Abstract
Higher energy primary cosmic rays, when penetrating from the outer space into the Earth’s atmosphere initiate so-called Extensive Air Showers (EAS) by multiple particle production in the cascading interactions of the primary particle. This lecture presents the phenomenological features of the EAS development, the formation of the different shower components (electrons, photons, muons, hadrons) and considers various EAS parameters: total intensities (sizes), lateral and arrival time distributions etc. as observables of experimental studies. The most important interaction ingredients which drive the EAS development and lead to the EAS appearance at observation level are discussed, in particular in view of a basic understanding and realistic Monte Carlo simulations of the EAS features. The presentation will be illustrated with various recent results of the KASCADE experiment.
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Brancus, I.M. (2001). Phenomenology of Extensive Air Showers. In: Poenaru, D.N., Rebel, H., Wentz, J. (eds) Nuclei Far from Stability and Astrophysics. NATO Science Series, vol 17. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0708-5_31
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0708-5_31
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