A new observable in extensive air showers
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
2016-10-18 v2 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Abstract
We find that the ratio r_{mu e} of the muon to the electromagnetic component of an extended air shower at the ground level provides an indirect measure of the depth X_{max} of the shower maximum. This result, obtained with the air-shower code AIRES, is independent of the hadronic model used in the simulation. We show that the value of r_{mu e} in a particular shower discriminates its proton or iron nature with a 98% efficiency. We also show that the eventual production of forward heavy quarks inside the shower may introduce anomalous values of r_{mu e} in isolated events.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1609.04941,
title = {A new observable in extensive air showers},
author = {C. A. García Canal and J. I. Illana and M. Masip and S. J. Sciutto},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.04941},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
10 pages, version to appear in Astroparticle Physics