Related papers: Air Shower Simulation and Hadronic Interactions
Ultrahigh energy cosmic ray air showers probe particle physics at energies beyond the reach of accelerators. Here we introduce a new method to test hadronic interaction models without relying on the absolute energy calibration, and apply it…
Over the last two decades, various experiments have measured muon densities in extensive air showers over several orders of magnitude in primary energy. While some experiments observed differences in the muon densities between simulated and…
We present a meta-analysis of recent muon density measurements made by eight air shower experiments which cover shower energies ranging from PeV to tens of EeV regarding the muon puzzle in extensive air showers. Some experimental analyses…
Very high energy cosmic rays are typically studied by measuring extensive air showers formed by secondary particles produced in collisions with air nuclei. The indirect character of the measurement makes the physics interpretation of cosmic…
Extensive air showers are the result of billions of particle reactions initiated by single cosmic rays at ultra-high energy. Their characteristics are sensitive both to the mass of the primary cosmic ray and to the fine details of hadronic…
The understanding of the basic properties of the ultra - high energy extensive air showers is strongly dependent on the description of the hadronic interactions in a energy range beyond that probed by the LHC. One of the uncertainties…
We discuss air shower simulations based on the EPOS hadronic interaction model. A remarkable feature is the fact that the number of produced muons is considerably larger compared to other interaction models. We show that this is due to an…
We evaluate the consistency of hadronic interaction models in the CORSIKA simulation package with publicly available fluorescence telescope data from the Pierre Auger Observatory. By comparing the first few central moments of the extended…
When high-energy cosmic rays (gamma's, protons, or heavy nuclei) impinge onto the Earth's atmosphere, they interact at high altitude with the air nuclei as targets. By repeated interaction of the secondaries an `extensive air shower' (EAS)…
Hadronic interaction models are a core ingredient of simulations of extensive air showers and pose the major source of uncertainties of predictions of air shower observables. Recently, Pythia~8, a hadronic interaction model popular in…
The characteristics of an extensive air shower derive from both the mass of the primary ultra-high-energy cosmic ray that seeds its development and the properties of the hadronic interactions that feed it. With its hybrid detector design,…
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 present status of extensive air shower (EAS) simulation procedures is reviewed. The advantages of combining numerical and Monte Carlo methods for the description of EAS development are discussed. Physics content of cosmic ray…
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 energy spectrum of muons at ground level in air showers are studied and a new observable is proposed to constrain hadronic interaction models used in air shower simulations. An asymmetric Gaussian function is proposed to describe the…
We introduce a simple branching model for the development of hadronic showers in the Earth's atmosphere. Based on this model, we show how the size of the pionic component followed by muons can be estimated. Several aspects of the subsequent…
Using the large hadron calorimeter of the KASCADE experiment, hadronic cores of extensive air showers have been studied. The hadron lateral and energy distributions have been investigated in order to study the reliability of the shower…
High-energy cosmic rays are observed indirectly by detecting the extensive air showers initiated in Earth's atmosphere. The interpretation of experimental data relies on accurate modeling of the air shower development. Simulations based on…
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…
In extensive air shower experiments, the number of muons crossing a detector at a given position, as well as their arrival time, arrival direction, and energy, are determined by a more fundamental 3-dimensional distribution linked to the…