Pion Production Cross-section Measurements in p+C Collisions at the CERN SPS for Understanding Extensive Air Showers

TL;DR

This paper reports pion production cross-section measurements in proton-carbon collisions at CERN SPS, which are crucial for refining models of low-energy hadronic interactions in extensive air shower simulations of cosmic rays.

Contribution

It provides new experimental data on pion production cross-sections at 31 GeV, aiding the development of more accurate cosmic ray air shower models.

Findings

Measured pion production cross-sections at 31 GeV

Data improves constraints on hadronic interaction models

Supports future analyses with pion beams

Abstract

An important approach to studying high-energy cosmic rays is the investigation of the properties of extensive air showers; however, the lateral distribution of particles in simulations of such showers strongly depends on the applied model of low-energy hadronic interactions. It has been shown that many constraints to be applied to these models can be obtained by studying identified-particle spectra from accelerator collisions, in the energy range of the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. Here we present measurements of the pion production cross-section obtained by the NA61/SHINE experiment at the SPS, in proton-carbon collisions at the beam energy of 31 GeV from the year 2007. Further analyses of identified-particle yields in SHINE, in particular with a pion beam, are in preparation.