In this thesis a characterization of air showers induced by magnetic monopoles is presented. Monopoles are predicted to exist and be accelerated to relativistic velocities. High energy monopoles traversing earth’s atmosphere continuously deposit energy, inducing an air shower. These air showers have been described based on simulations run inCORSIKA. It was found thatmonopole air showers are con...

A new hybrid experiment has been started by ASγ experiment at Tibet, China, since August 2011, which consists of a low threshold burst-detector-grid (YAC-II, Yangbajing Air shower Core array), the Tibet air-shower array (Tibet-III) and a large underground water Cherenkov muon detector (MD). In this paper, the capability of the measurement of the chemical components (proton, helium and iron) wit...

Studies of the influence of different hadronic models on extensive air showers at ultra-high energies are presented. The hadronic models considered are those implemented in the well-known QGSJET and SIBYLL event generators. The different approaches used in both codes to model the underlying physics is analyzed using computer simulations performed with the program AIRES. The most relevant observ...

As a basis for the interpretation of data gathered by LOPES and other experiments, we have carried out Monte Carlo simulations of geosynchrotron radio emission from cosmic ray air showers. The simulations, having been verified carefully with analytical calculations, reveal a wealth of information on the characteristics of the radio signal and their dependence on specific air shower parameters. ...

The objective of this work is to report on the modifications in air shower development due to muon bremsstrahlung and muonic pair production. In order to do that we have implemented new muon bremsstrahlung and muonic pair production procedures in the AIRES air shower simulation system, and have used it to simulate ultra high energy showers in different conditions. The influence of the mentioned...

Using air showers induced by TeV γ-rays from Mrk 501, the radial distribution of Cherenkov light is investigated. The shower geometry is reconstructed from the stereoscopic shower images obtained with the telescopes of the HEGRA IACT system. With the core position known to better than 10 m, the light yield as a function of the distance to the shower axis is derived by comparing event-by-event t...

Recent results from the KASCADE extensive air shower experiment are presented. After briefly reviewing the status of the experiment we report on tests of hadronic interaction models and emphasize the progress being made in understanding the properties and origin of the knee at eV. Analysing the muonand hadron trigger rates in the KASCADE calorimeter as well as the global properties of high ener...

High-energy cosmic rays impinging onto the atmosphere of the Earth initiate cascades of secondary particles: extensive air showers. Many of the particles in a shower are electrons and positrons. During the development of the air shower and by interacting with the geomagnetic field, the electromagnetic cascade creates radiation, which we detect at frequencies of tens of MHz with the LOFAR radio ...

Air shower simulations are essential for interpreting data from cosmic ray experiments. At highest energies though, a microscopic treatment of a whole shower is not possible any more, since it would require a huge amount of CPU-time. We review hybrid approaches of air shower simulation which try to overcome this problem without giving rise to artificial fluctuations as generated by the thinning...

The interpretation of extensive air shower (EAS) measurements is strongly dependent on the hadronic interaction models used for simulating reference showers. We study the importance of low-energy hadronic interactions in simulated air showers, generated with the simulation package CORSIKA, for the observed characteristics of extensive air showers. In particular we investigate in detail the ener...