ar X iv : a st ro - p h / 04 01 62 9 v 2 5 A pr 2 00 4 Primary Particle Type of the Most Energetic Fly ’ s Eye Air Shower

ar X iv : a st ro - p h / 04 10 73 9 v 1 2 9 O ct 2 00 4 On the primary particle type of the most energetic Fly ’ s Eye event

The longitudinal profile of the 320 EeV event observed by the Fly’s Eye experiment is analysed. A method of testing the hypothesis of a specific primary particle type is described. Results for different particle types are summarized. For hadronic primaries between proton and iron nuclei, the discrepancy between observed and simulated profiles is in the range of 0.6-1.0σ for two different hadron...

ar X iv : a st ro - p h / 02 04 03 6 v 1 2 A pr 2 00 2 Investigating the Flame Microstructure in Type

2 00 4 Primary Particle Type of the Most Energetic Fly ’ s Eye Air Shower

The longitudinal profile of the most energetic cosmic-ray air shower measured so far, the event recorded by the Fly’s Eye detector with a reconstructed primary energy of about 3.2 · 10 eV, is compared to simulated shower profiles. The calculations are performed with the CORSIKA code and include primary photons and different hadron primaries. For primary photons, preshower formation in the geoma...

ar X iv : a st ro - p h / 04 11 14 4 v 1 5 N ov 2 00 4 Hybrid Simulation of Cosmic Ray Air Showers

Air shower simulations are essential for interpreting data from cosmic ray experiments. At highest energies though, a microscopic treatment of a whole shower is not possible any more, since it would require a huge amount of CPU-time. We review hybrid approaches of air shower simulation which try to overcome this problem without giving rise to artificial fluctuations as generated by the thinning...

ar X iv : a st ro - p h / 04 02 30 0 v 1 1 2 Fe b 20 04 Properties of Extensive Air Showers ∗

Extensive air showers (EAS) are known for about 70 years to be cascades initiated by primary cosmic rays in the atmosphere. As such, they serve as connection to the highest particle energies nature is offering, especially at energies exceeding 10 eV where direct measurements of cosmic rays are hampered by the low primary flux. EAS can be viewed as tools for astroparticle physics. The main task ...