Mass composition of 1017- to 1018-eV primary cosmic rays according to data on the lateral distribution of radio emission from extensive air showers

Abstract

Experimental data obtained for the lateral distribution of radio emission from extensive air showers (EAS) at the array of Moscow State University (30–34 MHz) and the LOPES array (40–80 MHz) were comparedwith the results of calculations performed within amicroscopic approach based on aMonte Carlo simulation of EAS (CORSIKA code). The same experimental data were used to reconstruct the distribution of the depth of the EAS maximum at cosmic-ray energies in the range of 1017–1018 eV. The energy dependence of the depth of the EAS maximum was constructed for the case of data from the LOPES array, and the mass composition of cosmic rays was estimated for this case. From the resulting dependences, it follows that the mass composition shows a trend toward becoming lighter in the energy range being considered