Abstract:
CORSIKA is a program for detailed simulation of extensive air
showers initiated by high energy cosmic ray particles. Protons,
light nuclei up to iron, photons, and many other particles may
be treated as primaries. The particles are tracked through the
atmosphere until they undergo reactions with the air nuclei or
- in the case of instable secondaries - decay. The hadronic
interactions at high energies may be described by five reaction
models alternatively: The VENUS, QGSJET, and DPMJET models are
based on the Gribov-Regge theory, while SIBYLL is a minijet
model. HDPM is a phenomenological generator and adjusted to
experimental data wherever possible. Hadronic interactions at
lower energies are described either by the more sophisticated
GHEISHA interaction routines or the rather simple ISOBAR model.
In particle decays all decay branches down to the 1 % level
are taken into account. For electromagnetic interactions the
shower program EGS4 or the analytical NKG formulas may be used.
Options for the generation of Cherenkov radiation and neutrinos
exist.
Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe Report FZKA 6019 (1998), 90 pages,
10 figures
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