The lateral shower age parameter as an estimator of chemical composition

TL;DR

This paper investigates using the lateral age parameter of extensive air showers to estimate the chemical composition of ultra high energy cosmic rays, analyzing simulated data across various primary particles, angles, and energies.

Contribution

It introduces a method to estimate cosmic ray composition from lateral age parameters using different distribution functions and evaluates its effectiveness with simulated data.

Findings

The lateral age parameter varies with primary particle type.

The method shows potential for distinguishing between proton, iron, and gamma primaries.

Performance depends on zenith angle and primary energy.

Abstract

We explore the feasibility of estimating primary cosmic ray composition at ultra high energies from the study of lateral age parameter of Extensive Air Showers (EAS) at ground level. Using different types of lateral distribution functions, we fit the particle density of simulated EAS to find the lateral age parameter. We discuss the chemical composition calculating the merit factor for each parameter distribution. The analysis considers three different primary particles (proton, iron and gamma), four different zenith angles (0{\deg}, 15{\deg}, 30{\deg} and 45{\deg}) and three primary energies (10^{17.25} eV, 10^{17.50} eV and 10^{17.75} eV).