Extensive Air Shower simulations and status of the EUSO experiments

NCBJ has been participating in getting the EUSO (Japanese Experiment Module - Extreme Universe Space Observatory) project ready since 2008. The aim of the experiment will be to measure Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) at the International Space Station (ISS) orbit altitude. Currently some smaller experiments designed to test the to-be-applied method (EUSO-SPB, Mini-EUSO, EUSO-Balloon and EUSO-TA) are intensively prepared.

The EUSO detector is going to observe Extensive Air Showers (EAS) by detecting UV photons produced during development of such showers. Since the entire phenomenon is quite complicated, the acquired data will have to be analysed by some Monte Carlo simulations. The simulations must be based on some models of interactions between high energy gamma rays and air molecules. Since the involved UHECR energies are millions times higher than those available in the mightiest accelerators operated on earth, parameters of the currently used interaction models must be extrapolated to cosmic ray energies. Proton-proton elastic scattering cross-section value is among the most important parameters.

Based on proton-proton cross-section-related experimental data acquired at LHC for the 19 GeV - 7 TeV energy range, an optical model of elastic scattering was developed by Professor T. Wibig and the lecturer. The distribution of hadron matter inside the proton turned out to be simple enough to extrapolate elastic/inelastic cross sections to the cosmic ray energy range.

The developed model and perspectives of its applications to EAS simulations will be the main subject of the seminar. Current status of the EUSO experiments will also be reported.

All interested persons are invited
Agnieszka Majczyna