Speaker
Description
The measurement of the high-energy atmospheric muon and neutrino fluxes serves as both a fundamental probe of hadronic interaction models and the primary background for astrophysical neutrino searches. Over the last decades, experiments including IceCube, ANTARES, Kamiokande, Fréjus, and KM3NeT have provided a wealth of data across different detector media, energy ranges, and zenith angles. However, a consistent global comparison of these results is often hindered by differing experimental conditions and analysis assumptions.
In this work the different measurements have been compared to theoretical predictions computed with MCEq (Matrix Cascade Equations), a numerical tool for solving the cascade equations. A range of hadronic interaction models and primary cosmic-ray models are considered, including SIBYLL-2.3C, QGS-JET-II-04, DPMJet-III-30.6, and EPOS-LHC in combination with H3a, and H4a, GSF, GST3, and GST4. By statistically fitting the global dataset to these model combinations, the level of agreement of $ν_{μ}$, $ν_e$, and $μ$ fluxes with current atmospheric modeling benchmarks is evaluated.
In addition, the impact of varying the normalization of the prompt component of the flux is investigated, allowing its contribution to be assessed within current experimental uncertainties. This study provides a systematic cross-experiment comparison of atmospheric lepton flux measurements and offers insight into the robustness of current hadronic interaction and cosmic-ray models, highlighting both their consistency and the remaining sources of uncertainty.
