Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-16-2021
Department
Department of Physics
Abstract
We present the first measurement of the fluctuations in the number of muons in extensive air showers produced by ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. We find that the measured fluctuations are in good agreement with predictions from air shower simulations. This observation provides new insights into the origin of the previously reported deficit of muons in air shower simulations and constrains models of hadronic interactions at ultrahigh energies. Our measurement is compatible with the muon deficit originating from small deviations in the predictions from hadronic interaction models of particle production that accumulate as the showers develop.
Publication Title
Physical Review Letters
Recommended Citation
Aab, A.,
Abreu, P.,
Aglietta, M.,
Albury, J.,
Allekotte, I.,
Almela, A.,
Fick, B.,
Nitz, D. F.,
Puyleart, A.,
&
et. al.
(2021).
Measurement of the Fluctuations in the Number of Muons in Extensive Air Showers with the Pierre Auger Observatory.
Physical Review Letters,
126(15).
http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.152002
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/14786
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Version
Publisher's PDF
Publisher's Statement
© 2020 Authors. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.152002