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The FPF provides opportunities for interdisciplinary studies at the
intersection of high-energy particle physics and modern
astroparticle physics. Cosmic rays enter the atmosphere with
energies up to 100 EeV and beyond, where they produce large cascades
of high-energy particles. The development of these extensive air
showers is driven by hadron-ion collisions under low momentum
transfer in the non-perturbative regime of QCD. Measurements at the
FPF will improve the modeling of high-energy hadronic interactions
in the atmosphere, reduce the associated uncertainties of air shower
measurements, and thereby help to understand the properties of
cosmic rays, such as their energy and nuclear composition, which is crucial to discover their origin. Moreover, atmospheric muons and neutrinos produced in these extensive air showers in the far-forward region are the main background for searches of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos with large-scale neutrino telescopes. The FPF will help to understand the atmospheric neutrino flux and reduce the uncertainties for astrophysical neutrino searches in the context of multi-messenger astrophysics.
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