Alternative description of particle shower longitudinal profile

TL;DR

This paper introduces an alternative parametrization for particle shower longitudinal profiles, achieving 2-3% accuracy across a wide energy range and atmospheric depths, based on CORSIKA simulations.

Contribution

It proposes a new model for shower profiles that depends solely on nucleon energy, improving description accuracy over existing models.

Findings

Achieves 2-3% accuracy in profile description

Shows shape depends only on nucleon energy

Max shower size depends on parental nucleus energy

Abstract

An alternative parametrization of the particle shower longitudinal profile is presented. The accuracy of the obtained shower profile description is about 2-3% for the 0-1500 g/cm^2 atmosphere slant depths and primary H, He,... Fe nuclei in the 1 PeV-10 EeV energy range. It is shown that the shape of shower profile depends only on the nucleon energy, whereas the maximum shower size also depends on the energy of the parental nucleus. Results are based on the CORSIKA simulated shower profiles and are presented in comparison with the Gaisser-Hillas parametrization.