Related papers: On the measurement of the proton-air cross section…
The interaction of ultra-high energy cosmic rays with the atmosphere nuclei has long been seen as a unique opportunity to study hadronic interactions above energies attainable by accelerators. However, so far the multiparticle production…
We demonstrate that a substantial part of the present uncertainties in model predictions for the average maximum depth of cosmic ray-induced extensive air showers is related to very high energy pion-air collisions. Our analysis shows that…
Ultra high energy cosmic rays provide the highest known energy source in the universe to measure proton cross sections. Though conditions for collecting such data are less controlled than an accelerator environment, current generation…
Hadronic interaction models at cosmic ray (CR) energies are inherently uncertain due to the lack of a fundamental theoretical description of soft hadronic and nuclear interactions and the large extrapolation required from collider energies…
We propose a method to extract high-energy hadronic interaction properties from the distributions of two of the main observables of proton extensive air showers: the depth of maximum shower development, $X_\mathrm{max}$, and the number of…
Cross sections for proton inelastic collision with different nuclei are described within the Glauber and multiple scattering approximations. A significant difference between approximate `Glauber' formula and exact calculations with a…
We present a summary of recent tests and measurements of hadronic interaction properties with air showers. This report has a special focus on muon density measurements. Several experiments reported deviations between simulated and recorded…
The model dependence of the development of extensive air showers generated by high-energy cosmic-ray particles in the atmosphere is studied. The increase of proton-proton and proton-air inelastic cross-sections and values for the elasticity…
We report a measurement of the proton-air cross-section for particle production at the center-of-mass energy per nucleon of 57 TeV. This is derived from the distribution of the depths of shower maxima observed with the Pierre Auger…
In the sub-TeV regime, the most widely used hadronic interaction models disagree significant lying their predictions for post-first interaction and ground-level particle spectra from cosmic ray induced air showers. These differences…
Air shower simulation programs are essential tools for the analysis of data from cosmic ray experiments and for planning the layout of new detectors. They are used to estimate the energy and mass of the primary particle. Unfortunately the…
In air shower experiments information about the initial cosmic ray particle or about the shower development is obtained by exploiting the correlations between the quantities of interest and the directly measurable quantities. It is shown…
The aim of this report of the Working Group on Hadronic Interactions and Air Shower Simulation is to give an overview of the status of the field, emphasizing open questions and a comparison of relevant results of the different experiments.…
In this article, I will review how observations performed with extensive air showers are being used to probe hadronic interactions at high energy. I will briefly overview the new studies exploring the connection between the dynamics of air…
An important approach to studying high-energy cosmic rays is the investigation of the properties of extensive air showers; however, the lateral distribution of particles in simulations of such showers strongly depends on the applied model…
Measurements of the muon content of extensive air showers at the highest energies show discrepancies compared to simulations as large as the differences between proton and iron. This so-called muon puzzle is commonly attributed to a lack of…
At high energy, cosmic rays can only be studied by measuring the extensive air showers they produce in the atmosphere of the Earth. Although the main features of air showers can be understood within a simple model of successive…
Several models of minimum-bias hadronic interactions at ultra-high energy that have been used for calculations of air showers share essential common features. In this talk I review these common elements and discuss some consequences. I…
The proton-air inelastic cross section value \sigmapairin=338$\pm$21({\it stat})$\pm$19({\it syst})-28({\it syst}) mb at $\sqrt{s} \approx $ 2 TeV has been measured by the EAS-TOP Extensive Air Shower experiment. The absorption length of…
Studies of the nature of cosmic ray particles at the highest energies are based on the measurement of extensive air showers. Most cosmic ray properties can therefore only be obtained from the interpretation of air shower data and are thus…