Published October 31, 2016
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Testing Hadronic Interactions at Ultrahigh Energies with Air Showers Measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory.

Creators

  • 1. Folkwang University of the Arts
  • 2. Instituto Superior Técnico
  • 3. INAF
  • 4. Fermilab
  • 5. Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Energies (LPNHE), Universités Paris 6 et Paris 7, CNRS-IN2P3, France.
  • 6. University of São Paulo
  • 7. Balseiro Institute
  • 8. New York University
  • 9. Ohio State University
  • 10. National Scientific and Technical Research Council
  • 11. National Autonomous University of Mexico
  • 12. University of Santiago de Compostela
  • 13. INFN, Sezione di Napoli, Italy.
  • 14. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
  • 15. INFN, Sezione di L'Aquila, Italy.
  • 16. City University of New York
  • 17. Complutense University of Madrid
  • 18. University of Bucharest
  • 19. Observatorio Pierre Auger, Argentina.
  • 20. Observatorio Pierre Auger and Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica, Argentina.
  • 21. Politehnica University of Bucharest
  • 22. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
  • 23. University of Wuppertal
  • 24. University of Adelaide
  • 25. Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie (LPSC), Université Grenoble-Alpes, CNRS/IN2P3, France.
  • 26. INFN, Sezione di Torino, Italy.
  • 27. Università Torino, Dipartimento di Fisica, Italy.
  • 28. Max Planck Society
  • 29. Institut de Physique Nucléaire d'Orsay (IPNO), Université Paris 11, CNRS-IN2P3, France.
  • 30. Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
  • 31. Università del Salento, Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica "E. De Giorgi", Italy.
  • 32. INFN, Sezione di Lecce, Italy.
  • 33. INFN Laboratori del Gran Sasso, Italy.
  • 34. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Instituto de Física, Brazil.
  • 35. Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
  • 36. Institute of Nuclear Physics PAN, Poland.
  • 37. Colorado State University
  • 38. "Horia Hulubei" National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Romania.
  • 39. RWTH Aachen University
  • 40. University of Granada
  • 41. Radboud University Nijmegen
  • 42. University of Catania
  • 43. Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas, Mexico.
  • 44. INFN, Sezione di Milano, Italy.
  • 45. Institute of Space Science, Romania.
  • 46. Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo
  • 47. State University of Campinas
  • 48. Università di Napoli "Federico II", Dipartimento di Fisica, Italy.
  • 49. Pennsylvania State University
  • 50. Case Western Reserve University
  • 51. University of Chicago
  • 52. SUBATECH, École des Mines de Nantes, CNRS-IN2P3, Université de Nantes, France.
  • 53. Station de Radioastronomie de Nançay, France.
  • 54. Università del Salento, Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Italy.
  • 55. Federal Fluminense University
  • 56. University of Alcalá
  • 57. Michigan Technological University
  • 58. University of Rome Tor Vergata
  • 59. Università dell'Aquila, Dipartimento di Chimica e Fisica, Italy.
  • 60. Federal University of Paraná
  • 61. National University of La Plata
  • 62. University of Hamburg
  • 63. Experimental Particle Physics Department, J. Stefan Institute, Slovenia.
  • 64. Laboratory for Astroparticle Physics, University of Nova Gorica, Slovenia.
  • 65. National Technological University
  • 66. University of Łódź, Poland.
  • 67. RWTH Aachen University, III. Physikalisches Institut A, Germany.
  • 68. University of Hawaii
  • 69. State University of Feira de Santana
  • 70. Palacký University, Olomouc
  • 71. Colorado School of Mines
  • 72. University of Nova Gorica
  • 73. Universidade Federal do ABC
  • 74. Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla
  • 75. Università di Milano, Dipartimento di Fisica, Italy.
  • 76. CINVESTAV
  • 77. University of Buenos Aires
  • 78. Louisiana State University
  • 79. University of New Mexico
  • 80. Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas (CBPF), Brazil.
  • 81. University of Groningen
  • 82. University Prague, Institute of Particle and Nuclear Physics, Czech Republic.
  • 83. Industrial University of Santander
  • 84. Instituto Politécnico Nacional
  • 85. Federal University of Bahia
  • 86. University of Nebraska–Lincoln
  • 87. INFN, Sezione di Roma "Tor Vergata", Italy.
  • 88. INFN, Sezione di Catania, Italy.
  • 89. INAF-Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica di Palermo, Italy.
  • 90. Northeastern University
  • 91. University of Leeds
  • 92. Università di Catania, Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Italy.

Description

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 (E_CM = 110-170 TeV), 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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