MONTE-CARLO SIMULATION OF EXTENSIVE AIR SHOWERS INITIATED BY GAMMA-RAYS AND PROTONS

A new approach to simulate gamma ray and proton extensive air showers (EAS) is presented with a detailed treatment of the electromagnetic component. In this method a hybrid Monte Carlo program is constructed which utilizes two existing codes: SHOWERSIM and EGS4. Results for EAS generated by vertical gamma rays and protons with primary energies of 10(13), 10(14), 10(15) and 10(16) eV are reported for different threshold energies at detection level. Shower size fluctuations, lateral distributions and corresponding fits are presented. Similarities and differences between gamma ray and proton initiated showers are discussed.