Impact of Uncertainties in Hadron Production on Air-Shower Predictions

At high energy, cosmic rays can only be studied by measuring the extensive air showers they produce in the atmosphere of the Earth. Although the main features of air showers can be understood within a simple model of successive interactions, detailed simulations and a realistic description of particle production are needed to calculate observables relevant to air shower experiments. Currently hadronic interaction models are the main source of uncertainty of such simulations. We will study the effect of using different hadronic models available in CORSIKA and CONEX on extensive air shower predictions.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, to appear in the proceedings of International Conference on Interconnection between High Energy Physics and Astroparticle Physics: From Colliders to Cosmic Rays, Prague, Czech Republic, 7-13 Sep 200

Sequential networks for cosmic ray simulations

A hybrid model of generating cosmic ray showers based on neural networks is presented. We show that the neural network learns the solution to the governing cascade equation in one dimension. We then use the neural network to generate the energy spectra at every height slice. Pitfalls of training to generate a single height slice is discussed, and we present a sequential model which can generate the entire shower from an initial table. Errors associated with the model and the potential to generate the full three dimensional distribution of the shower is discussed

Cosmic-ray Monte Carlo predictions for forward particle production in p-p, p-Pb, and Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC

We present and compare the predictions of various cosmic-ray Monte Carlo models for the energy (dE/deta) and particle (dN/deta) flows in p-p, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt(s) = 14, 8.8, and 5.5 TeV respectively, in the range covered by forward LHC detectors like CASTOR or TOTEM (5.2<|eta|<6.6) and ZDC or LHCf (|eta|>8.1 for neutrals).Comment: 5 pages, 5 figs. Poster proceedings Quark-Matter'08, Jaipur. To appear in Indian J. of Phy

Air Shower Simulation and Hadronic Interactions

The aim of this report of the Working Group on Hadronic Interactions and Air Shower Simulation is to give an overview of the status of the field, emphasizing open questions and a comparison of relevant results of the different experiments. It is shown that an approximate overall understanding of extensive air showers and the corresponding hadronic interactions has been reached. The simulations provide a qualitative description of the bulk of the air shower observables. Discrepancies are however found when the correlation between measurements of the longitudinal shower profile are compared to that of the lateral particle distributions at ground. The report concludes with a list of important problems that should be addressed to make progress in understanding hadronic interactions and, hence, improve the reliability of air shower simulations.Comment: Working Group report given at UHECR 2012 Symposium, CERN, Feb. 2012. Published in EPJ Web of Conferences 53, 01007 (2013

Strange Particles from NEXUS 3

After discussing conceptual problems with the conventional string model, we present a new approach, based on a theoretically consistent multiple scattering formalism. First results for strange particle production in proton-proton scattering at 158 GeV and at 200 GeV (cms) are discussed.Comment: invited talk, given at the Strange Quark Matter Conference, Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, March 12-17, 200

Self-Consistency Requirement in High-Energy Nuclear Scattering

Practically all serious calculations of exclusive particle production in ultra-relativistic nuclear or hadronic interactions are performed in the framework of Gribov-Regge theory or the eikonalized parton model scheme. It is the purpose of this paper to point out serious inconsistencies in the above-mentioned approaches. We will demonstrate that requiring theoretical self-consistency reduces the freedom in modeling high energy nuclear scattering enormously. We will introduce a fully self-consistent formulation of the multiple-scattering scheme in the framework of a Gribov-Regge type effective theory. In addition, we develop new computational techniques which allow for the first time a satisfactory solution of the problem in the sense that calculation s of observable quantities can be done strictly within a self-consistent formalism.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Influence of Low Energy Hadronic Interactions on Air-shower Simulations

Experiments measuring cosmic rays above an energy of 10^14 eV deduce the energy and mass of the primary cosmic ray particles from air-shower simulations. We investigate the importance of hadronic interactions at low and high energies on the distributions of muons and electrons in showers on ground. In air shower simulation programs, hadronic interactions below an energy threshold in the range from 80 GeV to 500 GeV are simulated by low energy interaction models, like Fluka or Gheisha, and above that energy by high energy interaction models, e.g. Sibyll or QGJSJet. We find that the impact on shower development obtained by switching the transition energy from 80 GeV to 500 GeV is comparable to the difference obtained by switching between Fluka and Gheisha.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, ISVHECRI 200

Initial Condition for QGP Evolution from NEXUS

We recently proposed a new approach to high energy nuclear scattering, which treats the initial stage of heavy ion collisions in a sophisticated way. We are able to calculate macroscopic quantities like energy density and velocity flow at the end of this initial stage, after the two nuclei having penetrated each other. In other words, we provide the initial conditions for a macroscopic treatment of the second stage of the collision. We address in particular the question of how to incorporate the soft component properly. We find almost perfect "Bjorken scaling": the rapidity coincides with the space-time rapidity, whereas the transverse flow is practically zero. The distribution of the energy density in the transverse plane shows typically a very "bumpy" structure.Comment: 17 pages, 24 figure