Related papers: Strong interactions in air showers
We present an introductory lecture on general features of cosmic rays, for non-experts, and some recent developments concerning cascade equations for air shower developments.
Although recent measurements of the shower profiles of ultra-high energy cosmic rays suggest that they are largely initiated by heavy nuclei, such conclusions rely on hadronic interaction models which have large uncertainties. We…
We show that all features of the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray spectrum from 10^{17} eV to 10^{21} eV can be described with a simple power-like injection spectrum of protons under the assumption that the neutrino-nucleon cross-section is…
Cosmic ray data may allow the determination of the proton-air cross section at ultra-high energy. For example, the distribution of the first interaction point in air showers reflects the particle production cross section. As it is not…
Different interaction models treating hadronic collisions below E_lab < 100 GeV in air shower simulations are compared within the frame of the CORSIKA program. Their behaviour is studied in isolated collisions of protons or pions with…
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…
Astroparticles offer a new path for research in the field of particle physics, allowing investigations at energies above those accesible with accelerators. Ultra-high energy cosmic rays can be studied via the observation of the showers they…
Collective effects are reviewed for collisions of various systems - from proton-proton to heavy ion - in wide energy range. In proton-proton interactions studies of hadron jets devote to the better understanding of some basic features of…
One of the possible consequences of the existence of extra degrees of freedom beyond the electroweak scale is the increase of neutrino-nucleon cross sections ($\sigma_{\nu N}$) beyond Standard Model predictions. At ultra-high energies this…
A new method of investigating ultra-high energy cosmic ray sources is suggested. The method is based on analysis of gamma-ray emission that is generated in extragalactic space when ultra-high energy cosmic particles interact with cosmic…
The computation of hard processes in hadronic collisions is a major success of perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (pQCD). In such processes, pQCD not only predicts the hard reaction itself, but also the subsequent evolution in terms of…
The Pierre Auger Observatory is the world's largest detector of ultra--high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). It uses an array of fluorescence telescopes and particle detectors at the ground to obtain detailed measurements of the energy…
The Pierre Auger Observatory for cosmic rays provides a laboratory for studying fundamental interactions at energies well beyond those available at colliders. In addition to hadrons or photons, Auger is sensitive to ultra-high energy…
An analysis has been made of the present situation with the high energy hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus interaction models. As is already known there are inconsistencies in the interpretation of experimental data on the primary mass…
The alignment of the products of very high energy interactions seen in mountain altitude experiments is one of the most puzzling phenomena in cosmic ray physics for quite a long time. The observations of the Pamir and Chacaltaya emulsion…
Stable Superstring Relics (SSR) provide some of the candidates for the possible origin of the Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR). After a brief overview of the motivations for introducing such relics, we address the question whether…
Atmosphere-skimming showers are initiated by cosmic rays with incoming directions such that the full development of the cascade occurs inside the atmosphere without ever reaching the ground. This new class of showers has been observed in…
The showers of cosmic rays entering the Earth's atmosphere are main sources of information on cosmic rays and are also believed to provide information on elementary interactions at energies not accessible to accelerators. In this context we…
A Monte Carlo generator of high energy cosmic ray interactions, relying on a very basic and transparent theoretical formalism, in the framework of the Reggeon Field Theory, is presented. The main motivation for our work is to provide a new…
The Pierre Auger Observatory is the largest facility in the world to study ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. It has a hybrid detection technique that combines the observation of the longitudinal development of extensive air showers and the…