Multimuons in cosmic-ray events as seen in ALICE at the LHC

The ALICE collaboration

doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2025/04/009

Multimuons in cosmic-ray events as seen in ALICE at the LHC

The ALICE collaboration

Relativistic Nuclear Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

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_µ > 4) and in the zenith angle range 0^◦ < θ < 50^◦. 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 4×10¹⁵ < E_prim < 6×10¹⁶ 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_µ > 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_prim ∼ 10¹⁷ eV of these events. This result places significant constraints on more exotic production mechanisms.

Original language	English
Article number	009
Journal	Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Volume	2025
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2025/04/009
State	Published - Apr 1 2025

Funding

The ALICE Collaboration would like to thank all its engineers and technicians for their invaluable contributions to the construction of the experiment and the CERN accelerator teams for the outstanding performance of the LHC complex. The ALICE Collaboration gratefully acknowledges the resources and support provided by all Grid centres and the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) collaboration. The ALICE Collaboration acknowledges the following funding agencies for their support in building and running the ALICE detector: A. I. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory (Yerevan Physics Institute) Foundation (ANSL), State Committee of Science and World Federation of Scientists (WFS), Armenia; Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austrian Science Fund (FWF): [M 2467-N36] and Nationalstiftung für Forschung, Technologie und Entwicklung, Austria; Ministry of Communications and High Technologies, National Nuclear Research Center, Azerbaijan; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (Finep), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) and Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil; Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science, within the National Roadmap for Research Infrastructures 2020-2027 (object CERN), Bulgaria; Ministry of Education of China (MOEC), Ministry of Science & Technology of China (MSTC) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), China; Ministry of Science and Education and Croatian Science Foundation, Croatia; Centro de Aplicaciones Tecnológicas y Desarrollo Nuclear (CEADEN), Cubaenergía, Cuba; Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, Czech Republic; The Danish Council for Independent Research | Natural Sciences, the VILLUM FONDEN and Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF), Denmark; Helsinki Institute of Physics (HIP), Finland; Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA) and Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules (IN2P3) and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France; Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) and GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Germany; General Secretariat for Research and Technology, Ministry of Education, Research and Religions, Greece; National Research, Development and Innovation Office, Hungary; Department of Atomic Energy Government of India (DAE), Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (DST), University Grants Commission, Government of India (UGC) and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India; National Research and Innovation Agency — BRIN, Indonesia; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Italy; Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI, Japan; Consejo Nacional de Ciencia (CONACYT) y Tecnología, through Fondo de Cooperación Internacional en Ciencia y Tecnología (FONCICYT) and Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Academico (DGAPA), Mexico; Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), Netherlands; The Research Council of Norway, Norway; Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Peru; Ministry of Science and Higher Education, National Science Centre and WUT ID-UB, Poland; Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information and National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), Republic of Korea; Ministry of Education and Scientific Research, Institute of Atomic Physics, Ministry of Research and Innovation and Institute of Atomic Physics and Universitatea Nationala de Stiinta si Tehnologie Politehnica Bucuresti, Romania; Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic, Slovakia; National Research Foundation of South Africa, South Africa; Swedish Research Council (VR) and Knut & Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW), Sweden; European Organization for Nuclear Research, Switzerland; Suranaree University of Technology (SUT), National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) and National Science, Research and Innovation Fund (NSRF via PMU-B B05F650021), Thailand; Turkish Energy, Nuclear and Mineral Research Agency (TENMAK), Turkey; National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ukraine; Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), United Kingdom; National Science Foundation of the United States of America (NSF) and United States Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics (DOE NP), United States of America. In addition, individual groups or members have received support from: Czech Science Foundation (grant no. 23-07499S), Czech Republic; FORTE project, reg. no. CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004632, Czech Republic, co-funded by the European Union, Czech Republic; European Research Council (grant no. 950692), European Union; ICSC — Centro Nazionale di Ricerca in High Performance Computing, Big Data and Quantum Computing, European Union — NextGenerationEU; Academy of Finland (Center of Excellence in Quark Matter) (grant nos. 346327, 346328), Finland.

Keywords

cosmic ray experiments
cosmic rays detectors

Access to Document

10.1088/1475-7516/2025/04/009

Cite this

@article{d5166a88db004bd4b12de0ef54d7dd81,

title = "Multimuons in cosmic-ray events as seen in ALICE at the LHC",

abstract = "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 (Nµ > 4) and in the zenith angle range 0◦ < θ < 50◦. 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 4×1015 < Eprim < 6×1016 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 (Nµ > 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 Eprim ∼ 1017 eV of these events. This result places significant constraints on more exotic production mechanisms.",

keywords = "cosmic ray experiments, cosmic rays detectors",

author = "\{The ALICE collaboration\} and S. Acharya and A. Agarwal and \{Aglieri Rinella\}, G. and L. Aglietta and M. Agnello and N. Agrawal and Z. Ahammed and S. Ahmad and Ahn, \{S. U.\} and I. Ahuja and A. Akindinov and V. Akishina and M. Al-Turany and D. Aleksandrov and B. Alessandro and Alfanda, \{H. M.\} and \{Alfaro Molina\}, R. and B. Ali and A. Alici and N. Alizadehvandchali and A. Alkin and J. Alme and G. Alocco and T. Alt and Altamura, \{A. R.\} and I. Altsybeev and Alvarado, \{J. R.\} and Alvarez, \{C. O.R.\} and Anaam, \{M. N.\} and C. Andrei and N. Andreou and A. Andronic and E. Andronov and V. Anguelov and F. Antinori and P. Antonioli and N. Apadula and L. Aphecetche and H. Appelsh{\"a}user and C. Arata and S. Arcelli and R. Arnaldi and Arneiro, \{J. G.M.C.A.\} and Arsene, \{I. C.\} and M. Arslandok and A. Augustinus and F. Bock and Read, \{K. F.\} and J. Schambach and Schmidt, \{N. V.\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2025 The Author(s).",

year = "2025",

month = apr,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1088/1475-7516/2025/04/009",

language = "English",

volume = "2025",

journal = "Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics",

issn = "1475-7516",

publisher = "IOP Publishing",

number = "4",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Multimuons in cosmic-ray events as seen in ALICE at the LHC

AU - The ALICE collaboration

AU - Acharya, S.

AU - Agarwal, A.

AU - Aglieri Rinella, G.

AU - Aglietta, L.

AU - Agnello, M.

AU - Agrawal, N.

AU - Ahammed, Z.

AU - Ahmad, S.

AU - Ahn, S. U.

AU - Ahuja, I.

AU - Akindinov, A.

AU - Akishina, V.

AU - Al-Turany, M.

AU - Aleksandrov, D.

AU - Alessandro, B.

AU - Alfanda, H. M.

AU - Alfaro Molina, R.

AU - Ali, B.

AU - Alici, A.

AU - Alizadehvandchali, N.

AU - Alkin, A.

AU - Alme, J.

AU - Alocco, G.

AU - Alt, T.

AU - Altamura, A. R.

AU - Altsybeev, I.

AU - Alvarado, J. R.

AU - Alvarez, C. O.R.

AU - Anaam, M. N.

AU - Andrei, C.

AU - Andreou, N.

AU - Andronic, A.

AU - Andronov, E.

AU - Anguelov, V.

AU - Antinori, F.

AU - Antonioli, P.

AU - Apadula, N.

AU - Aphecetche, L.

AU - Appelshäuser, H.

AU - Arata, C.

AU - Arcelli, S.

AU - Arnaldi, R.

AU - Arneiro, J. G.M.C.A.

AU - Arsene, I. C.

AU - Arslandok, M.

AU - Augustinus, A.

AU - Bock, F.

AU - Read, K. F.

AU - Schambach, J.

AU - Schmidt, N. V.

PY - 2025/4/1

Y1 - 2025/4/1

N2 - 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 (Nµ > 4) and in the zenith angle range 0◦ < θ < 50◦. 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 4×1015 < Eprim < 6×1016 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 (Nµ > 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 Eprim ∼ 1017 eV of these events. This result places significant constraints on more exotic production mechanisms.

AB - 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 (Nµ > 4) and in the zenith angle range 0◦ < θ < 50◦. 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 4×1015 < Eprim < 6×1016 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 (Nµ > 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 Eprim ∼ 1017 eV of these events. This result places significant constraints on more exotic production mechanisms.

KW - cosmic ray experiments

KW - cosmic rays detectors

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105003387676

U2 - 10.1088/1475-7516/2025/04/009

DO - 10.1088/1475-7516/2025/04/009

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:105003387676

SN - 1475-7516

VL - 2025

JO - Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

JF - Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

IS - 4

M1 - 009

ER -

Multimuons in cosmic-ray events as seen in ALICE at the LHC

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this