Inelastic cross section forp-air collisions from air shower experiments and total cross section forp-pcollisions up to √s=24 TeV

Based on an analysis of the extensive air shower data accumulated over the last ten years at Akeno Cosmic Ray Observatory, the value of the proton-air nuclei inelastic cross section (${\mathrm{\sigma }}_{\mathrm{in}}^{\mathit{p}\mathrm{-}\mathrm{air}}$) has been determined assuming the validity of quasi-Feynman scaling of particle production in the fragmentation region. The energy dependence of ${\mathrm{\sigma }}_{\mathrm{in}}^{\mathit{p}\mathrm{-}\mathrm{air}}$ can be represented as 290(E/1 TeV${)}^{0.052}$ mb in the energy interval ${10}^{16.2}$–${10}^{17.6}$ eV, where E is the incident proton energy. The total p-p cross section (${\mathrm{\sigma }}_{\mathrm{tot}}^{\mathit{p}\mathrm{-}\mathit{p}}$), derived using the nuclear distribution function obtained from the shell model, increases with energy as 38.5+1.37 ${\ln }^2$(√s /10 GeV) mb.