Search

Light antinuclei, like antideuteron and antihelium-3, are ideal probes for new, exotic physics because their astrophysical backgrounds are suppressed at low energies. In order to exploit fully the inherent discovery potential of light antinuclei, a reliable description of their production cross sections in cosmic ray interactions is crucial. We provide therefore the cross sections of antideuteron and antihelium-3 production in $pp$, $p$He, He$p$, HeHe, $\bar pp$ and $\bar p$He collisions at energies relevant for secondary production in the Milky Way, in a tabulated form which is convinient to use. These predictions are based on QGSJET-II-04m and the state of the art coalescence model WiFunC, which evaluates the coalesence probability on an event-by-event basis, including both momentum correlations and the dependence on the emission volume. In addition, we comment on the importance of a Monte Carlo description of the antideuteron production and on the use of event generators in general. In particular, we discuss the effect of two-particle momentum correlations provided by Monte Carlo event generators on antinuclei production., 10 pages, 6 pdf figures; v2: more detailed discussion of the program, minor changes, accepted version

The expected low background of light antinuclei, such as antideuteron and antihelium-3, makes them ideal detection channels for exotic physics, such as dark matter annihilations. At the same time, their small binding energies and composite structures make them promising probes for the QCD phase diagram in heavy ion collisions. In order to correctly interpret experimental data, however, a solid description of the process of antinuclei formation process is needed. This can be achieved using phase space coalescence models based on the Wigner function representation of the produced nuclei states. Here, we discuss topics related to the production of light (anti)nuclei with a focus on its relevance for cosmic ray studies. In particular, we consider the importance of including both two-particle correlations and the size of the formation region on an event-by-event basis when describing the production in small interacting systems, such as e+e−, pp, pN and peripheral NN collisions. As such, we review the newly developed WiFunC model (Wigner Functions with Correlations) and comment on its generalisation to larger interacting systems.

A discussion of a number of important topics related to modeling of high energy cosmic ray interactions is presented. Special attention is devoted to novel theoretical approaches employed in event generators of hadronic interactions and to the impact of experimental data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In relation to studies of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), differences between various predictions for basic characteristics of UHECR-induced extensive air showers in the atmosphere are analyzed and traced down to differences in the respective treatments of hadronic interactions. Possibilities to discriminate between the alternative approaches, based on LHC and UHECR data, are demonstrated and the relation to UHECR primary composition is outlined. Finally, in relation to direct studies of charged cosmic rays, potential improvements of the treatment of cosmic ray interactions at low and intermediate energies are discussed.

We compare the predictions of AAfrag for the spectra of secondary photons, neutrinos, electrons, and positrons produced in proton-proton collisions to those of the parameterisations of Kamae et al., Kelner et al., and Kafexhiu et al. We find that the differences in the normalisation of the photon energy spectra reach 20$-$50% at intermediate values of the transferred energy fraction $x$, growing up to a factor of two for $x\rightarrow\,$1, while the differences in the neutrino spectra are even larger. We argue that LHCf results on the forward production of photons favor the use of the QGSJET-II-04m model on which AAfrag is based. The differences in the normalisation have important implications in the context of multi-messenger astronomy, in particular, for the prediction of neutrino fluxes based on gamma-ray flux measurements, or regarding the inference of the cosmic ray spectrum, based on gamma-ray data. We note also that the positron-electron ratio from hadronic interactions increases with energy towards the cutoff, an effect which is missed using the average electron-positron spectrum from Kelner et al. Finally, we describe the publicly available python package aafragpy, which provides the secondary spectra of photons, neutrinos, electrons, and positrons. This package complements the AAfrag results for protons with energies above 4 GeV with previous analytical parameterizations of particle spectra for lower energy protons., 8 pages, 10 figures

KASCADE-Grande and its original array of KASCADE were dedicated to measure individual air showers of cosmic rays with great detail in the primary energy range of 100 TeV up to 1 EeV. The experiment has significantly contributed to investigations of the energy spectrum and chemical composition of cosmic rays in the transition region from galactic to extragalactic origin of cosmic rays as well as to the further development of hadronic interaction models through validity tests using the multi-detector information from KASCADE-Grande. Though the data accumulation was completed in 2013, the data analysis is still continuing. Recently, we investigate the reliability of the new hadronic interactions model of the Sibyll version 2.3d with the combined data from KASCADE and KASCADE-Grande, and compare it to the predictions of different hadronic interaction models. In addition, we update the web-based platform of the KASCADE Cosmic Ray Data Centre (KCDC), where now full datasets from KASCADE and KASCADE-Grande and the corresponding Monte-Carlo simulated events are available., Presented at the 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2021)

Measurements of KASCADE-Grande on the muon size in high energy extensive air showers (EAS) have provided evidence that the actual attenuation length of shower muons in the atmosphere is larger than the expectations from the hadronic interaction models QGSJET-II-04, EPOS-LHC and SIBYLL 2.3. This discrepancy is related with a deficient description of the shower muon content with atmospheric depth by MC models. To further explore the origin of the above anomaly, we have investigated the muon size as a function of the primary energy at different zenith angles using data from the KASCADE-Grande experiment. The procedure consisted in comparing the measured muon number flux against the predictions of a reference cosmic ray energy spectrum and from the observed difference to estimate the data/MC muon ratio that best describe the measurements. The ratio is then applied to the MC simulations and from here, we estimate the wanted muon content versus the primary energy. As a reference model, we employed the energy spectrum measured from the Pierre Auger observatory, while, for the different cosmic ray abundances, the GSF model. Results are presented using the QGSJET-II-04, EPOS-LHC, SIBYLL 2.3 and SIBYLL 2.3c models in the analysis procedure.

The KASCADE and KASCADE-Grande experiments operated in KIT-Campus North, Karlsruhe (Germany) from 1993 to 2012. The two experiments studied primary cosmic rays in the energy range from 1014 eV to 1018 eV, investigating the change of slope of the spectrum detected at 2 - 4 × 1015 eV, the so called knee. We briefly review the performance of the experiments and then the main results obtained in the operation of both experiments: the test of hadronic interaction models, the all particle primary spectrum, the elemental composition of primary cosmic rays (with the first claim of a knee-like feature of the heavy primaries spectrum) and the search for large scale anisotropies.

The formation of light nuclei can be described as the coalescence of clusters of nucleons into nuclei. In the case of small interacting systems, such as dark matter and $e^+e^-$ annihilations or $pp$ collisions, the coalescence condition is often imposed only in momentum space and hence the size of the interaction region is neglected. On the other hand, in most coalescence models used for heavy ion collisions, the coalescence probability is controlled mainly by the size of the interaction region, while two-nucleon momentum correlations are either neglected or treated as collective flow. Recent experimental data from $pp$ collisions at LHC have been interpreted as evidence for such collective behaviour, even in small interacting systems. We argue that these data are naturally explained in the framework of conventional QCD inspired event generators when both two-nucleon momentum correlations and the size of the hadronic emission volume are taken into account. To include both effects, we employ a per-event coalescence model based on the Wigner function representation of the produced nuclei states. This model reproduces well the source size for baryon emission and the coalescence factor $B_2$ measured recently by the ALICE collaboration in $pp$ collisions., 9 pages, 6 pdf figures; v2: minor changes, added references, accepted version

Antideuteron and antihelium nuclei have been proposed as a detection channel for dark matter annihilations and decays in the Milky Way, due to the low astrophysical background expected. To estimate both the signal for various dark matter models and the astrophysical background, one employs usually the coalescence model in a Monte Carlo framework. This allows one to treat the production of antinuclei on an event-by-event basis, taking thereby into account momentum correlations between the antinucleons involved in the process. This approach lacks however an underlying microscopic picture, and the numerical value of the coalescence parameter obtained from fits to different reactions varies considerably. Here we propose instead to combine event-by-event Monte Carlo simulations with a microscopic coalescence picture based on the Wigner function representations of the produced antinuclei states. This approach allows us to include in a semi-classical picture both the size of the formation region, which is process dependent, and momentum correlations. The model contains a single, universal parameter which is fixed by fitting the production spectra of antideuterons in proton-proton interactions, measured at the Large Hadron Collider. Using this value, the model describes well the production of various antinuclei both in electron-positron annihilation and in proton-proton collisions., Comment: 19 pages, 7 pdf figures; v2: minor changes, added references, accepted version

The `KASCADE Cosmic ray Data Centre' is a web portal (\url{https://kcdc.ikp.kit.edu}), where the data of the astroparticle physics experiment KASCADE-Grande are made available for the interested public. The KASCADE experiment was a large-area detector for the measurement of high-energy cosmic rays via the detection of extensive air showers. The multi-detector installations KASCADE and its extension KASCADE-Grande stopped the active data acquisition in 2013 of all its components end of 2012 after more than 20 years of data taking. In several updates since our first release in 2013 with KCDC we provide the public measured and reconstructed parameters of more than 433 million air showers. In addition, KCDC provides meta data information and documentation to enable a user outside the community of experts to perform their own data analysis. Simulation data from three different high energy interaction models have been made available as well as a compilation of measured and published spectra from various experiments. In addition, detailed educational examples shall encourage high-school students and early stage researchers to learn about astroparticle physics, cosmic radiation as well as the handling of Big Data and about the sustainable and public provision of scientific data., Comment: 16 pages, submitted to The European Physical Journal C

KASCADE-Grande was an air-shower experiment aimed to investigate cosmic rays between 1016 and 1018 eV. The instrument was located at the site of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany at an altitude of 110 m a.s.l. and covered an area of 0.5 km2. KASCADE-Grande consisted of several detector systems dedicated to measure different components of the cosmic ray induced air showers, e.g. the muon content (Eth > 230 MeV) and the number of charged particles (Eth > 3 MeV) at ground, which are the basis for several energy and composition studies of cosmic rays. In this contribution, using these observables, the KASCADE-Grande data is divided into light and heavy mass groups and their respective muon densities are reconstructed at different zenith angle intervals. The results are compared with the expectations of the post-LHC hadronic-interaction models, EPOS-LHC and QGSJET-II-04, in order to test the validity of the model predictions.

The evolution of the muon content of very high energy air showers (EAS) in the atmosphere is investigated with data of the KASCADE-Grande observatory. For this purpose, the muon attenuation length in the atmosphere is obtained to $\Lambda_\mu = 1256 \, \pm 85 \, ^{+229}_{-232}(\mbox{syst})\, \mbox{g/cm}^2$ from the experimental data for shower energies between $10^{16.3}$ and $10^{17.0} \, \mbox{eV}$. Comparison of this quantity with predictions of the high-energy hadronic interaction models QGSJET-II-02, SIBYLL 2.1, QGSJET-II-04 and EPOS-LHC reveals that the attenuation of the muon content of measured EAS in the atmosphere is lower than predicted. Deviations are, however, less significant with the post-LHC models. The presence of such deviations seems to be related to a difference between the simulated and the measured zenith angle evolutions of the lateral muon density distributions of EAS, which also causes a discrepancy between the measured absorption lengths of the density of shower muons and the predicted ones at large distances from the EAS core. The studied deficiencies show that all four considered hadronic interaction models fail to describe consistently the zenith angle evolution of the muon content of EAS in the aforesaid energy regime., Comment: Published in Astroparticle Physics 95 (2017) 25-43

Muons in extensive air showers (EAS) are a sensitive probe for the primary cosmic ray mass and the physics of hadronic interactions at very high energies, hence it is important to precisely measure and carefully analyze this particular shower component. In practice, however, such measurements are difficult to carry out due to the penetrating nature of muons and their low density in the shower. This way just in a few experimental facilities the shower muon component has been measured event-by-event in combination with other EAS observables. One of them was the multicomponent air shower experiment KASCADE-Grande, which was designed to study cosmic rays in the energy interval from $1$ PeV to $1$ EeV and was located at the site of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany at $110$ m a.s.l. In this work, we will present an analysis of the KASCADE-Grande data in terms of the muon content ($E_\mu > 230$ MeV) of cosmic-ray induced air showers as a function of the primary energy (E = $10$ PeV $- 1$ EeV) and the zenith angle ($< 35^\circ$). We test also the predictions on the shower muon content of the post-LHC hadronic interaction models EPOS-LHC, QGSJET-II-04, SIBYLL 2.3 and SIBYLL 2.3c by comparing the model expectations with experimental results.

Steep rise of parton densities in the limit of small parton momentum fraction x poses a challenge for describing the observed energy-dependence of the total and inelastic proton-proton cross sections σ p p tot / inel : considering a realistic parton spatial distribution, one obtains a too-strong increase of σ p p tot / inel in the limit of very high energies. We discuss various mechanisms which allow one to tame such a rise, paying special attention to the role of parton-parton correlations. In addition, we investigate a potential impact on model predictions for σ p p tot, related to dynamical higher twist corrections to parton-production processes.

We provide a compilation of predictions of the QGSJET-II-04m model for the production of secondary species (photons, neutrinos, electrons, positrons, and antinucleons) that are covering a wide range of energies of the beam particles in proton-proton, proton-nucleus, nucleus-proton, and nucleus-nucleus reactions. The current version of QGSJET-II-04m has an improved treatment of the production of secondary particles at low energies: the parameters of the hadronization procedure have been fine-tuned, based on a number of recent benchmark experimental data, notably, from the LHCf, LHCb, and NA61 experiments. Our results for the production spectra are made publicly accessible through the interpolation routines AAfrag which are described below. Besides, we comment on the impact of Feynman scaling violation and isospin symmetry effects on antinucleon production., Comment: 9 pages, 7 eps figures; v2: minor cosmetic changes, accepted version

KASCADE, together with its extension KASCADE-Grande measured individual air showers of cosmic rays in the primary energy range of 100 TeV to 1 EeV. The data collection was fully completed at the end of 2013 and the experiment was dismantled. However, the data analysis is still in progress. Recently, we published a new result on upper limits to the flux of ultra-high energy gamma rays, which set constraints on some fundamental astrophysical models. We also use the data to investigate the validity of the new hadronic interactions models like SIBYLL version 2.3c or EPOS-LHC. In addition, we updated and improved the webbased platform of the KASCADE Cosmic Ray Data Centre (KCDC), where now the data from KASCADE and KASCADE-Grande of more than 20 years measurements is available, including corresponding Monte-Carlo simulated events based on three different hadronic interaction models. In this contribution, recent results from KASCADE-Grande and the update of KCDC is briefly discussed.

The differences between contemporary Monte Carlo generators of high energy hadronic interactions are discussed and their impact on the interpretation of experimental data on ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is studied. Key directions for further model improvements are outlined. The prospect for a coherent interpretation of the data in terms of the UHECR composition is investigated.

The version 3.01 of ELMAG, a Monte Carlo program for the simulation of electromagnetic cascades initiated by high-energy photons and electrons interacting with extragalactic background light (EBL), is presented. Pair production and inverse Compton scattering on EBL photons as well as synchrotron losses are implemented using weighted sampling of the cascade development. New features include, among others, the implementation of turbulent extragalactic magnetic fields and the calculation of three-dimensional electron and positron trajectories, solving the Lorentz force equation. As final result of the three-dimensional simulations, the program provides two-dimensional source images as function of the energy and the time delay of secondary cascade particles., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures. v2: minor changes, to appear in CPC; arxiv version contains an addendum describing version 3.02 which includes plasma energy losses; program available at http://elmag.sourceforge.net

In this work, we report measurements on the muon content (Eth > 230 MeV) of extensive air showers (EAS) induced by cosmic rays with primary energy from 10 PeV up to 1 EeV performed with the KASCADE-Grande experiment. The measurements are confronted with SIBYLL 2.3. The results are focused on the dependence of the total muon number and the lateral density distribution of muons in EAS on the zenith angle and the total number of charged particles in the shower. We also present updated results of a detailed study of the attenuation length of shower muons, which reveal a deviation between the measured data and the predictions of the post-LHC hadronic interaction models SIBYLL 2.3, QGSJET-II-04 and EPOS-LHC.

We apply the phenomenological Reggeon field theory framework to investigate rapidity gap survival (RGS) probability for diffractive dijet production in proton–proton collisions. In particular, we study in some detail rapidity gap suppression due to elastic rescatterings of intermediate partons in the underlying parton cascades, described by enhanced (Pomeron–Pomeron interaction) diagrams. We demonstrate that such contributions play a subdominant role, compared to the usual, so-called “eikonal”, rapidity gap suppression due to elastic rescatterings of constituent partons of the colliding protons. On the other hand, the overall RGS factor proves to be sensitive to color fluctuations in the proton. Hence, experimental data on diffractive dijet production can be used to constrain the respective model approaches.

The KASCADE-Grande observatory was a ground-based air shower array dedicated to study the energy and composition of cosmic rays in the energy interval E = 1 PeV –1 EeV. The experiment consisted of different detector systems which allowed the simultaneous measurement of distinct components of air showers (EAS), such as the muon content. In this contribution, we study the total muon number and the lateral density distribution of muons in EAS detected by KASCADE-Grande as a function of the zenith angle and the total number of charged particles. The attenuation length of the muon content of EAS is also measured. The results are compared with the predictions of the SIBYLL 2.3 high-energy hadronic interaction model.

Contains fulltext : 184360.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)

The KASCADE-Grande large area (128 m2) Muon Tracking Detector has been built with the aim to identify muons ( E μ thr = 800 MeV) in Extensive Air Showers by track measurements under 18 r.l. shielding. This detector provides high-accuracy angular information (approx. 0.3 ° ) for muons up to 700 m distance from the shower core. In this work we present the lateral density distributions of muons in EAS measured with the Muon Tracking Detector of the KASCADE-Grande experiment. The density is calculated by counting muon tracks in a muon-to-shower-axis distance range from 100 m to 610 m from showers with reconstructed energy of 10 16 – 10 17 eV and zenith angle θ 18 ° . In the distance range covered by the experiment, these distributions are well described by functions phenomenologically determined already in the fifties (of the last century) by Greisen. They are compared also with the distributions obtained with the KASCADE scintillator array ( E μ thr = 230 MeV) and with distributions obtained using simulated showers.

We explain in a unified way the experimental data on ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECR) and neutrinos, using a single source class and obeying limits on the extragalactic diffuse gamma-ray background (EGRB). If UHECRs only interact hadronically with gas around their sources, the resulting diffuse CR flux can be matched well to the observed one, providing at the same time large neutrino fluxes. Since the required fraction of heavy nuclei is, however, rather large, air showers in the Earth’s atmosphere induced by UHECRs with energies E >∼ 3 × 1018 eV would reach in such a case their maxima too high. Therefore additional photo-hadronic interactions of UHECRs close to the accelerator have to be present, in order to modify the nuclear composition of CRs in a relatively narrow energy interval. We include thus both photon and gas backgrounds, and combine the resulting CR spectra with the high-energy part of the Galactic CR fluxes predicted by the escape model. As result, we find a good description of experimental data on the total CR flux, the mean shower maximum depth Xmax and its width RMS(Xmax ) in the whole energy range above E ≃ 1017 eV. The predicted high-energy neutrino flux matches IceCube measurements, while the contribution to the EGRB is of order 30%. (C) Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

KASCADE and KASCADE-Grande were multi-detector installations to measure individual air showers of cosmic rays at ultra-high energy. Based on data sets measured by KASCADE and KASCADE-Grande, 90% C.L. upper limits to the flux of gamma-rays in the primary cosmic ray flux are determined in an energy range of ${10}^{14} - {10}^{18}$ eV. The analysis is performed by selecting air showers with a low muon content as expected for gamma-ray-induced showers compared to air showers induced by energetic nuclei. The best upper limit of the fraction of gamma-rays to the total cosmic ray flux is obtained at $3.7 \times {10}^{15}$ eV with $1.1 \times {10}^{-5}$. Translated to an absolute gamma-ray flux this sets constraints on some fundamental astrophysical models, such as the distance of sources for at least one of the IceCube neutrino excess models., Published in The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 848, Number 1. Posted on: October 5, 2017

We aim to explain in a unified way the experimental data on ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECR) and neutrinos, using a single source class and obeying limits on the extragalactic diffuse gamma-ray background (EGRB). If UHECRs only interact hadronically with gas around their sources, the resulting diffuse CR flux can be matched well to the observed one, providing at the same time large neutrino fluxes. However, air showers in the Earth's atmosphere induced by UHECRs with energies $E>3\times 10^{18}$ eV would reach in such a case their maxima too high. Therefore additional photo-hadronic interactions of UEHCRs close to the accelerator have to be present, in order to modify the nuclear composition of CRs in a relatively narrow energy interval. We include thus both photon and gas backgrounds, and combine the resulting CR spectra with the high-energy part of the Galactic CR fluxes predicted by the escape model. As result, we find a good description of experimental data on the total CR flux, the mean shower depth $X_\max$ and its width $RMS(X_\max)$ in the whole energy range above $E\simeq 10^{17}$ eV. The predicted high-energy neutrino flux matches IceCube measurements, while the contribution to the EGRB is of order 30%., v2: 7 pages, 6 eps figures; slightly extended version to appear in PRD

The KASCADE-Grande experiment has significantly contributed to the current knowledge about the energy spectrum and composition of cosmic rays for energies between the knee and the ankle. Meanwhile, post-LHC versions of the hadronic interaction models are available and used to interpret the entire data set of KASCADE-Grande. A new, combined analysis of both arrays, KASCADE and Grande, were developed increasing significantly the accuracy of the shower observables. Latest results from the analysis of the entire data set as well as recent activities related to scientific outreach of the KASCADE-Grande experiment are presented.

The KASCADE-Grande observatory was a ground-based air shower array devoted to the study of the energy and composition of cosmic rays with energies from $1$ PeV to $1$ EeV. The experiment consisted of different detector systems which allowed the simultaneous measurement of distinct components of the air showers (EAS), such as the muon content. In this contribution, we study the total muon number and the lateral density distribution of muons in EAS detected by KASCADE-Grande. The data are analyzed as a function of the zenith angle and the total number of charged particles. The attenuation length of the muon content of EAS is also measured. The results are compared with the predictions of the SIBYLL $2.3$ hadronic interaction model.

KASCADE and KASCADE-Grande were detector arrays for the measurement of extensive air showers generated by high-energy cosmic rays in the PeV to EeV energy range. KASCADE-Grande has been operated for more than two decades and completed the data taking at the end of 2013. Now, a new analysis of the combined data from the arrays of KASCADE and KASCADE-Grande was performed, increasing both the effective area and the accuracy of the shower reconstruction. In addition, new versions of post-LHC hadronic interaction models are used to interpret the combined data. First results from the new combined analysis confirming earlier observations of spectral features, but also unveiling still existing inconsistencies of the models, will be discussed in this contribution.

The KASCADE Cosmic Ray Data Centre (KCDC) is a web-based platform to provide scientific data for the general public. KASCADE and its extension KASCADE-Grande fully completed the data accumulation at the end of 2013 after more than 20 years of measurements. The main purpose of KCDC is to archive original data such as from KASCADE to offer long-term scientific data for the high-energy astroparticle physics community as well as for students and the interested public via a sophisticated web portal. Recently, a new version named NABOO was released, based on a completely new back-end database and software. In addition, the amount of data increased by factor 3 compared to the previous release. Data from the Grande detector array are now also available. In this contribution, the KCDC web portal and the data availability as well as future plans will be discussed.

Local interstellar spectra (LIS) for protons, helium and antiprotons are built using the most recent experimental results combined with state-of-the-art models for propagation in the Galaxy and Heliosphere. Two propagation packages, GALPROP and HelMod, are combined to provide a single framework that is run to reproduce direct measurements of cosmic ray (CR) species at different modulation levels and at both polarities of the solar magnetic field. To do so in a self-consistent way, an iterative procedure was developed, where the GALPROP LIS output is fed into HelMod that provides modulated spectra for specific time periods of selected experiments to compare with the data. The parameters were tuned with a maximum likelihood procedure using an extensive data set of proton spectra from 1997-2015. The proposed LIS accommodate both the low energy interstellar CR spectra measured by Voyager 1 and the high energy observations by BESS, PAMELA, AMS-01, and AMS-02 made from the balloons and near-Earth payloads. The proton LIS also accounts for Ulysses counting rate features measured out of the ecliptic plane. The obtained solution is in a good agreement with proton, helium, and antiproton data by AMS-02, BESS, and PAMELA in the whole energy range. Copyright owned by the author(s) under the term of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The charged particle densities obtained from CORSIKA simulated EAS, using the QGSJet-II.04 hadronic interaction model are used for primary energy reconstruction. Simulated data are reconstructed by using Lateral Energy Correction Functions computed with a new realistic model of the Grande stations implemented in Geant4.10.

We demonstrate that underlying assumptions concerning the structure of constituent parton Fock states in hadrons make a strong impact on the predictions of hadronic interaction models for forward hadron spectra and for long-range correlations between central and forward hadron production. Our analysis shows that combined studies of proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider by central and forward-looking detectors have a rich potential for discriminating between the main model approaches.

We discuss in some detail the physics content of the new model, QGSJET-III-01, focusing on major problems related to the treatment of semihard processes in the very high energy limit. A special attention has been payed to the main improvement, compared to the QGSJET-II model, which is related to a phenomenological treatment of leading power corrections corresponding to final parton rescattering off soft gluons. In particular, this allowed us to use a twice smaller separation scale between the soft and hard parton physics, compared to the previous model version, QGSJET-II-04. Preliminary results obtained with the new model are also presented.

We demonstrate that a substantial part of the present uncertainties in model predictions for the average maximum depth of cosmic ray-induced extensive air showers is related to very high energy pion-air collisions. Our analysis shows that the position of the maximum of the muon production profile in air showers is strongly sensitive to the properties of such interactions. Therefore, the measurements of the maximal muon production depth by cosmic ray experiments provide a unique opportunity to constrain the treatment of pion-air interactions at very high energies and to reduce thereby model-related uncertainties for the shower maximum depth.

The energy reconstruction at KASCADE-Grande is based on a combination of the shower size and the total muon number, which are both estimated for each individual air shower event. We present investigations where we employed a second method to reconstruct the primary energy using S(500), which are the charged particle densities inferred with the KASCADE-Grande detector at a distance of 500 m from the shower axis. We considered the attenuation of inclined showers by applying the “Constant Intensity Cut” method and we employed a simulation-derived calibration to convert the recorded S(500) into primary energy. We observed a systematic shift in the S(500)-derived energy compared with previously reported results obtained using the standard reconstruction technique. However, a comparison of the two methods based on simulated and measured data showed that this shift only appeared in the measured data. Our investigations showed that this shift was caused mainly by the inadequate description of the shape of the lateral density distribution in the simulations.

Contains fulltext : 166007.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) UHECR 2014 : International Symposium for Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays, October 12-15, 2014, Springdale, Utah, USA

The KASCADE-Grande experiment operated at KIT from January 2004 to November 2012, measuring Extensive Air Showers (EAS) generated by primary cosmic rays in the 10 16 – 10 18 e V energy range. The experiment measured, for each single event, with a high resolution, the total number of charged particles ( N c h ) and of muons ( N μ ). In this contribution we summarize the results obtained about: (i) the measurement of the all particle energy spectrum, discussing the influence of the hadronic interaction model used to derive the energy calibration of the experimental data. (ii) The energy spectra derived separating the events according to the N μ / N c h ratio. This technique allowed us to unveil a steepening of the spectrum of heavy primaries at E ∼ 10 16.92 ± 0.04 e V and a hardening of the spectrum of light primaries at E ∼ 10 17.08 ± 0.08 e V . (ii) A search for large scale anisotropies.

I review the state-of-the-art concerning the treatment of high energy cosmic ray interactions in the atmosphere, discussing in some detail the underlying physical concepts and the possibilities to constrain the latter by current and future measurements at the Large Hadron Collider. The relation of basic characteristics of hadronic interactions to the properties of nuclear-electromagnetic cascades induced by primary cosmic rays in the atmosphere is addressed. Experimental studies of high energy cosmic rays (CR) are traditionally performed using the so-called extensive air shower (EAS) techniques: the properties of the primary CR particles are reconstructed from measured characteristics of nuclear-electro-magnetic cascades induced by their interactions in the atmosphere. This naturally implies the importance of detailed Monte Carlo simulations of EAS development, particularly, of its backbone - the cascade of nuclear interactions of both the primary particles and of the secondary hadrons produced. Thus, the very success of experimental studies depends crucially on the validity of hadronic interaction models used in the analysis. Typically, one chooses between two main experimental procedures (1). In the first case, one deals with the information obtained with scintillation detectors positioned at ground. The energy of the primary particle is reconstructed from the measured lateral density of charged particles (mostly, elec- trons and positrons) while the particle type is inferred from the relative fraction of muons, compared to all charged particles at ground. Alternatively, one may study the longitudinal EAS development by measuring fluorescence light produced by excited air molecules at different heights in the atmo- sphere, for which purpose dedicated fluorescence telescopes are employed. In the latter case, the primary energy is related to the total amount of fluorescence light emitted. In turn, the particle type may be determined from the measured position of the so-called shower maximum Xmax - the depth in the atmosphere (in g/cm 2 ) where the number of ionizing particles reaches its maximal value (which is thus the brightest spot on the shower image). Not surprisingly, the observables used to determine the primary particle type - the lateral muon density ρμ and the EAS maximum position Xmax - appear to be very sensitive to details of high energy hadronic interactions. More precisely, Xmax depends strongly on the properties of the primary particle interaction with air nuclei: the inelastic cross section and the forward spectra of secondary hadrons produced. In turn, the EAS muon content is formed in a multi-step cascade process, driven mostly

We apply the phenomenological Reggeon field theory framework to investigate the relative importance of perturbative and nonperturbative multiparton correlations for the treatment of double parton scattering in proton-proton collisions. We obtain a significant correction to the so-called effective cross section for double parton scattering due to nonperturbative parton splitting. When combined with the corresponding perturbative contribution, this results in a rather weak energy and transverse momentum dependence of the effective cross section, in agreement with experimental observations at the Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider. In addition, we observe that color fluctuations have a sizable impact on the calculated rate of double parton scattering and on the relative importance of the perturbative parton splitting mechanism.

A dramatic increase in the accuracy and statistics of space-borne cosmic ray (CR) measurements has yielded several breakthroughs over the last several years. The most puzzling is the rise in the positron fraction above ~10 GeV over the predictions of the propagation models assuming pure secondary production. The accuracy of the antiproton production cross section is critical for astrophysical applications and searches for new physics since antiprotons in CRs seem to hold the keys to many puzzles including the origin of those excess positrons. However, model calculations of antiproton production in CR interactions with interstellar gas are often employing parameterizations that are out of date or are using outdated physical concepts. That may lead to an incorrect interpretation of antiproton data which could have broad consequences for other areas of astrophysics. In this work, we calculate antiproton production in pp-, pA-, and AA-interactions using EPOS-LHC and QGSJET-II-04, two of the most advanced Monte Carlo (MC) generators tuned to numerous accelerator data including those from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We show that the antiproton yields obtained with these MC generators differ by up to an order of magnitude from yields of parameterizations commonly used in astrophysics., 16 pages (emulateapj style), 18 figures, 2 tables; The Astrophysical Journal, in press

KASCADE-Grande is an air-shower observatory devoted to the detection of cosmic rays with energies in the range of 1016 to 1018 eV. This energy region is of particular interest for the cosmic ray astrophysics, since it is the place where some models predict the existence of a transition from galactic to extragalactic origin of cosmic rays and the presence of a break in the flux of its heavy component. The detection of these features requires detailed and simultaneous measurements of the energy and composition of cosmic rays with sufficient statistics. These kinds of studies are possible for the first time in KASCADE-Grande due to the accurate measurements of several air-shower observables, i.e., the number of charged particles, electrons and muons in the shower, using the different detector systems of the observatory. In this contribution, a detailed look into the composition of 1016 — 1018 eV cosmic rays with KASCADE-Grande is presented.

The KASCADE experiment and its extension KASCADE-Grande have significantly contributed to the current knowledge about the energy spectrum and composition of cosmic rays (CRs) with energies between the knee and the ankle. However, the data of both experiments were analysed separately, although Grande used the muon information of the KASCADE-array. A coherent analysis based on the combined data of both arrays is expected to profit from reconstructed shower observables with even higher accuracy compared to the stand-alone analyses. In addition, a significantly larger fiducial area is available. The aim of this analysis is to obtain the spectrum and composition of CRs in the range from 1014 to 1018 eV with a larger number of events and further reduced uncertainties using one unique reconstruction procedure for the entire energy range. This contribution will describe the motivation, the concept, and the current status of the combined analysis.

KCDC, the KASCADE Cosmic-ray Data Centre, is a web portal, where data of astroparticle physics experiments will be made available for the interested public. The KASCADE experiment, financed by public money, was a large-area detector for the measurement of high-energy cosmic rays via the detection of air showers. KASCADE and its extension KASCADE-Grande stopped finally the active data acquisition of all its components including the radio EAS experiment LOPES end of 2012 after more than 20 years of data taking. In a first release, with KCDC we provide to the public the measured and reconstructed parameters of more than 160 million air showers. In addition, KCDC provides the conceptional design, how the data can be treated and processed so that they are also usable outside the community of experts in the research field. Detailed educational examples make a use also possible for high-school students and early stage researchers., Comment: 8 pages, accepted proceeding of the ECRS-symposium, Kiel, 2014

In previous studies of KASCADE-Grande data, a Monte Carlo simulation code based on the GEANT3 program has been developed to describe the energy deposited by EAS particles in the detector stations. In an attempt to decrease the simulation time and ensure compatibility with the geometry description in standard KASCADE-Grande analysis software, several structural elements have been neglected in the implementation of the Grande station geometry. To improve the agreement between experimental and simulated data, a more accurate simulation of the response of the KASCADE-Grande detector is necessary. A new simulation code has been developed based on the GEANT4 program, including a realistic geometry of the detector station with structural elements that have not been considered in previous studies. The new code is used to study the influence of a realistic detector geometry on the energy deposited in the Grande detector stations by particles from EAS events simulated by CORSIKA. Lateral Energy Correction Functions are determined and compared with previous results based on GEANT3.

KASCADE-Grande was an air-shower experiment designed to study cosmic rays between 1016 and 1018 eV. The instrument was located at the site of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany at an altitude of 110 m a.s.l. and covered an area of 0.5 km2. KASCADE-Grande consisted of several detector systems dedicated to measure different components of the EAS generated by the primary cosmic rays, i.e., the muon and the electron contents of the air-shower. With such a number of EAS observables and the precision of the measurements, the KASCADE-Grande data can be used to not only study in detail the properties of cosmic rays but also to test the predictions of hadronic-interaction models. In this work, in particular, the attenuation lengths of the muon number and the charged number of particles of EAS in the atmosphere were extracted from the KASCADE-Grande data and the results were compared with the predictions of the new EPOS-LHC hadronic-interaction model.