Muon content of extensive air showers: comparison of the energy spectra obtained by the Sydney University Giant Air-shower Recorder and by the Pierre Auger Observatory

Abstract

The Sydney University Giant Air-shower Recorder (SUGAR) measured the energy spectrum of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays reconstructed from muon-detector readings, while the Pierre Auger Observatory, looking at the same Southern sky, uses the calorimetric fluorescence method for the same purpose. Comparison of their two spectra allows us to reconstruct the empirical dependence of the number of muons in the shower on the primary energy for energies between $10^{17}$ and $10^{18.5}$ eV. We compare this dependence with the predictions of hadronic interaction models \mbox{QGSJET-II-04} and \mbox{EPOS-LHC}. The empirically determined number of muons with energies above 0.75 GeV exceeds the simulated one by the factors $\sim$1.67 and $\sim$1.28 for $10^{17}$ eV proton and iron primaries, respectively. The muon excess grows moderately with the primary energy, increasing by an additional factor of $\sim 1.2$ for $10^{18.5}$ eV primaries.

References in corpus (10)

• EPOS LHC : test of collective hadronization with LHC data
• The Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory
• Monte Carlo treatment of hadronic interactions in enhanced Pomeron scheme: I. QGSJET-II model
• Measurements of the Cosmic Ray Composition with Air Shower Experiments
• Muons in air showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory: Mean number in highly inclined events
• Testing Hadronic Interactions at Ultrahigh Energies with Air Showers Measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory
• A Multi-Component Measurement of the Cosmic Ray Composition Between 10^{17} eV and 10^{18} eV
• Muon content of ultra-high-energy air showers: Yakutsk data versus simulations
• No muon excess in extensive air showers at 100-500 PeV primary energy: EAS-MSU results
• Energy characteristics of multi-muon events in a wide range of zenith angles

Cited by in corpus (17)

• The Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection (GRAND): Science and Design
• The Muon Puzzle in cosmic-ray induced air showers and its connection to the Large Hadron Collider
• Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays: The Intersection of the Cosmic and Energy Frontiers
• Core-corona effect in hadron collisions and muon production in air showers
• The signatures of secondary leptons in radio-neutrino detectors in ice
• Atmospheric muons measured with the KM3NeT detectors in comparison with updated numeric predictions
• Hypothetical Lorentz invariance violation and the muon content of extensive air showers
• Deep learning method for identifying mass composition of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays
• Muon lateral distribution function of extensive air showers: results of the Sydney University Giant Air-shower Recorder versus modern Monte-Carlo simulations
• Possibilities for Underground Physics in the Pyhäsalmi mine
• Multimuons in cosmic-ray events as seen in ALICE at the LHC
• The Puzzle of Muons in Extensive Air Showers
• Measurement of attenuation length of the muon content in extensive air showers from 0.3 to 30 PeV with LHAASO
• Particle physics in cosmic rays
• The Forward Physics Facility at the High-Luminosity LHC
• Calculation of rescaling factors and nuclear multiplication of muons in extensive air showers
• Self-consistent approach for measuring the energy spectra and composition of cosmic rays and determining the properties of hadronic interactions at high energy