Measurement of the Proton-Air Cross Section at s=57TeV with the Pierre Auger Observatory
Abstract
We report a measurement of the proton-air cross section for particle production at the center-of-mass energy per nucleon of 57 TeV. This is derived from the distribution of the depths of shower maxima observed with the Pierre Auger Observatory: systematic uncertainties are studied in detail. Analyzing the tail of the distribution of the shower maxima, a proton-air cross section of [505±22(stat)-36+28(syst)]mb is found.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- August 2012
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.062002
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1208.1520
- Bibcode:
- 2012PhRvL.109f2002A
- Keywords:
-
- 13.85.Tp;
- 96.50.sd;
- Cosmic-ray interactions;
- Extensive air showers;
- High Energy Physics - Experiment;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- 9 pages, 4 figures, Accepted at PRL