Related papers: Strong interactions in air showers
After a short review of the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray puzzle - the apparent observation of cosmic rays originating from cosmological distances with energies above the expected Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff 4x10^{19} eV - we consider…
Cosmic rays provide an unique approach to study hadronic interactions at high energies in the kinematic forward direction. The KASCADE air shower experiment was the first to conduct quantitative tests of hadronic interactions with air…
We consider the possibility that the ultra-high-energy cosmic ray flux has a small component of exotic particles which create showers much deeper in the atmosphere than ordinary hadronic primaries. It is shown that applying the conventional…
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first we want to introduce a new type of hadronic interaction model (NEXUS), which has a much more solid theoretical basis as, for example, presently used models like QGSJET and VENUS, and ensures…
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) interacting with the atmosphere generate extensive air showers (EAS) of secondary particles. The depth corresponding to the maximum development of the shower, $\Xmax$, is a well-known observable for…
Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays with energies above ~ 10^18 eV provide an unique window to study hadronic interactions at energies well above those achieved in the largest man-made accelerators. We argue that at those energies string…
We present a fast one dimensional hybrid method to efficiently simulate extensive air showers up to the highest observed energies. Based on precalculated pion showers and a bootstrap technique, our method predicts the average shower…
The depth of maximum for extensive air showers measured by Fly's Eye and Yakutsk experiments is analysed. The analysis depends on the hadronic interaction model that determine cascade development. The novel feature found in the cascading…
Hadronic cosmic particles (cosmic rays) and gamma rays are constantly absorbed in the Earth's atmosphere and result in air showers of secondary particles. Cherenkov radiation from these atmospheric events is used to measure cosmic gamma…
Research in cosmic rays is now nearly a century old, but most of the fundamental questions in this field remain unanswered, on the other hand the perspectives of future studies in the next decade are very bright. New detectors will provide…
We summarise some basic issues relevant to the optimisation and design of space-based experiments for the observation of the Extensive Air Showers produced by Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Particles interacting with the atmosphere. A number of…
The interpretation of extensive air shower measurements, produced by ultra-high energy cosmic rays, relies on the correct modeling of the hadron-air interactions that occur during the shower development. The majority of hadronic particles…
Characteristics of the high energy families (bundle of high energy e, gamma) and hadrons in the air-showers detected in the hybrid experiment together with emulsion chamber and AS-array at Mt.Chacaltaya are studied in detail by comparing…
The shape of the longitudinal development of the showers generated in the atmosphere by very high energy cosmic ray particles encodes information about the mass composition of the flux, and about the properties of hadronic interactions that…
Various phenomena of physics beyond that of the Standard Model could occur at high scale. Ultra-high energy cosmic rays are the only particles available to explore scales above a few dozens of TeV. Although these explorations are much more…
A major challenge in ground-based ultra-high-energy gamma-ray observations remains in discriminating sporadic gamma-ray signals from a huge background of cosmic-ray events. To achieve good discrimination power of gamma rays against protons,…
To interpret the mean depth of cosmic ray air shower maximum and its dispersion, we parametrize those two observables as functions of the first two moments of the $\ln A$ distribution. We examine the goodness of this simple method through…
The Pierre Auger Observatory, the world's largest observatory of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECR), offers a unique insight into the properties of hadronic interactions occurring in air showers at energies well above those reached at…
In this work we argue that, in the interpretation of the energy dependence of the depth of the shower maximum and of the muon content in high energy cosmic ray showers ($E > 10^{17}$ eV), other variables besides the composition may play an…
Regarding ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) as a probe and extra dimensions as a possible ingredient of the fantastic ultrahigh-energy world, we discuss possible interplay between them. On the one hand small extra dimensions and…