Test of high-energy interaction models using the hadronic core of EAS

TL;DR

This study evaluates high-energy interaction models by analyzing hadronic cores in extensive air showers using the KASCADE experiment, revealing that while some models fit large-distance data well, none accurately reproduce the core region at PeV energies.

Contribution

The paper provides a comparative analysis of interaction models QGSJET, VENUS, and SIBYLL against experimental data, highlighting discrepancies at high energies.

Findings

QGSJET best reproduces hadronic distributions at large distances

None of the models fit the core region data at 10 PeV

Predicted hadron numbers exceed observations in high-energy showers

Abstract

Using the large hadron calorimeter of the KASCADE experiment, hadronic cores of extensive air showers have been studied. The hadron lateral and energy distributions have been investigated in order to study the reliability of the shower simulation program CORSIKA with respect to particle transport, decays, treatment of low-energy particles, etc. A good description of the data has been found at large distances from the shower core for several interaction models. The inner part of the hadron distribution, on the other hand, reveals pronounced differences among interaction models. Several hadronic observables are compared with CORSIKA simulations using the QGSJET, VENUS and SIBYLL models. QGSJET reproduces the hadronic distributions best. At the highest energy, in the 10 PeV region, however, none of these models can describe the experimental data satisfactorily. The expected number of hadrons in a shower is too large compared to the observed number, when the data are classified according to the muonic shower size.