Investigation of the characteristics of air showers produced by extremely high energy gamma-rays

✍ Scribed by A. Plyasheshnikov; F. Aharonian

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 319 KB
• Volume: 122
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0920-5632
• DOI: 10.1016/s0920-5632(03)80395-x

✦ Synopsis

The technique of adjoint cascade equations has been applied to calculate the properties of air showers produced by extremely high energy (EHE) r-rays in the energy range 1018 + 10" eV. The high intrinsic accuracy, combined with very modest (compared with the traditional Monte Carlo codes) computational time requirements, make this method to be an effective tool for detailed study of development of EHE showers in the Earth's atmosphere. Parameters of y-ray induced air showers are analysed with taking into account two independent effects which become crucial for the cascade development in the EHE regime -the LPM effect and the interaction of primary r-rays with the geomagnetic field. We show that the total number of muons in the y-ray induced shower is less, by a factor of 5 to 10, than this number for the proton induced shower. The lateral distribution of muons in the -y-ray shower is considerably narrower than that for the proton shower.