The surface component of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, IceTop, consists
of an array of ice-Cherenkov tanks measuring the electromagnetic signal as well
as low-energy (∼GeV) muons from cosmic-ray air showers. In addition,
accompanying high-energy (above a few 100GeV) muons can be observed in
coincidence in the deep in-ice detector. A combined measurement of the low- and
high-energy muon content is of particular interest for tests of hadronic
interaction models as well as for cosmic-ray mass discrimination. However,
since IceTop does not feature dedicated muon detectors, an estimation of the
low-energy muon component of individual air showers is challenging. In this
work, a two-component lateral distribution function (LDF), using separate
descriptions for the electromagnetic and muon lateral distributions of the
detector signals, is introduced as a new approach for the estimation of
low-energy muons in air showers on an event-by-event basis. The principle of
the air-shower reconstruction using the two-component LDF, as well as its
reconstruction performance with respect to primary energy and number of
low-energy muons will be discussed.Comment: Presented at the 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2023).
See arXiv:2307.13047 for all IceCube contribution