Dortmund 2021 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 16: Cosmic Rays V

T 16.4: Talk

Monday, March 15, 2021, 16:45–17:00, Tp

When heavy ions meet cosmic rays : potential impact of QGP formation on the muon puzzle — •Tanguy Pierog¹, Sebastien Baur², Hans Dembinski³, Matias Perlin¹, Ralf Ulrich¹, and Klaus Werner⁴ — ¹KIT, IAP, Karlsruhe, Germany — ²Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium — ³Experimentelle Physik 5, TU Dortmund — ⁴SUBATECH, Nantes, France

The deficit of muons in the simulation of extensive air showers is a long standing problem and the origin of large uncertainties in the reconstruction of the mass of the high energy primary cosmic rays. Hadronic interaction models, re-tuned after early LHC data, have a more consistent description of the muon content among them but still disagree with data. Collective hadronization due to the formation of a quark gluon plasma (QGP) has already been studied as a possible cause for a larger production of muons under extreme conditions (rare, very central nuclear interactions), but without real success. However, in the view of the most recent LHC data, a collective hadronization phase might not be limited to such extreme conditions. And because of its different ratio of electromagnetic to hadronic energy, a QGP may have the properties to solve the muon puzzle. It is demonstrated using a theoretical approach and tested in a realistic way by the modification of hadronic model spectra in CONEX to mimic the production of a QGP also in not so extreme conditions with a possible large impact on air shower physics.