Air Shower Physics

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Air Shower Physics Air shower physics SHINE autumn school 27. 10. 2020 Felix Riehn Universidad de Santiago de Compostela / LIP What are air showers? Proton, 100 TeV (simulation) Air shower == cascade of Particle interactions in atmosphere particles hadrons 2 Created by …? Astrophysics: Origin of features ? Acceleration ? Cosmic rays (Unger 2006) 3 Indirect (air showers) Particle physics: ect dir (Engel 2019) CRs through extensive air showers air shower physics (want to know): CR interaction - Astrophysics (primary particle) Energy, mass, direction - Particle physics (primary interaction) multiplicity, cross section … Observables ?? 4 CR air shower observables * particles at (under)ground * energy deposit along path 5 Example: Pierre Auger Observatory Both! (Hybrid measurement) 6 Related to primary? Air shower development: the start CR particle UHE interaction (~100 TeV) ● Hadronic! ● Exotic? ● Black holes? ● UHE secondaries (~100 TeV) Fireball? ● Chiral symmetry? ● Pions, kaons, charmed ... ● New (exotic) particles? ● Lorentz invariance? EAS according to SM ?? 7 EAS according to the Standard Model CR proton Hadronic interaction: Successive interactions: EM cascade hadronic cascade 8 EM cascade Equal sharing of energy All with same interaction Ionisation (continuous length Pair creation Bremsstrahlung energy loss) Multiplicity: 2 Until continuous energy loss dominant Generation 1 ‘generation z’ Generation 2 Etc. 9 Hadronic cascade CR proton Assume pions only Equal sharing of energy Multiplicity: fixed (Matthews 2005) Until pions likely decay 10 Hadronic cascade CR hadron Assume pions only All with same energy Multiplicity: fixed (Matthews 2006) 11 Primary mass dependence Superposition 12 Summary: EAS according to the Standard Model EM cascade hadronic cascade Data...? 13 Measurement of Xmax and Nmu Fix primary energy and compare SM prediction Post-LHC interaction models 14 hadronic cascade EM cascade EAS according to the Standard Model ? Model Standard the to EAS according EM cascade hadronic cascade 2) SM predictions correct? SM predictions 2) interaction First 1) on? going Whats Beyond SM? Beyond 15 16 (Maris 2013) ICRC (Maris energy of last hadron interaction of last hadron energy pion+Air pion+Air kaon+Air p+Air FCC? Interactions in air showers air in Interactions Energy decreases A way to get more muons increase Also in pion+Air ? 17 Rho mesons in NA61 Model was build on NA22 data Prediction for NA61! Ultimate confirmation: Measurement of neutral pions! 18 Effect on muons in EAS ~40% increase 19 Muon data vs. post-LHC models Universal rho meson enhancement. Probably overestimated. SIBYLL-2.3d Enhancement only in NA61 Close remaining gap → motivate larger * QGP effects? * Kaon interactions? 20 More from NA61 NA61 & Sibyll: * forward kaons, * forward antiprotons underestimated * central pions overestimated → work for post-NA61 Sibyll So far: Needed / Possible? : Diffraction in 21 BSM physics for the muon puzzle? Fluctuations Originate in 1st interaction! EM cascade hadronic cascade SM predictions BSM not needed! 22 Summary * EAS produce more muons than anticipated by interaction model –> muon puzzle * Muon production in EAS sensitive to broad spectrum of particle interactions * Probably no exotic physics needed to explain muon puzzle * More accurate implementation of SM physics needed (NA61,LHCf tunes) * More accelerator data to validate models needed (NA61: kaon interactions!) 23 Bibliography 24 25 Full shower Profile: EM dominates At the ground: more mixed 26 Auger Event display 27.
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