Measurement of the fluctuations in the number of muons in extensive air showers with the Pierre Auger Observatory

Abstract

We present the first measurement of the fluctuations in the number of muons in extensive air showers produced by ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. We find that the measured fluctuations are in good agreement with predictions from air shower simulations. This observation provides new insights into the origin of the previously reported deficit of muons in air shower simulations and constrains models of hadronic interactions at ultrahigh energies. Our measurement is compatible with the muon deficit originating from small deviations in the predictions from hadronic interaction models of particle production that accumulate as the showers develop.

arXiv commentPublished version, 11 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, Supplemental material appended

References in corpus (37)

• 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
• Cosmic ray event generator Sibyll 2.1
• Measurements of the Cosmic Ray Composition with Air Shower Experiments
• Depth of Maximum of Air-Shower Profiles at the Pierre Auger Observatory: Measurements at Energies above 10^17.8 eV
• The Fluorescence Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Depth of Maximum of Air-Shower Profiles at the Pierre Auger Observatory: Composition Implications
• One-dimensional Hybrid Approach to Extensive Air Shower Simulation
• Hadronic interaction model Sibyll 2.3d and extensive air showers
• 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
• Measurement of the cosmic-ray energy spectrum above $2.5\times 10^{18}$ eV using the Pierre Auger Observatory
• EPOS Model and Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays
• New facts about muon production in Extended Air Shower simulations
• Measurement of the Radiation Energy in the Radio Signal of Extensive Air Showers as a Universal Estimator of Cosmic-Ray Energy
• The Pierre Auger Observatory Upgrade - Preliminary Design Report
• Hybrid simulations of extensive air showers
• Measurement of the fluctuations in the number of muons in extensive air showers with the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Reconstruction of inclined air showers detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory
• First Results of Fast One-dimensional Hybrid Simulation of EAS Using CONEX
• The exposure of the hybrid detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Determination of the calorimetric energy in extensive air showers
• Strange fireball as an explanation of the muon excess in Auger data
• A new physical phenomenon in ultra-high energy collisions
• Data-driven estimation of the invisible energy of cosmic ray showers with the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Energy Release in Air Showers
• Probing the energy spectrum of hadrons in proton air interactions at ultrahigh energies through the fluctuations of the muon content of extensive air showers
• Remnant Break-up and Muon Production in Cosmic Ray Air Showers
• Measurement of the average shape of longitudinal profiles of cosmic-ray air showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory
• A likelihood method to cross-calibrate air-shower detectors
• Muon production and string percolation effects in cosmic rays at the highest energies
• Characterisation of the electromagnetic component in ultra-high energy inclined air showers
• Particle Physics at Ultrahigh Energies
• Are Cosmic Rays still a valuable probe of Lorentz Invariance Violations in the Auger era?
• Air showers, hadronic models, and muon production
• The Puzzle of Muons in Extensive Air Showers

Cited by in corpus (37)

• The Forward Physics Facility: Sites, Experiments, and Physics Potential
• 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
• Measurement of the fluctuations in the number of muons in extensive air showers with the Pierre Auger Observatory
• White Paper and Roadmap for Quantum Gravity Phenomenology in the Multi-Messenger Era
• Core-corona effect in hadron collisions and muon production in air showers
• An explanation of the muon puzzle of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays and the role of the Forward Physics Facility for model improvement
• What can be learnt from UHECR anisotropies observations? Paper I : large-scale anisotropies and composition features
• Testing Hadronic-Model Predictions of Depth of Maximum of Air-Shower Profiles and Ground-Particle Signals using Hybrid Data of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• GCOS -- The Global Cosmic Ray Observatory
• Inference of the Mass Composition of Cosmic Rays with energies from $10^{18.5}$ to $10^{20}$ eV using the Pierre Auger Observatory and Deep Learning
• Radio Measurements of the Depth of Air-Shower Maximum at the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Investigating the fluxes and physics potential of LHC neutrino experiments
• Measurement of the Depth of Maximum of Air-Shower Profiles with energies between $10^{18.5}$ and $10^{20}$ eV using the Surface Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory and Deep Learning
• Two Micron-Size Dark Dimensions
• Framework and Tools for the Simulation and Analysis of the Radio Emission from Air Showers at IceCube
• Quantum gravity phenomenology at the dawn of the multi-messenger era -- A review
• Determination of the Cosmic-Ray Chemical Composition: Open Issues and Prospects
• Atmospheric muons measured with the KM3NeT detectors in comparison with updated numeric predictions
• Sibyll${}^{★}$
• Two-body decays in deformed relativity
• Universality of the muon component of extensive air showers
• Modeling Strangeness Enhancements to resolve the Muon Excess in Cosmic Ray Extensive Air Shower Data
• Science with the Global Cosmic-ray Observatory (GCOS)
• Air shower genealogy for muon production
• The Radio Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory -- status and expected performance
• The science of ultra-high energy cosmic rays after more than 15 years of operation of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Muon accelerators -- Muon lifetime measurements as window to Planck scale physics
• Road map for the tuning of hadronic interaction models with accelerator-based and astroparticle data
• A Heavy-Metal Scenario of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays
• Measurement of the mean number of muons with energies above 500 GeV in air showers detected with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory
• Physics with high-luminosity proton-nucleus collisions at the LHC
• A Model of the Response of Surface Detectors to Extensive Air Showers Based on Shower Universality
• The Forward Physics Facility at the High-Luminosity LHC
• Probing Hadronic Interactions with Cosmic Rays
• Explaining muon excess in cosmic rays using the gluon condensation model
• Measuring the muon content of inclined air showers using AERA and the water-Cherenkov detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory