Proton-Air Cross Section and Extensive Air Showers

TL;DR

This paper examines how uncertainties in extrapolating proton-air cross sections at ultra-high energies significantly influence the interpretation of extensive air shower data, highlighting larger theoretical uncertainties than previously estimated.

Contribution

It reveals that the theoretical uncertainty in extrapolated proton-air cross sections is greater than current models suggest, affecting air shower analysis.

Findings

Uncertainty in cross section extrapolation is larger than existing models indicate.

Extreme scenarios significantly alter the interpretation of air shower data.

The impact on the depth of the shower maximum is substantial.

Abstract

Hadronic cross sections at ultra-high energy have a significant impact on the development of extensive air shower cascades. Therefore the interpretation of air shower data depends critically on hadronic interaction models that extrapolate the cross section from accelerator measurements to the highest cosmic ray energies. We discuss how extreme scenarios of cross section extrapolations can affect the interpretation of air shower data. We find that the theoretical uncertainty of the extrapolated proton-air cross section at ultra-high energies is much larger than suggested by the existing spread of available Monte Carlo model predictions. The impact on the depth of the shower maximum is demonstrated.