Related papers: Extensive Air Showers and Accelerator Data - The N…
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first we want to introduce a new type of hadronic interaction model (NEXUS), which has a much more solid theoretical basis as, for example, presently used models like QGSJET and VENUS, and ensures…
We present a study of the multiplicities, of the lateral distributions and of the ratio of the electromagnetic to the hadronic components in the air showers, generated by the collision in the atmosphere of an incoming high energy cosmic ray…
At ultra-high energies, the flux of cosmic rays is too low for direct measurements to be meaningful. When a cosmic ray enters the atmosphere, it initiates an extensive air shower, producing a cascade of secondary particles that propagate…
Extensive Air Showers are still the only source of information on primary cosmic rays and their interactions at energies above PeV. However, this information is hidden inside the multiplicative character of the cascading process. Inspite of…
The Pierre Auger Observatory is the world's largest detector of ultra--high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). It uses an array of fluorescence telescopes and particle detectors at the ground to obtain detailed measurements of the energy…
In models with substructure in the fermionic sector, excited fermion states are expected. Excited leptons could be produced in the interaction of high energy quasi-horizontal cosmic neutrinos with the atmosphere via neutral and charged…
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are the highest energy messengers of the present universe, with energies up to $10^{20}$ eV. Studies of astrophysical particles (nuclei, electrons, neutrinos and photons) at their highest observed…
The hybrid design of the Pierre Auger Observatory allows for the measurement of a number of properties of extensive air showers initiated by ultra-high energy cosmic rays. By comparing these measurements to predictions from air shower…
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…
Hadronic cross sections at ultra-high energy have a significant impact on the development of extensive air shower cascades. Therefore the interpretation of air shower data depends critically on hadronic interaction models that extrapolate…
The Pierre Auger Observatory has been designed to investigate the most energetic particles known, the ultra high energy cosmic rays. The observatory, covering an area of 3000 km^2, combines two different detection techniques to study the…
The HIJING and VENUS models of relativistic hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions are used to study interactions of hadron-hadron, hadron-nitrogen and nucleus-nitrogen collisions, specific for the extensive air shower developments…
The AIRES (AIR-shower Extended Simulations) system is a set of programs and subroutines to realistically simulate particle showers produced after the incidence of high energy cosmic rays on the Earth's atmosphere, and to manage all the…
The status of some popular models to simulate hadronic and nuclear interactions at Cosmic Ray energies is reviewed. The models predict the rise of all the hadronic and nuclear cross sections with energy and a smooth (logarithmic) rise of…
KASCADE-Grande, the extension of the multi-detector setup of KASCADE, was devoted to measure the properties of extensive air showers initiated by high-energy cosmic rays in the primary energy range of 1 PeV up to 1 EeV. The observations of…
This paper begins with a pedagogical discussion of the propagation of cosmic rays and the showers produced when a cosmic ray primary hits the upper atmosphere. The paper focusses cosmic rays, with energy > 10^19 eV. Emphasis is placed on…
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.…
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…
We revisit and extend the analysis supporting a 60 year-old suggestion that cosmic rays air showers resulting from primary particles with energies above 10^{18} eV should be straightforward to detect with radar ranging techniques, where the…
Studies of the composition of the highest energy cosmic rays with the Pierre Auger Observatory, including examination of hadronic physics effects on the structure of extensive air showers.