Atmospheric Lepton Fluxes

This review of atmospheric muons and neutrinos emphasizes the high energy range relevant for backgrounds to high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin. After a brief historical introduction, the main distinguishing features of atmospheric $ν_μ$ and $ν_e$ are discussed, along with the implications of the muon charge ratio for the $ν_μ/\barν_μ$ ratio. Methods to account for effects of the knee in the primary cosmic-ray spectrum and the energy-dependence of hadronic interactions on the neutrino fluxes are discussed and illustrated in the context of recent results from IceCube. A simple numerical/analytic method is proposed for systematic investigation of uncertainties in neutrino fluxes arising from uncertainties in the primary cosmic-ray spectrum/composition and hadronic interactions.

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