A new observable in extensive air showers

2016/09/16 by C. A. Garcı́a Canal, Canal, C. A. García, J. I. Illana +5
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1609.04941

openalex publication_date 2016/09/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We find that the ratio r_{mu e} of the muon to the electromagnetic component of an extended air shower at the ground level provides an indirect measure of the depth X_max of the shower maximum. This result, obtained with the air-shower code AIRES, is independent of the hadronic model used in the simulation. We show that the value of r_{mu e} in a particular shower discriminates its proton or iron nature with a 98% efficiency. We also show that the eventual production of forward heavy quarks inside the shower may introduce anomalous values of r_{mu e} in isolated events.

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