Calculating vertical atmospheric muon energy spectra for energies ranging from 102 to 105 GeV

Abstract

New calculations of the atmospheric vertical muon energy spectra for energies ranging from 10² to 10⁵ GeV are performed using an original approach and the CORSIKA 7.4 software package. The intensity of the atmospheric muon flux calculated using the SIBYLL 2.1 and QGSJET II-03 models for muon energies of ~(10³–10⁵) GeV is 1.7 times lower than the intensity predicted by L3+Cosmic, MARO and LVD collaborations on the basis of experimental data. For the energy range of ~(10²–10³) GeV, this reduction is as high as ~2.2 for the QGSJET II-03 model; for the SIBYLL 2.1 model, it falls to 2.1. If we assume that the first generation of charged π^± and K^± mesons makes the greatest contribution to the most energetic muon flux, the generation of mesons is underestimated by 1.7 times in the abovementioned models.