Monte Carlo simulations of air showers in atmospheric electric fields

Details Monte Carlo simulations of air showers in atmospheric electric fields Monte Carlo simulations of air showers in atmospheric electric fields

2009-10-28

arxiv.org/abs/0910.5268v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

24 pages, 19 figures, accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics

Scientific paper

The development of cosmic ray air showers can be influenced by atmospheric electric fields. Under fair weather conditions these fields are small, but the strong fields inside thunderstorms can have a significant effect on the electromagnetic component of a shower. Understanding this effect is particularly important for radio detection of air showers, since the radio emission is produced by the shower electrons and positrons. We perform Monte Carlo simulations to calculate the effects of different electric field configurations on the shower development. We find that the electric field becomes important for values of the order of 1 kV/cm. Not only can the energy distribution of electrons and positrons change significantly for such field strengths, it is also possible that runaway electron breakdown occurs at high altitudes, which is an important effect in lightning initiation.

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