Related papers: Soft Particle Production in Cosmic Ray Showers
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…
Data from multiple experiments suggest that the current interaction models used in Monte Carlo simulations do not correctly reproduce the hadronic interactions in air showers produced by ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECR), in particular…
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…
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…
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 combination of fluorescence and surface detectors at the Pierre Auger Observatory offers unprecedented precision in testing models of hadronic interactions at center-of-mass energies around 70 TeV and beyond. However, for some time,…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays are often characterized indirectly by analyzing the properties of secondary cosmic ray particles produced in the collisions with air nuclei. The particle number $N_\mu$ of muon and the depth of shower maximum…
The surface detector array of the Pierre Auger Observatory provides information about the longitudinal development of the muonic component of extensive air showers. Using the timing information from the flash analog-to-digital converter…
Most cosmic-ray air shower arrays have focused on detecting electromagnetic shower particles and low energy muons. A few groups (most notably MACRO + EASTOP and SPASE + AMANDA) have studied the high energy muon component of showers.…
Production of high-energy muons in cosmic-ray air showers, relevant for underground detectors, depends on the properties of the primary cosmic ray as well as the atmospheric temperature through the competition between decay and…
We investigate the observed muon deficit in air shower simulations when compared to ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray (UHECR) data. Gleaned from the observed enhancement of strangeness production in ALICE data, the associated $\pi \leftrightarrow…
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,…
Motivated by the excess of the muon content of cosmic ray induced extensive air showers (EAS), relative to EAS modeling, observed by the Pierre Auger Observatory, and by the tension between Auger data and air shower simulations on the…
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…
The Pierre Auger Collaboration has reported an excess in the number of muons of a few tens of percent over expectations computed using extrapolation of hadronic interaction models tuned to accommodate LHC data. Very recently, we proposed an…
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…