Meson production in air showers and the search for light exotic particles

Understand

Decays of mesons produced in cosmic ray induced air showers in Earth's atmosphere can lead to a flux of light exotic particles which can be detected in underground experiments.

• We evaluate the energy spectra of the light neutral mesons $\pi^0$, $\eta$, $\rho^0$, $\omega$, $\phi$ and $J/\psi$ produced in interactions of cosmic ray protons and helium nuclei with air using QCD inspired event generators.
• Summing up the mesons produced in the individual hadronic interactions of air showers, we obtain the resulting fluxes of undecayed mesons.
• As an application, we re-consider the case of millicharged particles created in the electromagnetic decay channels of neutral mesons.