Hadronic Interactions Studies at the LHC

¹ KIT, IAP, Postfach 3640, D-76021 Karlsruhe, Germany
² Instituto de Tecnologías en Detección y Astropartículas (CNEA, CONICET, UNSAM), Buenos Aires, Argentina
³ Departamento de Física, FCEN, Universidad de Buenos Aires and IFIBA, CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina
⁴ SUBATECH, University of Nantes – IN2P3/CNRS – IMT Atlantique, Nantes, France

^* Corresponding author: tanguy.pierog@kit.edu

Published online: 28 April 2023

Abstract

The deficit of muons in the simulation of extensive air showers is a long-standing problem and the origin of large uncertainties in the reconstruction of the mass of the high-energy primary cosmic rays. Hadronic interaction models re-tuned after early LHC data have a more consistent description of the muon content among them but still disagree with the data. Furthermore, some inconsistencies are also visible in the electromagnetic component. Ten years after the first LHC-tuned model release, much more detailed data are available both from LHC, SPS and hybrid air shower measurements, allowing for the understanding of some deficiencies in the model which could lead to a change in both X_max and the muon production by air showers. A better treatment of the core-corona approach according to LHC data has important consequences on the muon production while an update of diffraction and nuclear fragmentation is changing the X_max distribution. An updated version of EPOS LHC will be presented addressing the main issues of this model.