Cosmic-ray studies using the ALICE detector at LHC

ALICE, a general purpose experiment designed to investigate nucleus-nucleus collisions at the CERN LHC, has also been used to detect atmospheric muons produced by cosmic-ray interactions in the atmosphere. In this contribution the analysis of the multiplicity distribution of the atmospheric muons detected by ALICE between 2010 and 2013 is presented, along with the comparison with Monte Carlo simulations. Special emphasis is given to the study of high multiplicity events containing more than 100 reconstructed muons. It is shown that such high multiplicity events demand primary cosmic rays with energy above 10 16 eV, andthat the frequency of these events can be successfully described by assuming aheavy mass composition of primary cosmic rays in this energy range, and using the most recent interaction models to describe the development of the air shower resulting from the primary interaction.