Extensive Air Showers and Accelerator Data – The NEEDS Workshop

Very high energy cosmic rays are typically studied by measuring extensive air showers formed by secondary particles produced in collisions with air nuclei. The indirect character of the measurement makes the physics interpretation of cosmic ray data strongly dependent on simulations of multiparticle production in showers. In April 2002 about 50 physicists met in Karlsruhe to discuss various aspects of hadronic multiparticle production with the aim of intensifying the interaction between high energy and cosmic ray groups. Current and upcoming possibilities at accelerators for measuring features of hadronic interactions of relevance to air showers were the focus of the workshop. This article is a review of the discussions and conclusions.