Testing Hadronic Interactions at Ultrahigh Energies with Air Showers Measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory

Ultrahigh energy cosmic ray air showers probe particle physics at energies beyond the reach of accelerators. Here we introduce a new method to test hadronic interaction models without relying on the absolute energy calibration, and apply it to events with primary energy 6-16 EeV (ECM=110-170 TeV), w...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Dova, María Teresa, Hansen, Patricia María, Jarne, Cecilia Gisele, Mariazzi, Analisa Gabriela, Sciutto, Sergio Juan, Wahlberg, Hernán Pablo
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2016
País:Argentina
Recursos:Universidad Nacional de La Plata
Repositorio:SEDICI (UNLP)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/86701
Acesso em linha:http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/86701
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Física
Energy
Hadronic interaction
Cosmic rays
Descrição
Resumo:Ultrahigh energy cosmic ray air showers probe particle physics at energies beyond the reach of accelerators. Here we introduce a new method to test hadronic interaction models without relying on the absolute energy calibration, and apply it to events with primary energy 6-16 EeV (ECM=110-170 TeV), whose longitudinal development and lateral distribution were simultaneously measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory. The average hadronic shower is 1.33±0.16 (1.61±0.21) times larger than predicted using the leading LHC-tuned models EPOS-LHC (QGSJetII-04), with a corresponding excess of muons.