Coherent Cherenkov radio emission from EeV showers in dense media through thinned simulations

We explore the feasibility of applying "thinning techniques" to the simulation of EeV electromagnetic showers in ice, salt, and the regolith of the Moon. By comparing the results of thinned showers to full simulations, we show that thinning techniques keep a good level of accuracy in the relevant shower and radio observables, and allow a considerable reduction in computing time. We apply thinning techniques to the simulation of EeV electromagnetic showers including the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal effect. Our study is of the utmost importance for the determination of the sensitivity to extremely energetic neutrinos of experiments looking for radiopulses in dense media. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.