Measurement of the muon signal using the temporal and spectral structure of the signals in surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory

Abstract

Applying different filtering techniques to the temporal distribution of the signals measured with the Auger surface detector array (SD), we separate the electromagnetic and muonic signal components of air-showers. The filters are based on the different characteristics of the muonic and electromagnetic components in individual detectors, the former being composed of peaks above a smooth background due to the lower energy deposition of the latter photons and electrons. The muon signal is derived for showers of 10 EeV primary energy at a core distance of 1 km, with the aim of testing the predictions of hadronic interaction models. We compare the fraction of the muonic signal and the total signal to model predictions for proton and iron primaries in a range of zenith angles from 0 to 60◦ .