is a square-kilometer scale detector array for highly energetic cosmic radiation. It is a part of the IceCube Observatory that is presently being built at the geographic South Pole. It aims for the detection of huge particle cascades induced by PeV cosmic rays in the atmosphere. This thesis presents the first analysis of highly energetic cosmic ray data taken with IceTop. First, the light response of the IceTop tanks is parametrised as a function of energy and particle type. An expectation function for the distribution of shower signals in the detector plane is developed. Based on that, a likelihood reconstruction algorithm is developed and its resolution and performance is studied. The resulting energy response of the array is investigated to set up response matrices for different primary nuclei and inclinations. Two unfolding algorithms are implemented, and response matrices are modeled for four different composition assumptions. With each assumption, energy spectra are unfolded for three different bins in inclination, using a data sample taken in August 2007. Humboldt-Univ., Diss--Berlin, 2008