Propagation of B Mesons in the Atmosphere

Collisions of cosmic rays in the atmosphere may create heavy hadrons. B mesons of energy above 10(8) GeV become long lived. Since their decay length grows larger than 10 km they tend to interact in the air before decaying. We show that the fraction of energy deposited in these interactions is much smaller than in proton and pion collisions. We parameterize their elasticity and deterrnine the average number of interactions and the atmospheric depth at the decay point for different initial energies. We find that the profile of a 3 x 10(9) GeV bottom shower may be very different from the profile of a proton shower of the same energy, defining either a very deep maximum, or two maxima, or other features that cannot be parameterized with a single Gaisser-Hillas function. Finally, we discuss under what conditions a bottom hadron inside the parent air shower may provide observable effects.