Do we observe fluctuation of cross section in cosmic rays ?

TL;DR

This paper explores how fluctuations in particle interaction cross sections could explain the nonexponential distributions and exotic events observed in cosmic ray experiments.

Contribution

It proposes that cross section fluctuations are a natural explanation for the anomalous behaviors seen in cosmic ray data.

Findings

Cross section fluctuations can account for nonexponential distributions.

Fluctuations may explain the occurrence of exotic cosmic ray events.

Abstract

It is known from some time that to explain some apparently {\it exotic events} observed in cosmic ray experiments, a deeply penetrating component in cosmic rays is needed, which, in turn, leads frequently to the nonexponential distributions of some observables. We argue that such unexpected behavior of some cosmic rays data can be most naturally explained by attributing them to the possible fluctuations of cross sections.