Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2002-11-04
Phys.Rev. D67 (2003) 043002
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
27 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.D
Scientific paper
10.1103/PhysRevD.67.043002
The nature and origin of ultra-high energy (UHE: reffering to > 10^19 eV) cosmic rays are great mysteries in modern astrophysics. The current theories for their explanation include the so-called "top-down" decay scenarios whose main signature is a large ratio of UHE gamma rays to protons. Important step in determining the primary composition at ultra-high energies is the study of air shower development. UHE gamma ray induced showers are affected by the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) effect and the geomagnetic cascading process. In this work extensive simulations have been carried out to study the characteristics of air showers from UHE gamma rays. At energies above several times 10^19 eV the shower is affected by geomagnetic cascading rather than by the LPM effect. The properties of the longitudinal development such as average depth of the shower maximum or its fluctuations depend strongly on both primary energy and incident direction. This feature may provide a possible evidence of the UHE gamma ray presence by fluorescence detectors.
Inoue Naoya
Shinozaki Keisuke
Vankov H. P.
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