Testing the QGSJET01 and QGSJETII-04 models with the help of atmospheric muons

Leonid G Dedenko,Tatiana M Roganova,Galina F Fedorova,Anton V Lukyashin,B Pattison

doi:10.1051/epjconf/201714516003

Leonid G Dedenko, Tatiana M Roganova + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201714516003

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Abstract

More accurate original calculations of the atmospheric vertical muon energy spectra at energies 102 − 105 GeV have been carried out in terms of the QGSJET01 and QGSJETII-04 models. The Gaisser-Honda approximations of the measured energy spectra of primary protons, helium and nitrogen nuclei have been used. The CORSIKA package has been used to simulate cascades in the standard atmosphere induced by different primary particles with various fixed energies E. Statistics of simulated cascades for secondary particles with energies (0.01 − 1) · E was increased up to 106. It has been shown that predictions of the QGSJET01 and QGSJETII-04 models for these muon fluxes are below the data of the classical experiments L3 + Cosmic, MACRO and LVD by factors of ∼ 1.7-2 at energies above 102 GeV. It has been concluded that these tested models underestimate the production of the most energetic secondary particles, namely, π-mesons and K-mesons, in interactions of primary protons and other primary nuclei with nuclei in the atmosphere by the same factors.

Highlights

Extensive air showers (EAS) are used as a tool to understand the origin and composition of cosmic rays, their possible sources and the transport of cosmic particles in various magnetic fields on their way to the Earth at very high energies
The energy of showers calculated in terms of the QGSJETII-03 [2] model with the help of the surface detectors signals at the Telescope Array (TA) [9] happened to be 1.27 times lager than such energy estimated with the help of the fluorescence light
To make model predictions of the muon flux we have suggested to simulate EAS induced by primary protons, helium and nitrogen nuclei with different fixed energies in the atmosphere with the help of the CORSIKA package [17] and calculate the muon energy spectrum in each individual shower

Summary

Introduction

Extensive air showers (EAS) are used as a tool to understand the origin and composition of cosmic rays, their possible sources and the transport of cosmic particles in various magnetic fields on their way to the Earth at very high energies. All features of the energy spectrum, arrival directions and composition of the primary cosmic particles should be determined through an analysis of the EAS data These data as some signals in the surface and underground detectors are usually interpreted in terms of various models of hadronic interactions [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. To ensure that results of such an interpretation are as accurate as possible these models should be thoroughly tested These models are tested with the help of the accelerator data at small values (∼0) of the pseudorapidity, η, where most of secondary particles are produced [10,11,12]. Let us note that the longitudinal development of EAS depends strongly on the rate of the projectile particle energy fragmentation

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