Recent results from the cosmic ray program of the NA61/SHINE experiment

¹ Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Platanenallee 6, D-15738 Zeuthen, Germany
² IKP, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Postfach 3640, D-76021 Karlsruhe, Germany
³ Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC/USP), Av. Trabalhador São-carlense 400, 13566-590, São Carlos, Brazil

^* e-mail: raul.prado@desy.de

Published online: 10 May 2019

Abstract

NA61/SHINE is a fixed target experiment designed to study hadron-proton, hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus interactions at the CERN Super-Proton-Synchrotron. In this paper we summarize the results from pion-carbon collisions recorded at beam momenta of 158 and 350 GeV=c. Hadron production measurements in these types of interactions is of fundamental importance for the understanding of the muon production in extensive air showers. In particular, production of (anti)baryons and ρ⁰ are mechanisms responsible for increasing the number of muons which reach the ground. The underestimation of the (anti)baryons or ρ⁰ production rates in current hadronic interaction models could be one of the sources of the excess of muons observed by cosmic ray experiments. The results on the production spectra of π^±, K^±, p, ¯p, Λ , ¯Λ, K⁰_S, ρ⁰, ω and K^*0 are presented, as well as their comparison to predictions of hadronic interaction models currently used in air shower simulations.