1997/12/16 by Klein, Spencer R.
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #Neutrino Physics Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9712198
openalex publication_date 1997/12/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Most calculations of air shower development have been based on the Bethe-Heitler cross sections for bremsstrahlung and pair production. However, for energetic enough particles, a number of different external factors can reduce these cross sections drastically, slowing shower development and lengthening the showers. Four mechanisms that can suppress bremsstrahlung and pair production cross sections are discussed, and their effect on extremely high energy air showers considered. Besides lengthening the showers, these mechanisms greatly increase the importance of fluctuations in shower development, and can increase the angular spreading of showers.