Recent results from the cosmic ray program of the NA61/SHINE experiment

NA61/SHINE is a fixed target experiment designed to study hadron-proton, hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus interactions at the CERN Super-Proton-Synchrotron. In this paper we summarize the results from pion-carbon collisions recorded at beam momenta of 158 and 350 GeV=c. Hadron production measurements in these types of interactions is of fundamental importance for the understanding of the muon production in extensive air showers. In particular, production of (anti)baryons and ρ0 are mechanisms responsible for increasing the number of muons which reach the ground. The underestimation of the (anti)baryons or ρ0 production rates in current hadronic interaction models could be one of the sources of the excess of muons observed by cosmic ray experiments. The results on the production spectra of π±, K±, p, ¯p, Λ , ¯Λ, K0S, ρ0, ω and K*0 are presented, as well as their comparison to predictions of hadronic interaction models currently used in air shower simulations.