Электронный каталог

Статья

Acharya, S.
Multimuons in Cosmic-Ray Events as Seen in ALICE at the LHC : Abstract / S.Acharya, B.Batyunya, R.A.Diaz, S.Grigoryan, A.Kondratyev, K.Mikhaylov, P.Nomokonov, V.Pozdniakov, E.Rogochaya, A.Vodopyanov, [ALICE Collab.]. – Text : electronic // Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. – 2025. – Vol. 2025, No. 4. – P. 009. – URL: https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2025/04/009. – Bibliogr.: 37.

ALICE is a large experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Located 52 meters underground, its detectors are suitable to measure muons produced by cosmic-ray interactions in the atmosphere. In this paper, the studies of the cosmic muons registered by ALICE during Run 2 (2015–2018) are described. The analysis is limited to multimuon events defined as events with more than four detected muons (N&sub(*m) > 4) and in the zenith angle range 0&sup(o) < *y < 50&sp(o). The results are compared with Monte Carlo simulations using three of the main hadronic interaction models describing the air shower development in the atmosphere: QGSJET-II-04, EPOS-LHC, and SIBYLL 2.3d. The interval of the primary cosmic-ray energy involved in the measured muon multiplicity distribution is about 4 × 10&sup(15) < E&sub(prim) < 6 × 10&sup(16) eV. In this interval none of the three models is able to describe precisely the trend of the composition of cosmic rays as the energy increases. However, QGSJET-II-04 is found to be the only model capable of reproducing reasonably well the muon multiplicity distribution, assuming a heavy composition of the primary cosmic rays over the whole energy range, while SIBYLL 2.3d and EPOS-LHC underpredict the number of muons in a large interval of multiplicity by more than 20% and 30%, respectively. The rate of high muon multiplicity events (N&sub(*m) > 100) obtained with QGSJET-II-04 and SIBYLL 2.3d is compatible with the data, while EPOS-LHC produces a significantly lower rate (55% of the measured rate). For both QGSJET-II-04 and SIBYLL 2.3d, the rate is close to the data when the composition is assumed to be dominated by heavy elements, an outcome compatible with the average energy E&sub(prim) ∼ 10&sup(17) eV of these events. This result places significant constraints on more exotic production mechanisms.



Спец.(статьи,препринты) = С 347 - Космические лучи
ОИЯИ = ОИЯИ (JINR)2025