Proton-Air Cross Section and Extensive Air Showers
Abstract
Hadronic cross sections at ultra-high energy have a significant impact on the development of extensive air shower cascades. Therefore the interpretation of air shower data depends critically on hadronic interaction models that extrapolate the cross section from accelerator measurements to the highest cosmic ray energies. We discuss how extreme scenarios of cross section extrapolations can affect the interpretation of air shower data. We find that the theoretical uncertainty of the extrapolated proton-air cross section at ultra-high energies is much larger than suggested by the existing spread of available Monte Carlo model predictions. The impact on the depth of the shower maximum is demonstrated.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0906.3075,
title = {Proton-Air Cross Section and Extensive Air Showers},
author = {Ralf Ulrich and Ralph Engel and Steffen Müller and Fabian Schüssler and Michael Unger},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0906.3075},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Contribution to the Proceedings of the XV ISVHECRI Paris, France, 2008