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

A. Aab et al. (Pierre Auger Collaboration)
Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 192001 – Published 31 October 2016
Physics logo See Viewpoint: Cosmic-Ray Showers Reveal Muon Mystery

Abstract

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=110170TeV), 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.

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  • Received 23 April 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.192001

© 2016 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Particles & Fields

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Cosmic-Ray Showers Reveal Muon Mystery

Published 31 October 2016

The Pierre Auger Observatory has detected more muons from cosmic-ray showers than predicted by the most up-to-date particle-physics models.

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Vol. 117, Iss. 19 — 4 November 2016

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