Uncertainty in mean $X_{\rm max}$ from diffractive dissociation estimated using measurements of accelerator experiments

TL;DR

This paper quantifies how uncertainties in accelerator measurements of diffractive dissociation impact the interpretation of cosmic ray mass composition through air shower observations, highlighting a significant source of systematic error.

Contribution

It provides an estimate of the uncertainty in mean $X_{max}$ caused by measurement errors in diffractive dissociation from accelerator experiments.

Findings

Maximum uncertainty in $\,raket{X_{max}}$ is approximately +4.0 to -5.6 g/cm^2 for 10^17 eV protons.

Diffractive dissociation measurement uncertainties significantly affect air shower simulations.

Uncertainty in hadronic interaction models impacts cosmic ray composition analysis.

Abstract

Mass composition is important for understanding the origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. However, interpretation of mass composition from air shower experiments is challenging, owing to significant uncertainty in hadronic interaction models adopted in air shower simulation. A particular source of uncertainty is diffractive dissociation, as its measurements in accelerator experiments demonstrated significant systematic uncertainty. In this research, we estimate the uncertainty in $\langle X_{\rm max}\rangle$ from the uncertainty of the measurement of diffractive dissociation by the ALICE experiment. The maximum uncertainty size of the entire air shower was estimated to be $^{+4.0}_{-5.6} \mathrm{g/cm^2}$ for air showers induced by $10^{17}$ eV proton, which is not negligible in the uncertainty of $\langle X_{\rm max}\rangle$ predictions.