Abstract
In this paper, we present here a detailed study of several observables as a function of pseudorapidity from several hadron production models commonly used for extended air shower simulations and compare these predictions with pp collisions measured by the CMS experiment root s = 13 TeV. To facilitate the model/data comparisons, the pseudorapidity binning used in the energy density spectra data was also applied to the Monte Carlo analysis (3.15 < eta < 5.2 and -6.6 < eta < -5.2). Given that no model currently describes the full breadth of available hadronic collision data, four independent models were used in the comparison study, each with differences in the handling of soft quantum chromodynamics processes, in particular. The analysis results show that predictions from EPOS-LHC provide good agreement with the data, in contrast with the other models used in the study (QGSJETII-04, DPMJET-3.19, Siby112.3d). Significant modifications may be required in the rest of the model-based generators for them to provide a better description of the experimental observations.