Speaker
Description
The field of air shower physics is dedicated to understanding the development of cosmic-ray interactions with the Earth's atmosphere. However, it faces a significant challenge regarding the muon content of extensive air showers (EAS) observed by several cosmic-ray experiments, such as the Pierre Auger Observatory. Current simulations employing state-of-the-art hadronic interaction models yield a muon discrepancy compared to experimental measurements, commonly known as the "Muon Puzzle." The primary cause of this discrepancy lies within the modelling limitations of high-energy hadronic interactions.
In this contribution, we propose the integration of a new hadronic interaction model, Pythia 8, into the effort to resolve the Muon Puzzle. The Pythia 8 model, though well-suited for Large Hadron Collider experiments, has limited use in air shower studies so far. Recent advancements, especially in the Angantyr model, now offer better hadron-nucleus interaction descriptions, making it promising for air shower simulations. To improve Pythia's description of the quantities more relevant for shower physics, we aim to tune the model using accelerator datasets from SPS and Fermilab fixed-target experiments. This tuning process is expected to refine the model's depiction of secondary interactions within air showers.
We aim to present results from EAS simulations conducted using Corsika 8, wherein Pythia 8 is employed to model hadronic interactions. In addition, comparisons between the standard and tuned Pythia 8 will be discussed, offering insights into the Muon Puzzle.
