Extended Air Showers and Muon Interactions

Abstract

The objective of this work is to report on the influence of muon interactions on the development of air showers initiated by astroparticles. We make a comparative study of the different theoretical approaches to muon bremsstrahlung and muonic pair production interactions. A detailed algorithm that includes all the relevant characteristics of such processes has been implemented in the AIRES air shower simulation system. We have simulated ultra high energy showers in different conditions in order to measure the influence of these muonic electromagnetic interactions. We have found that during the late stages of the shower development (well beyond the shower maximum) many global observables are significantly modified in relative terms when the mentioned interactions are taken into account. This is most evident in the case of the electromagnetic component of very inclined showers. On the other hand, our simulations indicate that the studied processes do not induce significant changes either in the position of the shower maximum or the structure of the shower front surface.

29 pages, 16 figures. Corrected some errors from previous version; also some new results were added

References in corpus (5)

• New constraints from Haverah Park data on the photon and iron fluxes of UHE cosmic rays
• Hadronic interactions models beyond collider energies
• The rate of cosmic ray showers at large zenith angles: a step towards the detection of ultra-high energy neutrinos by the Pierre Auger Observatory
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Cited by in corpus (12)

• Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays
• Extensive Air Shower Simulations at the Highest Energies
• Constraints on the Ultra High Energy Photon flux using inclined showers from the Haverah Park array
• High Energy Physics in the Atmosphere: Phenomenology of Cosmic Ray Air Showers
• Characterisation of the electromagnetic component in ultra-high energy inclined air showers
• Crown Detectors to Observe Horizontal and Upward Air-Showers
• Flux of atmospheric muons: Comparison between AIRES simulations and CAPRICE98 data
• Air-Shower Spectroscopy at horizons
• Muon and Gamma Bundles tracing Up-going Tau Neutrino Astronomy
• Hunting long-lived gluinos at the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Gamma-ray Astronomy with Muons: Sensitivity of IceCube to PeVatrons in the Southern Sky
• Reconstruction of Air-Shower Parameters Through the Lateral Distribution Function of Ultra-High Energy Particles