Studies of the mass composition of cosmic rays and proton-proton interaction cross-sections at ultra-high energies with the Pierre Auger Observatory
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et al.; Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR) Univeristy of Tokyo; International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP); JPS; Nagoya Convention and Visitors Bureau; Nagoya University
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In this work, we present an estimate of the cosmic-ray mass composition from the distributions of the depth of the shower maximum (Xmax) measured by the fluorescence detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. We discuss the sensitivity of the mass composition measurements to the uncertainties in the properties of the hadronic interactions, particularly in the predictions of the particle interaction cross-sections. For this purpose, we adjust the fractions of cosmic-ray mass groups to fit the data with Xmax distributions from air shower simulations. We modify the proton-proton cross-sections at ultra-high energies, and the corresponding air shower simulations with rescaled nucleus-air cross-sections are obtained via Glauber theory. We compare the energy-dependent composition of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays obtained for the different extrapolations of the proton-proton cross-sections from low-energy accelerator data. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons.
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Cosmic ray detectors, Cosmic ray measurement, Hadrons, Particle interactions, Proton beams, Protons, Air showers, Composition measurements, Cosmics, Fluorescence detector, Mass composition, Pierre Auger observatory, Property, Proton interactions, Ultra-high energies, Uncertainty, Cosmology
