Hadronic interactions and cosmic radiation at energies above 105 GeV

Particle Collisions Above 10 TeV as Seen by Cosmic Rays

“…The separation between protons and heavy nuclei in this experiment is, however, unreliable beyond about 4 x 1012 eV per nucleon because of problems with backscattered neutrons from the calorimeter (Ellsworth et aI1977). At higher energies balloon-borne emulsion experiments have detected nuclei including protons, IX-particles, and heavier nuclei up to energies of the order of 1015 e V. McCusker (1975) summarized these results from early exposures of emulsion stacks. He emphasized that the composition is known directly to be mixed up to this energy.…”

“…Whether the other events also involve very large PT is more difficult to decide because the heights of the interactions responsible for the cores are not directly determined. Primaries with A > 1 could lead to multiple cores (McCusker 1975) ; so could nearby interactions superimposed on the hadronic cascade. Simulations are required to clarify these issues.…”

“…Multiple cores in air showers have also been the subject of study for many years (McCusker 1975, Sakata et al 1979, Hazen et al 1979. They, too, contain fragmentary evidence for processes with high PT' However, the difficulties of interpretation mentioned above also affect these experiments, which are sensitive primarily to the numerous low energy particles in the electromagnetic cascades of the showers.…”