Studies of the Longitudinal Development of Electron—Photon Cascade Showers

Abstract

Numerical results of the track lengths of photons and charged particles and the energy deposition as a function of depth out to 10 radiation lengths in copper are presented for the case of electron‐initiated electron—photon cascade showers. The incident energy varied from 50 to 45 000 MeV in these cases. Monte Carlo methods were used to calculate the longitudinal development of the showers in order to obtain the data that are presented. The Bethe—Heitler cross sections which include screening and the correct energy dependence were used from bremsstrahlung and pair production events. The Klein—Nishina formula was used for Compton scattering. Energy losses by ionization collisions were treated as a continuous energy degradation process.