Muon deficit in air shower simulations estimated from AGASA muon measurements

Abstract

In this work, direct measurements of the muon density at $1000\text{m}$ from the shower axis obtained by the Akeno Giant Air Shower Array (AGASA) are analysed. The selected events have zenith angles $\theta \le 36^{\text{o}}$ and reconstructed energies in the range $18.83\le {\log }_{10}(E_R/\text{eV})\le 19.46$. These are compared to the predictions corresponding to proton, iron, and mixed composition scenarios obtained by using the high-energy hadronic interaction models EPOS-LHC, QGSJetII-04, and Sibyll2.3c. The mass fractions of the mixed composition scenarios are taken from the fits to the depth of the shower maximum distributions performed by the Pierre Auger Collaboration. The cross-calibrated energy scale from the Spectrum Working Group [D. Ivanov, for the Pierre Auger Collaboration and the Telescope Array Collaboration, PoS(ICRC2017) 498 (2017)] is used to combine results from different experiments. The analysis shows that the AGASA data are compatible with a heavier composition with respect to the one predicted by the mixed composition scenarios. Interpreting this as a muon deficit in air shower simulations, the incompatibility is quantified. The muon density obtained from AGASA data is greater than that of the mixed composition scenarios by a factor of $1.49\pm 0.11\text{(stat)}\pm 0.18\text{(syst)}$, $1.54\pm 0.12\text{(stat)}\pm 0.18\text{(syst)}$, and $1.66\pm 0.13\text{(stat)}\pm 0.20\text{(syst)}$ for EPOS-LHC, Sibyll2.3c, and QGSJetII-04, respectively.

11 pages, 7 figures, to be published in Physical Review D

References in corpus (2)

• Testing Hadronic Interactions at Ultrahigh Energies with Air Showers Measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Report on Tests and Measurements of Hadronic Interaction Properties with Air Showers

Cited by in corpus (6)

• The Muon Puzzle in cosmic-ray induced air showers and its connection to the Large Hadron Collider
• Determination of the Cosmic-Ray Chemical Composition: Open Issues and Prospects
• Air shower genealogy for muon production
• Hypothetical Lorentz invariance violation and the muon content of extensive air showers
• Estimation of the number of muons with muon counters
• Remarks on atmospheric effect of D-foam in light of muon puzzle