ar X iv : 0 71 2 . 30 89 v 1 [ he p - ex ] 1 9 D ec 2 00 7 Charm Production in dpmjet

In this work, charm production in the dpmjet hadronic jet simulation is compared to experimental data. Since the major application of dpmjet is the simulation of cosmic ray-induced air showers, the version of the code integrated in the CORSIKA simulation package has been used for the comparison. Wherever necessary, adjustments have been made to improve agreement between simulation and data. With the availability of new muon/neutrino detectors that combine a large fiducial volume with large amounts of shielding, investigation of prompt muons and neutrinos from cosmic ray interactions will be feasible for the first time. Furthermore, above & 100 TeV charmed particle decay becomes the dominant background for diffuse extraterrestrial neutrino flux searches. A reliable method to simulate charm production in high-energy proton-nucleon interactions is therefore required.