Analysis of the depth of shower maximum and its fluctuation using air shower simulations

摘要

The study of depth of shower maximum, Xmax, has crucial importance in the estimation of the energy and ofmass composition of cosmic rays. Recently, the RMS of the Xmax distribution has been also shown to be an importantand indepentent composition parameter. In this study, we used CORSIKA and CONEX simulation programs to run490,000 showers in the energy range from 1017 to 1020.4 eV and for several primary particle types. We present a detailedcomparison of Xmax as its RMS as a function of primary composition and energy for diferent hadronic interactionmodels. The influence of diferent simulation models on experimental results is also going to be discussed.