Publications

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• CORSIKA 8 - the next-generation air shower simulation framework

  Tim Huege for the CORSIKA 8 Collaboration

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 13, 028 (2023) · published 29 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  For more than 20 years, the community has heavily relied on CORSIKA for the simulation of extensive air showers, their Cherenkov light emission and their radio signals. While tremendously successful, the Fortran-based monolithic design of CORSIKA up to version 7 limits adaptation to new experimental needs, for example, in complex scenarios where showers transition from air into dense media, and to new computing paradigms such as the use of multi-core and GPU parallelization. With CORSIKA 8, we have reimplemented the core functionality of CORSIKA in a modern, modular, C++-based simulation framework, and successfully validated it against CORSIKA 7. Here, we discuss the philosophy of CORSIKA 8, showcase some example applications, and present the current state of implementation as well as the plans for the future.

  1 citation

• TAIGA - An advanced hybrid detector complex for astroparticle physics and high energy gamma-ray astronomy

  N. M. Budnev, I. Astapov, P. Bezyazeekov, E. Bonvech, A. Borodin, A. Bulan, D. Chernov, A. Chiavassa, A. Dyachok, A. Gafarov, A. Garmash, V. Grebenyuk, E. Gress, O. Gress, T. Gress, A. Grinyuk, O. Grishin, A. D. Ivanova, A. L. Ivanova, N. Kalmykov, V. Kindin, S. Kiryuhin, R. Kokoulin, K. Kompaniets, E. Korosteleva, V. Kozhin, E. Kravchenko, A. Kryukov, L. Kuzmichev, A. Lagutin, M. Lavrova, Y. Lemeshev, B. Lubsandorzhiev, N. Lubsandorzhiev, A. Lukanov, D. Lukyantsev, S. Malakhov, R. Mirgazov, R. Monkhoev, E. Osipova, A. Pakhorukov, L. Pankov, A. Pan, A. Panov, A. Petrukhin, I. Poddubnyi, D. Podgrudkov, V. Ponomareva, E. Popova, E. Postnikov, V. Prosin, V. Ptuskin, A. Pushnin, R. Raikin, A. Razumov, G. Rubtsov, E. Ryabov, V. Samoliga, A. Satyshev, A. Silaev, A. Silaev, A. Sidorenkov, A. Skurikhin, A. Sokolov, L. Sveshnikova, V. Tabolenko, L. Tkachev, A. Tanaev, M. Ternovoy, R. Togoo, N. Ushakov, A. Vaidyanathan, P. Volchugov, N. Volkov, D. Voronin, A. Zagorodnikov, D. Zhurov, I. Yashin

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 13, 027 (2023) · published 29 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The physical motivations, present status, main results in study of cosmic rays and in the field of gamma-ray astronomy as well future plans of the TAIGA-1 (Tunka Advanced Instrument for cosmic ray physics and Gamma Astronomy) project are presented. The TAIGA observatory addresses ground-based gamma-ray astronomy and astroparticle physics at energies from a few TeV to several PeV, as well as cosmic ray physics from 100 TeV to several EeV. The pilot TAIGA-1 complex is located in the Tunka valley, 50 km west from the southern tip of the lake Baikal.

• Probing hadronic interaction models with the hybrid data of the Pierre Auger Observatory

  Jakub Vícha for the Pierre Auger Collaboration

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 13, 026 (2023) · published 29 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Presently large systematic uncertainties remain in the description of hadronic interactions at ultra-high energies and a fully consistent description of air-shower experimental data is yet to be reached. The amount of data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory using simultaneously the fluorescence and surface detectors in the energy range 10$^{18.5}$ -10$^{19.0}$ eV has provided opportunity to perform a multi-parameter test of model predictions. We apply a global method to simultaneously fit the mass composition of cosmic rays and adjustments to the simulated depth of shower maximum, and hadronic signal at ground level. The best description of the hybrid data is obtained for a deeper scale of simulated depth of shower maximum than predicted by hadronic interaction models tuned to the LHC data. Consequently, the deficit of the simulated hadronic signal at ground level, dominated by muons, is alleviated with respect to the unmodified hadronic interaction models. Because of the size of the adjustments to simulated depth of shower maximum and hadronic signal and the large number of events in the sample, the statistical significance of these assumed adjustments is large, greater than 5$\sigma_{stat}$, even for the combination of the systematic experimental shifts within 1$\sigma_{sys}$ that are the most favorable for the models.

• ALICE at the LHC and astrophysics: From providing input for the search for antinuclei in space to constraining the equation of state of neutron stars

  Alexander Kalweit on behalf of the ALICE collaboration

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 13, 022 (2023) · published 29 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The ALICE experiment at the LHC was originally designed to study the creation of the quark-gluon-plasma in heavy-ion collisions, a new state of matter in which quarks and gluons are not confined into hadrons. More recently, the versatility of both the Large Hadron Collider and the ALICE apparatus have given additionally access to a unique set of nuclear and hadronic physics measurements. The main results from this new and dynamic research area will be presented. The application of these findings to astrophysical challenges, ranging from the equation of state of neutron stars to the search for dark matter in space, will be discussed.

• Highlights of the results from the GRAPES-3 experiment

  Hariharan Balakrishnan, S. Ahmad, M. Chakraborty, S.R. Dugad, U.D. Goswami, S.K. Gupta, Y. Hayashi, P. Jagadeesan, A. Jain, P. Jain, S. Kawakami, H. Kojima, S. Mahapatra, P.K. Mohanty, R. Moharana, Y. Muraki, P.K. Nayak, T. Nonaka, A. Oshima, D. Pattanaik, B.P. Pant, M. Rameez, K. Ramesh, L.V. Reddy, S. Shibata, F. Varsi, M. Zuberi

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 13, 021 (2023) · published 28 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The GRAPES-3 experiment is a unique, extensive air shower experiment consisting of 400 scintillator detectors spread over 25000 m$^2$ and a 560 m$^2$ muon telescope. The experiment located at Ooty, India, has been collecting data for the past two decades. The unique capabilities of GRAPES-3 have allowed the study of cosmic rays over energies from a few TeV to tens of PeV and beyond. The measurement of the directional flux of muons (E$_\mu$≥1 GeV) by the large muon telescope permits an excellent gamma-hadron separation, which then becomes a powerful tool in the study of multi-TeV gamma-ray sources and the composition of primary cosmic rays. However, the high precision measurements also enable studies of transient atmospheric and interplanetary phenomena such as those produced by thunderstorms and geomagnetic storms. This paper presents some exciting new and recent results, including updates on various ongoing analyses.

• On irregularities in the cosmic ray spectrum of \(10^{16}-10^{18}\) eV range

  Stanislav P. Knurenko, Igor S. Petrov

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 13, 020 (2023) · published 28 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Existing small, medium and large arrays for the study of cosmic rays of ultra-high energies are aimed for obtaining information about our galaxy and extragalactic space, namely to search and study astronomical objects that produce the flux of relativistic particles. The drift and interaction of such particles with magnetic fields and shock waves taking place in interstellar space causes the same interest. The shape of the energy spectrum of cosmic rays in the energy range $10^{15}-10^{18}$ eV, where the "knee" and the "second knee" are observed, can be formed as a superposition of the partial spectra of various chemical elements. Verification of galactic models, using recent experimental spectral data, makes it possible to study the nature of the galactic and extragalactic components of cosmic rays. The paper presents the result of the energy spectrum of cosmic rays in the range $10^{16}-10^{18}$ eV of measurements obtained with the Small Cherenkov array - a part of the Yakutsk array.

• The full coverage approach to the detection of Extensive Air Showers

  Giuseppe Di Sciascio

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 13, 019 (2023) · published 28 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A shower array exploiting the full coverage approach with a high segmentation of the readout allow to image the front of atmospheric showers with unprecedented resolution and detail. The grid distance determines the energy threshold (small energy showers are lost in the gap between detectors) and the quality of the shower sampling. Therefore, this experimental solution is needed to detect showers with a threshold in the 100 GeV range. The full coverage approach has been exploited in the ARGO-YBJ experiment. In this contribution we will summarise the advantages of this technique and discuss possible applications in new wide field of view detectors.

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

  Ken Ohashi, Hiroaki Menjo, Takashi Sako, Yoshitaka Itow

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 13, 018 (2023) · published 28 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  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.

• Recent results from LHCb for astroparticle physics

  Hans Dembinski on behalf of the LHCb collaboration

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 13, 016 (2023) · published 28 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The LHCb experiment is a general-purpose forward spectrometer designed for the study of heavy flavour physics at the LHC. The acceptance in the pseudorapidity range $2 < \eta < 5$ with full tracking and particle identification capabilities down to very small transverse momentum make LHCb also ideal to study hadron production in the forward region. Measuring and modelling these processes is essential for the simulation of interactions of high-energy cosmic rays with matter, like Earth's atmosphere or the interstellar medium. We present recently published analyses from the LHCb collaboration relevant for this application.

• A measurement of the proton plus helium spectrum of cosmic rays in the TeV region with HAWC

  Juan Carlos Arteaga-Velázquez on behalf of the HAWC collaboration

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 13, 015 (2023) · published 28 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  HAWC is an air-shower detector designed to study TeV gamma and cosmic rays. The observatory is composed of a 22000 $m^2$ array of 300 water Cherenkov tanks (4.5 m deep x 7.3 m diameter) with 4 photomultipliers (PMT) each. The instrument registers the number of hit PMTs, the timing information and the total charge at the PMTs during the event. From these data, shower observables such as the arrival direction, the core position at ground, the lateral age and the primary energy are estimated. In this work, we study the distribution of the shower age vs the primary energy of a sample of shower data collected by HAWC from June 2015 to June 2019 and employ a shower-age cut based on predictions of QGSJET-II-04 to separate a subsample of events dominated by H and He primaries. Using these data and a dedicated analysis, we reconstruct the cosmic ray spectrum of H+He from 6 to 158 TeV, which shows the presence of a softening at around 24 TeV with a statistical significance of 4.1$\sigma$.