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We explore the possibility that a new physics interaction can provide anexplanation for the knee just above $10^6$ GeV in the cosmic ray spectrum. Wemodel the new physics modifications to the total proton-proton cross sectionwith an incoherent term that allows for missing energy above the scale of newphysics. We add the constraint that the new physics must also be consistentwith published $pp$ cross section measurements, using cosmic ray observations,an order of magnitude and more above the knee. We find that the rise in crosssection required at energies above the knee is radical. The increase in crosssection suggests that it may be more appropriate to treat the scatteringprocess in the black disc limit at such high energies. In this case there maybe no clean separation between the standard model and new physics contributionsto the total cross section. We model the missing energy in this limit and finda good fit to the Tibet III cosmic ray flux data. We comment on testing the newphysics proposal for the cosmic ray knee at the Large Hadron Collider.

New physics, the cosmic ray spectrum knee, and $pp$ cross section measurements