Search Menu
DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Search Scholarly Publications

Title: Testing hadronic-model predictions of depth of maximum of air-shower profiles and ground-particle signals using hybrid data of the Pierre Auger Observatory

Journal Article · · Physical Review. D.
 [1]; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ORCiD logo; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; « less
  1. University of Adelaide, Adelaide (Australia); Pierre Auger Collaboration. et al.
+ Show Author Affiliations

We test the predictions of hadronic interaction models regarding the depth of maximum of air-shower profiles, Xmax, and ground-particle signals in water-Cherenkov detectors at 1000 m from the shower core, S(1000), using the data from the fluorescence and surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The test consists of fitting the measured two-dimensional (S(1000), Xmax) distributions using templates for simulated air showers produced with hadronic interaction models epos-lhc, qgsjet-ii-04, sibyll 2.3d and leaving the scales of predicted Xmax and the signals from hadronic component at ground as free-fit parameters. The method relies on the assumption that the mass composition remains the same at all zenith angles, while the longitudinal shower development and attenuation of ground signal depend on the mass composition in a correlated way. The analysis was applied to 2239 events detected by both the fluorescence and surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory with energies between 1018.5 eV to 1019.0 eV and zenith angles below 60°. We found, that within the assumptions of the method, the best description of the data is achieved if the predictions of the hadronic interaction models are shifted to deeper Xmax values and larger hadronic signals at all zenith angles. Given the magnitude of the shifts and the data sample size, the statistical significance of the improvement of data description using the modifications considered in the paper is larger than 5σ even for any linear combination of experimental systematic uncertainties.

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); USDOE
Contributing Organization:
Pierre Auger Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359; SC0011689; FR02-04ER41300; FG02-99ER41107
OSTI ID:
2345238
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2298981
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB-24-0065-PPD-TD; arXiv:2401.10740; oai:inspirehep.net:2749587; TRN: US2408964
Journal Information:
Physical Review. D., Vol. 109, Issue 10; ISSN 2470-0010
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (46)

Core-corona effect in hadron collisions and muon production in air showers journal May 2023
A generalized description of the signal size in extensive air shower detectors and its applications journal January 2017
Testing Hadronic Interactions at Ultrahigh Energies with Air Showers Measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory journal October 2016
Overview of the FLUKA code journal August 2015
Impact of modified characteristics of hadronic interactions on cosmic-ray observables for proton and nuclear primaries conference August 2023
Hadronic interaction model sibyll 2.3d and extensive air showers journal September 2020
Interpretation of the depths of maximum of extensive air showers measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory journal February 2013
Hadronic multiparticle production at ultrahigh energies and extensive air showers journal March 2011
The FLUKA Code: Developments and Challenges for High Energy and Medical Applications journal June 2014
A generalized description of the time dependent signals in extensive air shower detectors and its applications journal February 2017
A multivariate Kolmogorov-Smirnov test of goodness of fit journal October 1997
A Heitler model of extensive air showers journal January 2005
EPOS LHC: Test of collective hadronization with data measured at the CERN Large Hadron Collider journal September 2015
Generalized Likelihood Ratio Statistics and Wilks Phenomenon journal February 2001
Adjustments to Model Predictions of Depth of Shower Maximum and Signals at Ground Level using Hybrid Events of the Pierre Auger Observatory conference October 2021
Mass Composition of Cosmic Rays with Energies above 10$^{17.2}$ eV from the Hybrid Data of the Pierre Auger Observatory conference August 2019
Monte Carlo simulations for the Pierre Auger Observatory using the VO auger grid resources conference October 2021
Evidence for a mixed mass composition at the ‘ankle’ in the cosmic-ray spectrum journal November 2016
Estimating the Depth of Shower Maximum using the Surface Detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory conference September 2019
AugerPrime: the Pierre Auger Observatory Upgrade journal January 2019
Long Term Performance of the Pierre Auger Observatory conference August 2019
Hybrid simulations of extensive air showers journal August 2002
Reconstruction of events recorded with the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory journal October 2020
EPOS LHC-R : up-to-date hadronic model for EAS simulations conference August 2023
Monte Carlo treatment of hadronic interactions in enhanced Pomeron scheme: QGSJET-II model journal January 2011
Muons in air showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory: Measurement of atmospheric production depth journal July 2014
A Rank Correlation Coefficient Resistant to Outliers journal June 1987
Muons in air showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory: Mean number in highly inclined events journal February 2015
Impact of atmospheric effects on the energy reconstruction of air showers observed by the surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory journal February 2017
The Large-Sample Distribution of the Likelihood Ratio for Testing Composite Hypotheses journal March 1938
The Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory journal July 2015
Reinterpreting the development of extensive air showers initiated by nuclei and photons journal July 2013
Measurement of the cosmic-ray energy spectrum above 2.5 × 10 18     eV using the Pierre Auger Observatory journal September 2020
Measurements of the elastic, inelastic and total cross sections in pp collisions with ATLAS sub-detectors conference March 2016
Measurement of the Fluctuations in the Number of Muons in Extensive Air Showers with the Pierre Auger Observatory journal April 2021
Measurements of the cosmic ray composition with air shower experiments journal May 2012
First measurement of elastic, inelastic and total cross-section at $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ s = 13  TeV by TOTEM and overview of cross-section data at LHC energies: TOTEM Collaboration journal February 2019
The offline software framework of the Pierre Auger Observatory
  • Argirò, S.; Barroso, S. L. C.; Gonzalez, J.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 580, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2007.07.010
journal October 2007
An explanation of the muon puzzle of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays and the role of the Forward Physics Facility for model improvement journal June 2022
The Muon Puzzle in cosmic-ray induced air showers and its connection to the Large Hadron Collider journal March 2022
Testing Hadronic Interactions Using Hybrid Observables conference July 2019
Nucleus-nucleus collisions and interpretation of cosmic-ray cascades journal December 1992
Depth of maximum of air-shower profiles at the Pierre Auger Observatory. I. Measurements at energies above 1 0 17.8    eV journal December 2014
Depth of maximum of air-shower profiles at the Pierre Auger Observatory. II. Composition implications journal December 2014
Relativistic hadron-hadron collisions in the ultra-relativistic quantum molecular dynamics model journal September 1999
Direct measurement of the muonic content of extensive air showers between $$\mathbf { 2\times 10^{17}}$$ and $$\mathbf {2\times 10^{18}}~$$eV at the Pierre Auger Observatory journal August 2020

Figures / Tables (26)

TABLE I(p. 3)table TABLE I
FIG. 1(p. 4)figure FIG. 1
FIG. 2(p. 5)figure FIG. 2
FIG. 3(p. 5)figure FIG. 3
FIG. 4(p. 7)figure FIG. 4
TABLE II(p. 7)table TABLE II
FIG. 5(p. 8)figure FIG. 5
TABLE III(p. 8)table TABLE III
FIG. 6(p. 9)figure FIG. 6
FIG. 7(p. 9)figure FIG. 7
FIG. 8(p. 10)figure FIG. 8
FIG. 9(p. 10)figure FIG. 9
FIG. 10(p. 11)figure FIG. 10
TABLE IV(p. 11)table TABLE IV
FIG. 11(p. 19)figure FIG. 11
TABLE V(p. 20)table TABLE V
TABLE VI(p. 21)table TABLE VI
TABLE VII(p. 22)table TABLE VII
FIG. 12(p. 24)figure FIG. 12
FIG. 13(p. 25)figure FIG. 13
TABLE IX(p. 26)table TABLE IX
TABLE VIII(p. 26)table TABLE VIII
FIG. 14(p. 27)figure FIG. 14
FIG. 15(p. 28)figure FIG. 15
FIG. 16(p. 29)figure FIG. 16
FIG. 17(p. 30)figure FIG. 17

Similar Records

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
cosmic ray composition and spectra
cosmic rays and astroparticles