Cosmic ray air showers from sphalerons

TL;DR

This paper proposes using cosmic ray air showers observed at the Pierre Auger Observatory to set limits on sphaleron production cross sections, leveraging observable differences from standard QCD showers.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to constrain sphaleron processes using cosmic ray data, connecting particle physics with astrophysical observations.

Findings

Identification of observables to distinguish sphaleron from QCD air showers

Proposal to set experimental limits on sphaleron cross sections

Linking non-perturbative Standard Model processes with cosmic ray measurements

Abstract

The discovery of the Higgs boson marks a key ingredient to establish the electroweak structure of the Standard Model. Its non-abelian gauge structure gives rise to, yet unobserved, non-perturbative baryon and lepton number violating processes. We propose to use cosmic ray air showers, as measured at the Pierre Auger Observatory, to set a limit on the hadronic production cross section of sphalerons. We identify several observables to discriminate between sphaleron and QCD induced air showers.