Constraints on hadronic models in extensive air showers with the Pierre Auger Observatory

TL;DR

This paper uses Pierre Auger Observatory data to evaluate how well current hadronic interaction models explain ultra-high energy cosmic ray air showers, highlighting discrepancies at energies beyond LHC reach.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive comparison of hadronic models with extensive air shower data at ultra-high energies, revealing significant inconsistencies.

Findings

Hadronic models fail to simultaneously reproduce the depth of shower maximum and muon measurements.

Discrepancies increase at energies above those tested at the LHC.

Current models need refinement to accurately describe ultra-high energy cosmic ray interactions.

Abstract

Extensive air showers initiated by ultra-high energy cosmic rays are sensitive to the details of hadronic interactions models, so we present the main results obtained using the data of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The depth at which the maximum of the electromagnetic development takes place is the most sensitive parameter to infer the nature of the cosmic rays. However, the hadronic models cannot describe consistently the maximum and the muon measurements at energies higher than those reached at the LHC.