Atmospheric Cerenkov study of the development of cosmic-ray showers

Abstract

Measurements of the full width at half maximum of atmospheric Cerenkov radiation from extensive air showers have been used to study the dependence of this parameter on sea-level shower parameters. Using two simple models of shower development, relationships between the height of the shower maximum from the observer and the pulse width have been derived and, assuming a particular theoretical relationship between height and pulse width, the dependence of depth of shower maximum on size. It appears that showers with sea-level sizes around 10⁶ develop rather early and it is suggested that the depth of maximum may increase rapidly with shower size in this shower-size range.