CORSIKA (COsmic Ray SImulations for KAscade) is a

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

computer software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

for simulation of extensive air showers induced by high energy

cosmic ray Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own ...

s, i.e. protons and

atomic nuclei The atomic nucleus is the small, dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom, discovered in 1911 by Ernest Rutherford based on the 1909 Geiger–Marsden gold foil experiment. After the discovery of the neutron ...

, as well as

Gamma rays A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol γ or \gamma), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. It consists of the shortest wavelength electromagnetic waves, typically ...

(photons),

electrons The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no ...

, and

neutrinos A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is a fermion (an elementary particle with spin of ) that interacts only via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass is ...

. It may be used up to and beyond the highest energies of 100 E eV. In the current version the program utilizes the hadronic interaction models EPOS, QGSJET, and DPMJET, which are based on Gribov-Regge theory, and SIBYLL based on a minijet model for high energies. Hadronic interactions at lower energies are described either by the GHEISHA module, by

FLUKA FLUKA (FLUktuierende KAskade) is a fully integrated Monte Carlo method, Monte Carlo simulation package for the interaction and transport of particles and nuclei in matter. FLUKA has many applications in particle physics, High energy physics, hig ...

, or by the UrQMD model. Electromagnetic interactions are treated by an adapted version of the EGS4 code, customized by including the

Landau–Pomeranchuk–Migdal effect In high-energy physics, the Landau–Pomeranchuk–Migdal effect, also known as the Landau–Pomeranchuk effect and the Pomeranchuk effect, or simply LPM effect, is a reduction of the bremsstrahlung and pair production cross sections at high energi ...

relevant at higher energies. It can be used to simulate the generation of Cherenkov radiation, radio emission ( Askaryan radiation), and atmospheric

neutrino A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is a fermion (an elementary particle with spin of ) that interacts only via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass ...

s. A complete rewrite of CORSIKA in

C++ C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...

named CORSIKA 8 is currently work in progress.

References

External links

Extensive Air Shower Simulations with CORSIKA and the Influence of High-Energy Hadronic Interaction Models
by Heck, D. at , oai:arXiv.org:astro-ph/0103073 at

arXiv arXiv (pronounced "archive"—the X represents the Greek letter chi ⟨χ⟩) is an open-access repository of electronic preprints and postprints (known as e-prints) approved for posting after moderation, but not peer review. It consists of ...

The Automated Air Shower Generation with CORSIKA at the Computing Center of IN2P3
PS
Recent Extensions to the Air Shower Simulation Program CORSIKA
proceedings of the 25th

ICRC The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signator ...

. Physics software {{physics-software-stub