Related papers: A new air-shower observable to constrain hadronic …
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…
Accurately measuring the energy of shower particles reaching the ground remains a challenge due to the inherent limitations of typical cosmic ray experiments. In this work, we present two experimental strategies to determine the energy…
To search for ultra-high-energy photons in primary cosmic rays, air shower observables are needed that allow a good separation between primary photons and primary hadrons. We present a new observable, $F_\gamma$, which can be extracted from…
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 number of muons in an air shower is a strong indicator of the mass of the primary particle and increases with a small power of the cosmic ray mass by the $\beta$-exponent, $N_{\mu} \sim A^{(1-\beta)}$. This behaviour can be explained in…
The role of Horizontal Showers induced by cosmic rays is discussed in detail. A new approach to the calculation of the muon component in horizontal air showers induced by protons, heavier nuclei or photons is presented which allows a simple…
In this work, direct measurements of the muon density at $1000\,\textrm{m}$ from the shower axis obtained by the Akeno Giant Air Shower Array (AGASA) are analysed. The selected events have zenith angles $\theta \leq 36^{\textrm{o}}$ and…
Extensive air showers produce high-energy muons that can be utilized to probe hadronic interaction models in cosmic ray interactions. Most muons originate from pion and kaon decays, called $\textit{conventional}$ muons, while a smaller…
Several air shower observatories have established that the number of muons produced in UHE air showers is significantly larger than that predicted by models. We argue that the only solution to this muon deficit, compatible with the observed…
The muon content of extensive air showers is an observable sensitive to the primary composition and to the hadronic interaction properties. The Pierre Auger Observatory uses water-Cherenkov detectors to measure particle densities at the…
We present a novel approach for assessing the muon content of air showers with large zenith angles on a combined analysis of their radio emission and particle footprint. We use the radiation energy reconstructed by the Auger Engineering…
We have studied the hadronic interaction for the calculation of the atmospheric neutrino flux by summarizing the accurately measured atmospheric muon flux data and comparing with simulations. We find the atmospheric muon and neutrino fluxes…
In the sub-TeV regime, the most widely used hadronic interaction models disagree significant lying their predictions for post-first interaction and ground-level particle spectra from cosmic ray induced air showers. These differences…
Since 2006, EPOS hadronic interaction model is being used for very high energy cosmic ray analysis. Designed for minimum bias particle physics and used for having a precise description of SPS and RHIC heavy ion collisions, EPOS brought more…
The interaction of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) with the atoms of the atmosphere can occur at center-of-mass energies that surpass 100 TeV, while present human-made accelerators go up to 13 TeV. Therefore it provides a unique…
The analysis of high-energy air shower data allows one to study the proton-air cross section at energies beyond the reach of fixed target and collider experiments. The mean depth of the first interaction point and its fluctuations are a…
The Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina provides the largest data sample of the cosmic ray events with energy above 10$^{18}$ eV. These high energy events can be used to test our understanding of the hadronic interactions at energies…
Understanding hadronic interactions at high energies represents a very important ingredient for modeling high energy cosmic ray air showers. In this paper, we present a new approach to simulate hadronic interactions, including…
The Pierre Auger Observatory is the world's largest detector for observation of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) (above the energy of $10^{17}$ eV). It consists of a Fluorescence Detector (FD) and an array of particle detectors known…
Recent applications of cosmic-ray muons require accurate modeling of their flux at low-energy. However, no measurement has been reported below 400 MeV. Therefore, we developed a full-absorption muon energy spectrometer to obtain energy…