Scaling behaviour of lateral distribution of electrons in EAS

Abstract

From a Monte Carlo simulation study of cosmic ray air showers around the knee of the primary energy spectrum it is shown that, despite a strong radial dependence of the lateral shower age parameter, the lateral density distribution of electrons in cosmic ray EAS displays universality when expressed in terms of local age parameters. The nature of the radial variation of local age is found to depend on the choice of the effective Moliere radius, particularly for radial distances below about 400 m. The possible use of shower age parameters in a multi-parameter study of EAS for extracting information about the nature of the shower initiating particles, has been re-examined.