Air Shower Formation
After the primary cosmic particle has collided with the air molecule, the main part of the first interactions are pions. Also kaons and baryons may be created. Pions and kaons are not stable, thus they may decay into other particles.
The neutral pions decay into photons in a process . The photons producted form an electromagnetic cascade by creating more photons, electrons and positrons.
The charged pions preferentially decay into muons and neutrinos in the processes and . This is how the muons and neutrinos are produced in the air shower.
Also kaon may be an origin of muons, which means the decay process is . In the other hand kaons can produce also pions via the decay mode .
Read more about this topic: Air Shower (physics)
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