Test of hadronic interaction models with data from the Pierre Auger Observatory

PIERRE AUGER COLLABORATION (J. ABRAHAM, ... , A. MARIAZZI, ET AL)

Merida, Mejico

Conferencia; 30th International Cosmic Ray Conference; 2007

The Pierre Auger Observatory allows the measurement of bothlongitudinal profiles and lateral particle distributions of highenergy showers. The former trace the overall shower development,mainly of the electromagnetic component close to the core, and thelatter reflect the particle densities in the tail of the shower faraway from the core, and are sensitive to both the muonic andelectromagnetic components. Combining the two complementarymeasurements, predictions of air shower simulations are tested. Inparticular the muon component of the tank signals, which is sensitiveto hadronic interactions at high energy, is studied with severalindependent methods. Implications for the simulation of hadronicinteractions at ultra-high energy are discussed.