New Publication in Nature Reviews Physics

The publication presents an approach to systematically investigate shared questions in particle and astroparticle physics. In the future, this approach may contribute significantly to improving both the understanding of fundamental interactions and the interpretation of astrophysical observations.

The publication is connected to the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1491 “Cosmic Interacting Matters”, which links theoretical astrophysical models with experimental observations. The research brings together two central questions in modern physics: How well do the laws of particle physics known from laboratory experiments describe processes in the Universe? And do differences between measurements of cosmic particle collisions and predictions from laboratory experiments indicate new physical phenomena?

In the current review, which emerged from a meeting of experts at the University of Wuppertal, the authors discuss how so-called event generators, programs used to simulate hadron collisions, can be applied both in accelerator experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN and in astroparticle experiments. While these generators have been successful in describing collisions in the laboratory, they often reach their limits when interpreting data from experiments involving cosmic radiation. The review shows that a unified tuning of these models to data from both research areas allows the complementarity between accelerator and astroparticle experiments to be exploited. This enables new insights into the nature of hadron collisions and improves model accuracy for both laboratory experiments and astrophysical observations.

Review: https://rdcu.be/eUQNR 
Contact for further information: Dr. Felix Riehn