Probing the cosmic ray background of gamma-ray astronomy with hadron colliders

Hadronic cosmic particles (cosmic rays) and gamma rays are constantly absorbed in the Earth’s atmosphere and result in air showers of secondary particles. Cherenkov radiation from these atmospheric events is used to measure cosmic gamma rays with ground-based telescopes. We focus here on the dominant hadronic cosmic-ray-initiated background events in the atmosphere, which give rise to gamma-ray-like air showers for gamma-ray telescopes. It is shown that only a small subset of hadronic cosmic-ray interactions, those which produce a large energy neutral pion, are responsible for this background. We subsequently address how the predictions of this background vary depending on the hadronic interaction model adopted. The pseudorapidity range of the energetic pions, with respect to the shower axis produced in these background events, is shown to be large. We show that collider experiments, specifically LHCf and the Relavistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHICf), probe cosmic ray interactions precisely within this pseudorapidity range. Present and future measurements with these instruments are shown to be able to test the ability for current hadronic interaction models to accurately describe these background events.