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Abstract
The main focus of this dissertation is the measurement of the all particle cosmic ray energy spectra with the IceTop air shower array in the energy range from 1 petaelectronvolt (PeV) up to 1 exaelectronvolt (EeV). The IceTop air shower array is the surface component of the IceCube South Pole Neutrino Observatory. The analysis was performed using only information from IceTop. The data used in this work were taken during eleven months from June 1, 2010 to May15, 2011. During that period the IceTop array consisted of 73 stations compared to 81 in its final configuration. The array forms a nearly symmetrical hexagon.
In the first few chapters I will give a brief review of cosmic ray physics, describe some other experiments in this field and introduce the IceTop detector itself. The analysis part of the dissertation consists of two studies. In the first study, low energy (below knee), small showers were analyzed with the goal of lowering IceTop detector threshold to make a connection with direct measurements. In the second part I will present results for the showers with energies higher than 1PeV.
