Constraining the energy spectrum of neutral pions in ultra-high-energy proton-air interactions

Abstract

Fluctuations in the muon content of extensive air showers are anticorrelated to the fluctuations of the energy taken by the neutral pions which emerge from the first interaction of the cosmic ray in the atmosphere. We show that the high-energy tail of the neutral pion spectrum produced in the first proton-air interaction can be constrained, within the uncertainties of present cosmic ray experiments, through the analysis of the shower-to-shower distribution of the muon content of the air showers, $P(N_{\mu })$.

References in corpus (2)

• Measurement of the proton-air cross-section at $\sqrt{s}=57$ TeV with the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Evidence for a mixed mass composition at the `ankle' in the cosmic-ray spectrum

Cited by in corpus (7)

• The IceCube high-energy starting event sample: Description and flux characterization with 7.5 years of data
• 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
• Air shower genealogy for muon production
• Photon-likeness of hadron showers and impact of Lorentz boosting
• Air showers and hadronic interactions with CORSIKA 8
• Proton-air interactions at ultra-high energies in muon-depleted air showers with different depths