Precision cross-sections for advancing cosmic-ray physics. Input to the 2026 ESPPU from the XSCRC community
Abstract
The latest generation of cosmic-ray direct detection experiments is providing a wealth of high-precision data, stimulating a very rich and active debate in the community on the related strong discovery and constraining potentials on many topics, namely dark matter nature, and the sources, acceleration, and transport of Galactic cosmic rays. However, interpretation of these data is strongly limited by the uncertainties on nuclear and hadronic cross-sections. This contribution is one of the outcomes of the \textit{Cross-Section for Cosmic Rays at CERN} workshop series, that built synergies between experimentalists and theoreticians from the astroparticle, particle physics, and nuclear physics communities. A few successful and illustrative examples of CERN experiments' efforts to provide missing measurements on cross-sections are presented. In the context of growing cross-section needs from ongoing, but also planned, cosmic-ray experiments, a road map for the future is highlighted, including overlapping or complementary cross-section needs from applied topics (e.g., space radiation protection and hadrontherapy).
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2503.22783,
title = {Precision cross-sections for advancing cosmic-ray physics. Input to the 2026 ESPPU from the XSCRC community},
author = {S. Mariani and L. Audouin and E. Berti and P. Coppin and M. Di Mauro and P. von Doetinchem and F. Donato and C. Evoli and Y. Génolini and P. Ghosh and I. Leya and M. J. Losekamm and D. Maurin and J. W. Norbury and L. Orusa and M. Paniccia and T. Poeschl and P. D. Serpico and A. Tykhonov and M. Unger and M. Vanstalle and M. J. Zhao and D. Boncioli and M. Chiosso and D. Giordano and D. M. Gomez Coral and G. Graziani and C. Lucarelli and P. Maestro and M. Mahlein and L. Morejon and J. Ocampo-Peleteiro and A. Oliva and T. Pierog and L. Šerkšnytė},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.22783},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
13 pages, 3 figures. Excerpt of arXiv:2503.16173 for the 2026 European Strategy for Particle Physics