Reconstruction of Nearly-Horizontal Muons in the HAWC Observatory

Discussion timeslot (ZOOM-Meeting): 20. July 2021 - 12:00
ZOOM-Meeting URL: https://desy.zoom.us/j/92210078166
ZOOM-Meeting ID: 92210078166
ZOOM-Meeting Passcode: ICRC2021
Corresponding Session: https://icrc2021-venue.desy.de/channel/10-EAS-reconstruction-and-analyses-CRI/75
Live-Stream URL: https://icrc2021-venue.desy.de/livestream/Discussion-03/4

Abstract:
'The volcanoes surrounding the HAWC observatory provide varying material depths from open sky to over 15 km of rock for nearly-horizontal muon trajectories. The measurement of the rate of muons as a function of arrival direction near the horizon thereby provides a means to measure the muon flux as a function of material depth. A Hough transform algorithm is used to identify nearly-horizontal muons traversing the HAWC observatory by finding a line in the 3d point cloud of PMT hits (x_{i},y_{i}, and ct_{i}). The arrival direction of the muon can be estimated from this line. Background Extensive Air Shower (EAS) fragments are identified by the presence of a lateral extension of PMT hits in a plane normal to the muon candidate trajectory. A geometry-based simulation has been developed to improve and estimate arrival direction reconstruction resolution and effective area. A description of the reconstruction techniques and estimates of detector resolution, backgrounds, and effective area as a function of arrival direction, will be provided.'

Authors: R. Wayne Springer | for the HAWC Collaboration
Collaboration: HAWC

Indico-ID: 1072
Proceeding URL: https://pos.sissa.it/395/254