Studies of the Cosmic Ray shadow of the Moon using the KM3NeT/ARCA telescope

Cosmic rays produce muons that cast Cherenkov light cones in the water. With the Cherenkov light cones, KM3NeT can reconstruct the track of the muon across the sky, this result is named an event. Between September 22 2022 GMT and June 09 2023 GMT, the ARCA site was measuring, and detecting Cherenkov light from any bypassing muon. From this measurement simulations were created, containing 6 times more events as the measurement. In this thesis, we analyse the events from the simulation. We bin the events on one- \& two-dimensional maps of the sky, where we bin all reconstructed events relative to the location of the Moon. Two models are fitted to the maps. One model assumes the absence of the Moon; another model respects a valley in events at the Moon's location. These fits are tested with the use of $\chi^2$-tests. The one-dimensional analysis indicates a relative amplitude of $0.65 \pm 0.10$ and angular resolution of $0.81\degree \pm 0.12\degree$. The rotational calibration of the...Show moreCosmic rays produce muons that cast Cherenkov light cones in the water. With the Cherenkov light cones, KM3NeT can reconstruct the track of the muon across the sky, this result is named an event. Between September 22 2022 GMT and June 09 2023 GMT, the ARCA site was measuring, and detecting Cherenkov light from any bypassing muon. From this measurement simulations were created, containing 6 times more events as the measurement. In this thesis, we analyse the events from the simulation. We bin the events on one- \& two-dimensional maps of the sky, where we bin all reconstructed events relative to the location of the Moon. Two models are fitted to the maps. One model assumes the absence of the Moon; another model respects a valley in events at the Moon's location. These fits are tested with the use of $\chi^2$-tests. The one-dimensional analysis indicates a relative amplitude of $0.65 \pm 0.10$ and angular resolution of $0.81\degree \pm 0.12\degree$. The rotational calibration of the telescope is tested. Although the $\chi^2$ values differ most for no rotational calibration an angle of -0.2 and -0.4 are larger than expected. Quality cuts of the data set are based on the variables' likelihood and track reconstruction uncertainty. It is the superposition of a likelihood of 100 or higher and a track reconstruction uncertainty of 0.1 or smaller that causes an increase in the difference in $\chi^2$ values.Show less

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Studies of the Cosmic Ray shadow of the Moon using the KM3NeT/ARCA telescope