62 research outputs found
Flux of atmospheric muons: Comparison between AIRES simulations and CAPRICE98 data
We report on a comparison between the flux of muons in the atmosphere
measured by the CAPRICE98 experiment and simulations performed with the air
shower simulation program AIRES. To reduce systematic uncertainties we have
used as input the primary fluxes of protons and helium nuclei also measured by
the CAPRICE98 experiment. Heavy nuclei are also taken into account in the
primary flux, and their contribution to the muon flux is discussed. The results
of the simulations show a very good agreement with the experimental data, at
all altitudes and for all muon momenta. With the exception of a few isolated
points, the relative differences between measured data and simulations are
smaller than 20 %; and in all cases compatible with zero within two standard
deviations. The influence of the input cosmic ray flux on the results of the
simulations is also discussed. This report includes also an extensive analysis
of the characteristics of the simulated fluxes.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review
Air Shower Simulations in a Hybrid Approach using Cascade Equations
A new hybrid approach to air shower simulations is described. At highest
energies, each particle is followed individually using the traditional Monte
Carlo method; this initializes a system of cascade equations which are
applicable for energies such that the shower is one-dimensional. The cascade
equations are solved numerically down to energies at which lateral spreading
becomes significant, then their output serves as a source function for a
3-dimensional Monte Carlo simulation of the final stage of the shower. This
simulation procedure reproduces the natural fluctuations in the initial stages
of the shower, gives accurate lateral distribution functions, and provides
detailed information about all low energy particles on an event-by-event basis.
It is quite efficient in computation time.Comment: 19 Pages, 10 Figures accepted version with more explanations about
source functions, in print PR
A model for net-baryon rapidity distribution
In nuclear collisions, a sizable fraction of the available energy is carried
away by baryons. As the baryon number is conserved, the net-baryon
retains information on the energy-momentum carried by the incoming nuclei. A
simple and consistent model for net-baryon production in high energy
proton-proton and nucleus-nucleus collisions is presented. The basic
ingredients of the model are valence string formation based on standard PDFs
with QCD evolution and string fragmentation via the Schwinger mechanism. The
results of the model are presented and compared with data at different
centre-of-mass energies and centralities, as well as with existing models.
These results show that a good description of the main features of net-baryon
data is possible in the framework of a simplistic model, with the advantage of
making the fundamental production mechanisms manifest.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures; in fig. 11 a) the vertical scale was correcte
First Results of Fast One-dimensional Hybrid Simulation of EAS Using CONEX
A hybrid simulation code is developed that is suited for fast one-dimensional
simulations of shower profiles, including fluctuations. It combines the Monte
Carlo simulation of high energy interactions with a fast numerical solution of
cascade equations for the resulting distributions of secondary particles.
Results obtained with this new code, called CONEX, are presented and compared
to CORSIKA predictions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the XIII
ISVHECRI, Pylos, 200
Constraints on the Ultra High Energy Photon flux using inclined showers from the Haverah Park array
We describe a method to analyse inclined air showers produced by ultra high
energy cosmic rays using an analytical description of the muon densities. We
report the results obtained using data from inclined events
(60^{\circ}<\theta<80^{\circ}) recorded by the Haverah Park shower detector for
energies above 10^19 eV. Using mass independent knowledge of the UHECR spectrum
obtained from vertical air shower measurements and comparing the expected
horizontal shower rate to the reported measurements we show that above 10^19 eV
less than 48 % of the primary cosmic rays can be photons at the 95 % confidence
level and above 4 X 10^19 eV less than 50 % of the cosmic rays can be photonic
at the same confidence level. These limits place important constraints on some
models of the origin of ultra high-energy cosmic rays.Comment: 45 pages, 25 figure
Multiple (inverse) binomial sums of arbitrary weight and depth and the all-order epsilon-expansion of generalized hypergeometric functions with one half-integer value of parameter
We continue the study of the construction of analytical coefficients of the
epsilon-expansion of hypergeometric functions and their connection with Feynman
diagrams. In this paper, we show the following results:
Theorem A: The multiple (inverse) binomial sums of arbitrary weight and depth
(see Eq. (1.1)) are expressible in terms of Remiddi-Vermaseren functions.
Theorem B: The epsilon expansion of a hypergeometric function with one
half-integer value of parameter (see Eq. (1.2)) is expressible in terms of the
harmonic polylogarithms of Remiddi and Vermaseren with coefficients that are
ratios of polynomials. Some extra materials are available via the www at this
http://theor.jinr.ru/~kalmykov/hypergeom/hyper.htmlComment: 24 pages, latex with amsmath and JHEP3.cls; v2: some typos corrected
and a few references added; v3: few references added
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
Confronting models on cosmic ray interactions with particle physics at LHC energies
Inelastic pp collisions are dominated by soft (low momentum transfer) physics
where perturbative QCD cannot be fully applied. A deep understanding of both
soft and semi-hard processes is crucial for predictions of minimum bias and
underlying events of the now coming on line pp Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Moreover, the interaction of cosmic ray particles entering in the atmosphere is
extremely sensitive to these soft processes and consequently cannot be
formulated from first principles. Because of this, air shower analyses strongly
rely on hadronic interaction models, which extrapolate collider data several
orders of magnitude. A comparative study of Monte Carlo simulations of pp
collisions (at the LHC center-of-mass energy ~ 14 TeV) using the most popular
hadronic interaction models for ultrahigh energy cosmic ray (SIBYLL and QGSJET)
and for collider physics (the PYTHIA multiparton model) is presented. The most
relevant distributions are studied including those observables from diffractive
events with the aim of discriminating between the different models.Comment: 8 pages revtex, 8 figures, added reference
Extensive Air Showers from Ultra High Energy Gluinos
We study the proposal that the cosmic ray primaries above the
Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) cutoff are gluino-containing hadrons (-hadrons). We describe the interaction of -hadrons with nucleons in
the framework of the Gribov-Regge approach using a modified version of the
hadronic interaction model QGSJET for the generations of Extensive Air Showers
(EAS). There are two mass windows marginally allowed for gluinos: m_{\tilde
g}\lsim 3 GeV and 25\lsim m_{\tilde g}\lsim 35 GeV. Gluino-containing
hadrons corresponding to the second window produce EAS very different from the
observed ones. Light -hadrons corresponding to the first gluino
window produce EAS similar to those initiated by protons, and only future
detectors can marginally distinguish them. We propose a beam-dump accelerator
experiment to search for -hadrons in this mass window. We emphasize
the importance of this experiment: it can discover (or exclude) the light
gluino and its role as a cosmic ray primary at ultra high energies.Comment: 27 pages latex, 13 eps figure
Influence of shower fluctuations and primary composition on studies of the shower longitudinal development
We study the influence of shower fluctuations, and the possible presence of
different nuclear species in the primary cosmic ray spectrum, on the
experimental determination of both shower energy and the proton air inelastic
cross section from studies of the longitudinal development of atmospheric
showers in fluorescence experiments. We investigate the potential of track
length integral and shower size at maximum as estimators of shower energy. We
find that at very high energy (~10^19-10^20 eV) the error of the total energy
assignment is dominated by the dependence on the hadronic interaction model,
and is of the order of 5%. At lower energy (~10^17-10^18 eV), the uncertainty
of the energy determination due to the limited knowledge of the primary cosmic
ray composition is more important. The distribution of depth of shower maximum
is discussed as a measure of the proton-air cross section. Uncertainties in a
possible experimental measurement of this cross section introduced by intrinsic
shower fluctuations, the model of hadronic interactions, and the unknown
mixture of primary nuclei in the cosmic radiation are numerically evaluated.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, 4 table
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