Speaker
Dr
Laura Collica
(INFN Torino)
Description
The muon content of extensive air showers is an observable sensitive to the primary composition and to the hadronic interaction properties. We present here different methods which allow us to estimate the muon number at the ground level and the muon production depth by exploiting the measurement of the longitudinal, lateral and temporal distribution of particles in air showers recorded at the Pierre Auger Observatory. The results, obtained at about $10^{19}$ eV ($E_\mathrm{CM}\sim140$ TeV center-of-mass energy for proton primaries), are compared to the predictions of LHC-tuned hadronic interaction models with different primary masses and suggest a deficit in the muon content at the ground predicted by simulations. The Pierre Auger Observatory is the only hybrid detector sensitive to muons and the combination of these results with other independent mass composition analyses such as $X_\mathrm{max}$ provides additional constraints on hadronic interaction models.
| Registration number following "ICRC2015-I/" | 690 |
|---|---|
| Collaboration | Pierre Auger |
Primary author
Dr
Laura Collica
(INFN Torino)
