Abstract
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 is found.
- Received 2 September 2011
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.062002
© 2012 American Physical Society