On the muon lateral distribution using Underground Muon Detector data

F. SÁNCHEZ; A. BOTTI; M. R. HAMPEL; D. RAVIGNANI; N. GONZÁLEZ; A. ALMELA; A. FUSTER; M. PLATINO; J. M. FIGUEIRA; A. ETCHEGOYEN; A. LUCERO; B. WUNDHEILER

Malargüe, Mendoza

Otro; Nota Interna de la Colaboración Auger; 2020

The muon content of air showers is intimately related to the nature of the primary particle. In AugerPrime, high-energy muons (E & 1 GeV) are directly measured with the underground muon detector, whose stations are composed by buried scintillation modules. Due to the discrete samplingof the muon shower front, an event-by-event estimation of the lateral distribution of muons without significant systematic uncertainties is only possible for large enough muon footprints on ground. To by-pass this issue, we study the lateral muon density with a multi-event approach piecing together all events in bins of primary energy and zenith angle. We scan 2 years of underground muon detector data reconstructed with the infill surface detector. We present a parametrization of the slope of the muon lateral distribution and attenuation function of the muon component in a full data-driven fashion for the first time. Both elements will enable the evaluation of the muon shower size observable ρ 35 interms of the primary energy and the comparison with previous estimations using the data from the muon detector engineering array.