Related papers: Air shower development through the time dependence…
We study the dependence of extensive air shower development on the first hadronic interactions at ultra-high energies occurring in the startup phase of the air shower cascade. The interpretation of standard air shower observables depends on…
At very high energies the Earth magnetic field, although in many other connections conside red rather weak, acts as a strong field on photons and leptons. This paper discusses the i ntimate connection between this effect and the…
The composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays is still poorly known and constitutes a very important topic in the field of high-energy astrophysics. Detection of ultra-high energy cosmic rays is carried out via the extensive air showers…
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…
We study basic characteristics of distributions of the depths of shower maximum in air showers caused by cosmic rays with the highest energies. The consistency between their average values and widths, and their energy dependences are…
At ultra-high energies, the flux of cosmic rays is too low for direct measurements to be meaningful. When a cosmic ray enters the atmosphere, it initiates an extensive air shower, producing a cascade of secondary particles that propagate…
In air shower experiments information about the initial cosmic ray particle or about the shower development is obtained by exploiting the correlations between the quantities of interest and the directly measurable quantities. It is shown…
Atmospheric parameters, such as pressure (P), temperature (T) and density, affect the development of extensive air showers initiated by energetic cosmic rays. We have studied the impact of atmospheric variations on extensive air showers by…
A complete, kinetic description of electron-seeded strong-field QED showers in crossed electromagnetic fields is derived. The kinetic structure of the shower and its temporal evolution are shown to be a function of two parameters: the…
The properties of cosmic rays with energies above 1PeV have to be deduced from the spacetime structure and particle content of the air showers which they initiate. In this review, a summary of the phenomenology of these giant air showers is…
Atmosphere-skimming showers are initiated by cosmic rays with incoming directions such that the full development of the cascade occurs inside the atmosphere without ever reaching the ground. This new class of showers has been observed in…
Fluorescence light is induced by extensive air showers while developing in the Earth's atmosphere. The number of emitted fluorescence photons depends on the conditions of the air and on the energy deposited by the shower particles at every…
Ultra high energy (UHE) photons can initiate electromagnetic showers in magnetic field. We analyze the two processes that determine the development of the shower, $e^+ e^-$ pair creation and synchrotron radiation, and derive formulae for…
The increasing cosmic ray statistics collected by present experiments and the future prospects with new large arrays demand accurate calculations of the extensive air shower parameters. The energy of the primary particle is estimated by…
Atmosphere-skimming air showers are initiated by cosmic rays with incoming directions that allow the cascade to develop entirely within the atmosphere, without reaching the ground. Radio pulses induced by this type of showers have already…
The properties of cosmic rays with energies above 10**6 GeV have to be deduced from the spacetime structure and particle content of the air showers which they initiate. In this review we summarize the phenomenology of these giant air…
We focus on the primary composition of cosmic rays with the highest energies that cause extensive air showers in the Earth's atmosphere. A way of examining the two lowest order moments of the sample distribution of the depth of shower…
We summarise some basic issues relevant to the optimisation and design of space-based experiments for the observation of the Extensive Air Showers produced by Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Particles interacting with the atmosphere. A number of…
Various particle accelerators operate in the space plasmas, filling the Galaxy with high energy particles, primary cosmic rays. Reaching the atmosphere of the earth, these particles originate extensive air showers consisting of millions of…
We present a new mechanism for air shower radio emission due to the sudden absorption of secondary particles when the shower front hits the ground. The electrons present in excess during the air shower development imply a net residual…