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Hybrid cosmic ray measurements using the IceAct telescopes in coincidence with the IceCube and IceTop detectors

Abstract:

IceCube [1] is a cubic-kilometer neutrino detector installed in the ice at the geographic South Pole between depths of 1450 m and 2450 m, completed in 2010. Reconstruction of the direction, energy, and flavor of the neutrinos relies on the optical detection of Cherenkov radiation emitted by charged particles produced in the interactions of neutrinos in the surrounding ice or the nearby bedrock. Further, IceCube and its surface component IceTop [2] provide a unique environment for the study of cosmic rays. The enhancement of the surface component with additional detectors like imaging air-Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs [3, 4], scintillators, and radio antennas [5, 6] will improve these capabilities even further. As a proposed array of compact IACTs, the IceAct telescopes feature a much lower energy threshold compared to the other surface components. The combination of these detectors forms a hybrid detector providing the information from the electromagnetic shower development in the atmosphere (IceAct, Radio Array), the electromagnetic and muonic distribution on the surface (IceTop, Scintillator Array), and the high energetic muon bundles (IceCube). The hybrid detection results in a better particle type identification, better geometrical reconstruction, ability of crosschecking the energy scale of different detector types, calibrating possibilities of the directional uncertainty of the in-ice muon reconstruction, and potentially enhanced veto capabilities of low energy cosmic ray air events (above 50TeV) for neutrino analyzes. As an example, the energy reconstruction for a single IACT is very challenging as the measured brightness, which is the most …