A Two-Component Lateral Distribution Function to Evaluate the Muon Content of Air Showers Measured with IceCube and IceTop

Located 1.5 kilometers beneath the ice at the geographic South Pole, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory detects astrophysical neutrinos that permeate the Antarctic ice. The in-ice detector is complemented by a surface array, IceTop, that consists of 81 detector stations used to measure the low-energy content of cosmic ray-initiated extensive air showers. The in-ice detector is able to make a complementary measurement of the high-energy muon content of the shower. By fitting two lateral distribution functions (LDF) to the tank signals measured in IceTop we can evaluate both the primary energy and muon content of EAS on an event-by-event basis. For events coincident between the in-ice and surface detectors in-ice information can be incorporated to improve reconstruction performance. We will present the two LDF reconstruction procedure and discuss its performance.