Related papers: A branching model for hadronic air showers
In this article we identify the key elements that govern the propagation of muons from the production in extensive air showers to ground. We describe a model based on simple assumptions that propagates the muons starting from the few…
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…
We report on a study about some characteristics of muon production during the development of extended air showers initiated by ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. Using simulations with the recent new version of the AIRES air shower simulation…
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…
Muons serve as the best probes of the physics of hadronic interactions in the upper atmosphere because of their simple physics. All the properties of detected muons, such as their energy and angle of incidence, are governed by the…
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…
The indirect ground-based observations of cosmic rays through extensive air showers in modern experiments typically involve the use of Monte Carlo simulations to determine the characteristics of the primary particles. These simulations…
In this paper we analyze the energy evolution of the muon content of air showers between $10^{18.4}$ and $10^{19.6}$ eV to be able to determine the most likely mass composition scenario from future number of muons measurements. The energy…
The mass composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays can be studied from the distributions of the depth of shower maximum and/or the muon shower size. Here, we study the dependence of the mean muon shower size on the depth of shower…
In this work, the relation between muon production in extensive air showers and features of hadronic multiparticle production at low energies is studied. Using CORSIKA, we determine typical energies and phase space regions of secondary…
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…
Extensive air showers are complex objects, resulting of billions of particle reactions initiated by single cosmic ray at ultra-high-energy. Their characteristics are sensitive both to the mass of the primary cosmic ray and to the details of…
The mechanism of hadronic interactions at very high energies is still unclear. Available accelerator data constrain weakly the forward rapidity region which determines the development of atmospheric showers. This ignorance is one of the…
The energy spectrum of muons produced in air showers depends not only on the properties of the primary particle, but also on the atmosphere. This is because of the competition between decay and interaction of the parent mesons, which…
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…
Whereas air shower simulations are very valuable tools for interpreting cosmic ray data, there is a long standing problem: is seems to be impossible to accommodate at the same time the longitudinal development of air showers and the number…
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…
Studies of the influence of different hadronic models on extensive air showers at ultra-high energies are presented. The hadronic models considered are those implemented in the well-known QGSJET and SIBYLL event generators. The different…
The objective of this work is to report on the modifications in air shower development due to muon bremsstrahlung and muonic pair production. In order to do that we have implemented new muon bremsstrahlung and muonic pair production…
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.…