Related papers: Testing models of new physics with UHE air shower …
Light, beyond-the-standard-model particles $X$ in the 1-100 MeV mass range can be produced in nuclear and hadronic reactions but would have to decay electromagnetically. We show that simple and well-understood low-energy hadronic processes…
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…
Ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) protons produced by uniformly distributed astrophysical sources contradict the energy spectrum measured by both the AGASA and HiRes experiments, assuming the small scale clustering of UHECR observed by…
We present a measurement of the mean number of muons with energies larger than 500 GeV in near-vertical extensive air showers initiated by cosmic rays with primary energies between 2.5 PeV and 100 PeV. The measurement is based on events…
We consider two new aspects of Extensive Air Shower development universality allowing to make accurate estimation of muon and electromagnetic (EM) shower contents in two independent ways. In the first case, to get muon (or EM) signal in…
The mass composition of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is commonly inferred from the first two moments of the depth of shower maximum, $X_{\rm max}$, measured by fluorescence and hybrid detectors. Such analyses require fast and…
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…
The attenuation length of the muon content in extensive air showers provides important information regarding the generation and development of air showers. This information can be used not only to improve the description of such showers but…
It has been shown that muon flux intensities calculated in terms of the EPOS LHC and EPOS 1.99 models at the energy of 10^4 GeV exceed the data of the classical experiments L3+Cosmic, MACRO and LVD on the spectra of atmospheric muons by a…
Surface detector arrays are designed to measure the spectrum and composition of high-energy cosmic rays by detecting the secondary particle flux of the Extensive Air Showers (EAS) induced by the primary cosmic rays. Electromagnetic…
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,…
The development of an extensive air shower depends not only on the nature of the primary ultra-high-energy cosmic ray but also on the properties of the hadronic interactions. For energies above those achievable in human-made accelerators,…
The field of air shower physics, dedicated to understanding the development of cosmic-ray interactions with the Earth's atmosphere, faces a significant challenge regarding the muon content of air showers observed by the Pierre Auger…
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…
We present the first hybrid measurement of the average muon number in air showers at ultra-high energies, initiated by cosmic rays with zenith angles between $62^\circ$ and $80^\circ$. The measurement is based on 174 hybrid events recorded…
Using CORSIKA for simulating extensive air showers, we study the relation between the shower characteristics and features of hadronic multiparticle production at low energies. We report about investigations of typical energies and phase…
We discuss the relation between remnant fragmentation in inelastic high-energy hadronic interactions and muon production in extensive cosmic ray air showers. Using a newly developed tool, a simple and flexible hadronic event generator, we…
The discrepancy between models and data regarding the muon content in air showers generated by ultra-high energy cosmic rays still needs to be solved. The CONEX simulation framework provides a flexible tool to assess the impact of different…
The origin and nature of ultra high energy cosmic rays remains being a mystery. However, great progress has been made in recent years due to the observations performed by the Pierre Auger Observatory and Telescope Array. In particular, it…
A confirmation of the long-standing muon $g$-2 discrepancy requires both experimental and theoretical progress. On the theory side, the hadronic corrections are under close scrutiny, as they induce the leading uncertainty of the Standard…