Gamma-Hadron Separation at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is located at the geographic South Pole and composed of two detectors: the surface array, called IceTop, is made of ice-Cherenkov tanks, and the in-ice array made of optical detector modules deep in the ice. The two detectors can be combined for the study of cosmic rays. This work will primarily focus on low energy air-showers. It will use the IceTop response, mainly dominated by the electromagnetic component of cosmic-ray and gamma-ray air showers, for the reconstruction of the air-showers quantities, such as direction or energy. The in-ice array is used to ensure the presence of high energy muons, produced primarily in hadronic air-shower. At PeV energies, only a small fraction of gamma-ray induced showers produce an in-ice signal, but almost all hadronic showers feature an in-ice muon signal. Thus, the in-ice array can be exploited for gamma-hadron separation and the search for primary astrophysical PeV photons.