Exploring High-Energy Atmospheric Muons with IceCube: Investigating Prompt Muon Normalization and Unfolding the Muon Flux

Atmospheric muons, generated in cosmic ray air showers, can be categorized into two groups: conventional muons, originating from pion and kaon decays, and prompt muons, arising from heavy meson decays. While conventional muons dominate at TeV energies, the prompt component becomes significant above PeV energies. Investigating prompt muons is crucial for advancing cosmic ray studies, fine-tuning hadronic interaction models, and improving neutrino background reduction in neutrino telescopes like IceCube.

This talk will cover recent air shower simulations performed with CORSIKA, validated by comparisons to numerical predictions from MCEq. Two analysis methods are discussed, both leveraging machine learning in event reconstruction in IceCube: one aimed at fitting the prompt muon normalization, and the other focused on unfolding the atmospheric muon flux at the surface.