Related papers: Probabilistic mapping between multiparticle produc…
Primary proton-air interactions at ultra-high energies leave a physically interpretable imprint on the correlated fluctuations of the depth of shower maximum and the muon content in extensive air showers. This imprint reflects the…
Cosmic ray data may allow the determination of the proton-air cross section at ultra-high energy. For example, the distribution of the first interaction point in air showers reflects the particle production cross section. As it is not…
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…
We demonstrate that a substantial part of the present uncertainties in model predictions for the average maximum depth of cosmic ray-induced extensive air showers is related to very high energy pion-air collisions. Our analysis shows that…
In this paper we study, using Monte Carlo simulations, the possibility to discriminate the mass of the Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) by combining information obtained from the maximum $X_{max}^{\mu}$ of the muon production rate…
The depth of maximum for extensive air showers measured by Fly's Eye and Yakutsk experiments is analysed. The analysis depends on the hadronic interaction model that determine cascade development. The novel feature found in the cascading…
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…
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…
We propose a method to extract high-energy hadronic interaction properties from the distributions of two of the main observables of proton extensive air showers: the depth of maximum shower development, $X_\mathrm{max}$, and the number of…
The shape of the longitudinal development of the showers generated in the atmosphere by very high energy cosmic ray particles encodes information about the mass composition of the flux, and about the properties of hadronic interactions that…
We demonstrate that the shower-to-shower fluctuations of the muon content of extensive air showers correlate with the fluctuations of a variable of the first interaction of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays, which is computed from the fraction…
The hardness of the energy spectrum of neutral pions produced in proton-air interactions at ultra-high energies, above $10^{18}$ eV, is constrained by the steepness of the shower-to-shower distribution of the number of muons in…
A quantitative analysis of model uncertainties for calculations of the maximum depth of proton-initiated extensive air showers (EAS) has been performed. Staying within the standard physics picture and using the conventional approach to the…
Using the data taken at the Pierre Auger Observatory between December 2004 and December 2012, we have examined the implications of the distributions of depths of atmospheric shower maximum (Xmax), using a hybrid technique, for composition…
Studies of the nature of cosmic ray particles at the highest energies are based on the measurement of extensive air showers. Most cosmic ray properties can therefore only be obtained from the interpretation of air shower data and are thus…
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) interacting with the atmosphere generate extensive air showers (EAS) of secondary particles. The depth corresponding to the maximum development of the shower, $\Xmax$, is a well-known observable for…
Ground based observations appear to indicate that Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) of the highest energies (>10^{18.7} eV) consist of heavy particles -- shower depth and muon production data both pointing towards this conclusion. On…
We study the influence of shower fluctuations, and the possible presence of different nuclear species in the primary cosmic ray spectrum, on the experimental determination of both shower energy and the proton air inelastic cross section…
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)…
The chemical composition of ultra high energy cosmic rays is still uncertain. The latest results obtained by the Pierre Auger Observatory and the HiRes Collaboration, concerning the measurement of the mean value and the fluctuations of the…