Classification of high energy muon bundles and single muons from the southern sky in IceCube

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, located at the geographic South Pole, uses the glacial ice volume to detect astrophysical neutrinos. Detection of the neutrinos from the northern sky provides the opportunity to use a large effective volume. However, as the cross-section increases with energy, most high-energy neutrinos are absorbed by the Earth. On the other hand, probing down-going PeV neutrinos from the southern sky becomes challenging because of the large cosmic ray induced muon backgrounds. This contribution presents a method for classifying atmospheric muon bundles and single muons by analyzing the lateral and longitudinal characteristics of throughgoing track-like events from the southern sky. Muons generated in cosmic ray air showers form muon bundles, exhibiting a lateral spread spanning tens of meters within IceCube. We explore the time residual feature for the observed Cherenkov light to separate bundles from single muons. We also utilize energy losses along the track, which lead to fluctuations in the light intensity: bundles follow a smooth pattern, whereas single muons are more stochastic. A Boosted Decision Tree algorithm is trained on simulated, well-reconstructed cosmic ray and neutrino events to classifynneutrino-induced single muons and cosmic ray bundles.

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Published
2025-09-24
DOI
https://doi.org/10.22323/1.501.0979
Primary Topic
Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
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article
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article

Classification of high energy muon bundles and single muons from the southern sky in IceCube

L. Schumacher, L. Köpke, Sofia Athanasiadou, Kiara Carloni et al.
Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
article

Classification of high energy muon bundles and single muons from the southern sky in IceCube

L. Schumacher, L. Köpke, Sofia Athanasiadou, Kiara Carloni, Rasmus Orsoe, Sarah Mechbal, Rishi Babu, Philip Weigel, Arun Vaidyanathan, Thijs van Eeden, Diego Alberto Coloma Borja, G. M. Spiczak, Christy Love, M. Lamoureux, Krishnamoorthi Jayakumar, Thien Nhan Chau, Spencer Griswold, Woosik Kang, I. Taboada, Daniel Salazar-Gallegos, S. R. Klein, Michael Campana, James DeLaunay, Frank Schröder, Jonathan Mauro, Felix Schlüter, C. H. Wiebusch, P. Desiati, Lukas Hennig, C. De Clercq, K. D. de Vries, Alexander Sandrock, Anil Kumar, Sebastian Schindler, Yuriy Popovych, Axel Pontén, Federico Bontempo, Hershal Pandya, Ek Narayan Paudel, A. Parenti, G. de Wasseige, Veronika Palušová, A. Haungs, Erik Ganster, Leonora Kardum, Shefali Shefali, J. Vandenbroucke, Colton Hill, Laurent Arnaud, Shiqi Yu, Frederik Hermann Lauber, J. C. Díaz–Vélez, Richard Naab, Julian Saffer, Christoph Raab, J. V. 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article en

Abstract

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, located at the geographic South Pole, uses the glacial ice volume to detect astrophysical neutrinos. Detection of the neutrinos from the northern sky provides the opportunity to use a large effective volume. However, as the cross-section increases with energy, most high-energy neutrinos are absorbed by the Earth. On the other hand, probing down-going PeV neutrinos from the southern sky becomes challenging because of the large cosmic ray induced muon backgrounds. This contribution presents a method for classifying atmospheric muon bundles and single muons by analyzing the lateral and longitudinal characteristics of throughgoing track-like events from the southern sky. Muons generated in cosmic ray air showers form muon bundles, exhibiting a lateral spread spanning tens of meters within IceCube. We explore the time residual feature for the observed Cherenkov light to separate bundles from single muons. We also utilize energy losses along the track, which lead to fluctuations in the light intensity: bundles follow a smooth pattern, whereas single muons are more stochastic. A Boosted Decision Tree algorithm is trained on simulated, well-reconstructed cosmic ray and neutrino events to classifynneutrino-induced single muons and cosmic ray bundles.

National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Nvidia, Michigan State University, Villum Fonden, Polarforskningssekretariatet, Marquette University, Western Canada Research Grid, European Commission, National Research Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS, Belgian Federal Science Policy Office, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, National Research Foundation of Korea, Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse, Vetenskapsrådet, RWTH Aachen University, Chiba University, Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics, Alliance de recherche numérique du Canada, College of Engineering, Michigan State University, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Marsden Fund, Institute for Global Prominent Research, Chiba University, Office of Polar Programs, Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, Office of Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research
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