Fusion of strings and its consequences at the highest cosmic ray energies

Abstract

It is shown that the fusion of string is a source of particle production in nucleus-nucleus collisions outside the kinematical limits of nucleon-nucleon collisions. The spectrum of different particles is compared with the high energy data on p-A collisions obtaining a reasonable agreement. Results for A-B collisions at s =19.4 AGeV and s =200 AGeV are given and possible implications for cosmic rays are examined. Both the enhancement of the cumulative effect and the reduction of multiplicities implied by string fusion should strongly modify the first interactions and the profile of extensive air showers and should be taken into account in their simulation.