https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2009-10792-7
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Superstatistics in high-energy physics
Application to cosmic ray energy spectra and e+e- annihilation
School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, E1 4NS, London, UK
* e-mail: c.beck@qmul.ac.uk
Received:
31
January
2009
Accepted:
15
February
2009
Published online:
17
May
2009
We work out a superstatistical description of high-energy scattering processes that takes into account temperature fluctuations in small-volume elements. For 
-distributed fluctuations of the inverse temperature one effectively obtains a generalized statistical mechanics of Tsallis type, whereas for other temperature distributions more general superstatistical models arise. We consider two main examples: Scattering processes of cosmic ray particles and e
+
e
- annihilation processes. In both cases one obtains excellent fits of experimentally measured energy spectra and cross-sections.
PACS: 96.50.sb Composition, energy spectra and interactions – / 12.40.Ee Statistical models –
© SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2009
