Testing of the VENUS 4.12, DPMJET 2.55, QGSJET II-03 and SIBYLL 2.3 hadronic interaction models via help of the atmospheric vertical muon spectra

L G Dedenko,T M Roganova,A V Lukyashin,G F Fedorova,D Melikhov,I Volobuev

doi:10.1051/epjconf/201715806006

Abstract

Uncertainties of the model energy spectra of the most energetic secondary π± -mesons (and K ± -mesons) are discussed. Computer simulations of the partial energy spectra of the atmospheric vertical muons induced by primary cosmic particles with various fixed energies in interval 102 −107 GeV in terms of the VENUS 4.12, DPMJET 2.55, QGSJET II-03 and SIBYLL 2.3 models had been carried out with help of CORSIKA package. These partial spectra should be convoluted with the contemporary spectra of the primary cosmic particles. Results of simulations are compared with the contemporary atmospheric vertical muon flux data. Comparison shows that all models underestimate production of secondary π± -mesons (and K ± -mesons) by factor of ∼ 2 at the most high energies. This underestimation induces more rapid development of extensive air showers in the atmosphere and results in uncertainties in estimates of energy and composition of the primary cosmic particles.

Highlights

Uncertainties of the model energy spectra of the most energetic secondary π± -mesons are discussed
Showers induced by the primary protons and helium nuclei with different fixed energies have been simulated with help of the CORSIKA package [18] and the muon partial energy spectrum in each individual shower have been calculated
In this paper models QGSJET II-03, DPMJET 2.55 [8], VENUS 4.12 [9] and SIBYLL 2.3 [5] have been tested

Summary

Introduction

Uncertainties of the model energy spectra of the most energetic secondary π± -mesons (and K±-mesons) are discussed. Computer simulations of the partial energy spectra of the atmospheric vertical muons induced by primary cosmic particles with various fixed energies in interval 102−107 GeV in terms of the VENUS 4.12, DPMJET 2.55, QGSJET II-03 and SIBYLL 2.3 models had been carried out with help of CORSIKA package. With the help of any interaction models [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9], the package CORSIKA and approximations of data on fluxes of the primary cosmic nuclei [20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30] one can predict the energy spectra of atmospheric vertical high energy muons at sea level. A comparison of muon data observed in [15,16,17] with results of simulations allows to draw a conclusion about the most energetic mesons production described by these models

Methods

Results

Conclusion