Measurement of the proton-air cross section at √s=57 TeV with the Pierre Auger Observatory.

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. Analyzi...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Abreu, P, Aglietta, M, Ahn, E, Albuquerque, I, Allard, D, Allekotte, I, Allen, J, Allison, P, Almeda, A, Alvarez Castillo, J, Alvarez-Muñiz, J, Ambrosio, M, Aminaei, A, Anchordoqui, L, Andringa, S, Antičić, T, Aramo, C, Arganda, E, Arqueros, F, Asorey, H, Assis, P, Aublin, J, Ave, M, Avenier, M, Avila, G
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2012
Description
Summary: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.