Abstract
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 measure of the proton-air particle production cross section. Since the first interaction point in air cannot be measured directly, various methods have been developed in the past to estimate the depth of the first interaction from air shower observables in combination with simulations. As the simulations depend on assumptions made for hadronic particle production at energies and phase space regions not accessible in accelerator experiments, the derived cross sections are subject to significant systematic uncertainties. The focus of this work is the development of an improved analysis technique that allows a significant reduction of the model dependence of the derived cross section at very high energy. Performing a detailed Monte Carlo study of the potential and the limitations of different measurement methods, we quantify the dependence of the measured cross section on the hadronic interaction model used. Based on these results, a general improvement of the analysis methods is proposed by introducing the actually derived cross section already in the simulation of reference showers. The reduction of the model dependence is demonstrated for one of the measurement methods.
Highlights
The natural beam of cosmic ray particles extends to energies far beyond the reach of any Earth-based particle accelerator
Performing a detailed Monte Carlo study of the potential and the limitations of different measurement methods, we quantify the dependence of the measured cross section on the used hadronic interaction model
To obtain information on the first interactions in an air shower it is necessary to link the measured air shower characteristics to that of high energy particle production in the shower. This can be done with detailed Monte Carlo simulations of the shower evolution and the corresponding shower observables, but inevitably causes a dependence of the results on hadronic interaction models needed for the shower description
Summary
The natural beam of cosmic ray particles extends to energies far beyond the reach of any Earth-based particle accelerator. To obtain information on the first interactions in an air shower it is necessary to link the measured air shower characteristics to that of high energy particle production in the shower This can be done with detailed Monte Carlo simulations of the shower evolution and the corresponding shower observables, but inevitably causes a dependence of the results on hadronic interaction models needed for the shower description. Interactions with insignificant particle production have no measurable impact on cosmic ray observations This is the case for air shower based techniques as well as for the unaccompanied hadron method. The correlation of these EAS observables to the characteristics of the ultra-high energy interactions is studied with the one dimensional air shower Monte Carlo program CONEX v2r2 [38]. This definition matches the shower maximum derived from the fluorescence light profile of showers and coincides with that of the particle number within ∼ 3 gcm−2
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