Building a statistical test for energetic splitting in cosmic ray cascades

• Grant number: 24/21601-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: February 28, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Elementary Particle Physics and Fields
• Principal Investigator: Leonardo Paulo Maia
• Grantee: Davi dos Santos Silva
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/01089-1 - Cherenkov Telescope Array: construction and first discoveries, AP.ESP

Abstract

The objective of this project is to determine well-defined statistical criteria to quantify, in the form of a statistical hypothesis test, when a given partitioning of a certain amount into several parcels offers significant statistical evidence that a lack of uniformity has occurred in the division process. This problem, apparently of an exclusively mathematical-statistical nature, is actually relevant for characterizing the validity of a simplifying physical hypothesis for the analysis of cosmic ray showers, whereby there would be asymmetry in the division of a particle's energy between its products in the initial stages. of these cascades.