Author:
Masip Manuel,Rosario Ivan,Sciutto Sergio J.
Abstract
Abstract
We discuss the electromagnetic collisions of high energy protons, pions and kaons with
atmospheric nuclei. In particular, we use the equivalent photon approximation to estimate (i) the diffractive collisions where the projectile scatters inelastically off a nucleus, and
(ii) the usual radiative processes (bremsstrahlung, pair production and photonuclear
interactions) of these charged hadrons in the air. We then include the processes in the simulator
AIRES and study how they affect the longitudinal development of extensive air showers. For
109-11 GeV proton primaries we find that they introduce a very small reduction (below 1%) in
the average value of both X
max and ΔX
max. At a given shower age (relative slant depth from
X
max), these electromagnetic processes slightly increase the number of charged particles at the
shower maximum and reduce the number of muons when it is old, decreasing by 1% the
muon-to-(γ + e) near the ground level.
Subject
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Reference23 articles.
1. Lepton spectra in the earth's atmosphere;Lipari;Astropart. Phys.,1993
2. The Pierre Auger Observatory Upgrade - Preliminary Design Report;Aab,2016
3. Sensitivity of Extensive Air Showers to Features of Hadronic Interactions at Ultra-High Energies;Ulrich,2009
4. AIRES: A system for air shower simulations;Sciutto,1999