Connecting accelerator experiments and cosmic ray showers

Currently the uncertainty in the prediction of shower observables for different primary particles and energies is dominated by differences between hadronic interaction models. The LHC data on minimum bias measurements can be used to test Monte Carlo generators and these new constrains will help to reduce the uncertainties in air shower predictions. In this article, after a short introduction on air showers we will show the results of the comparison between the updated version of high energy hadronic interaction models with LHC data. Results for air shower simulations and their consequence on the comparison with air shower data will be discussed.