Čerenkov photon density fluctuations in extensive air showers

Abstract The details of Cerenkov light produced by a γ-ray or a cosmic ray incident at the top of the atmosphere is best studied through systematic simulations of the extensive air showers. Recently such studies have become all the more important in view of the various techniques resulting from such studies, to distinguish γ-ray initiated showers from those generated by much more abundant hadronic component of cosmic rays. We have carried out here such systematic simulation studies using CORSIKA package in order to understand the Cerenkov photon density fluctuations for 5 different energies at various core distances both for γ-ray and proton primaries incident vertically at the top of the atmosphere. Such a systematic comparison of shower to shower density fluctuations for γ-ray and proton primaries is carried out for the first time here. It is found that the density fluctuations are significantly non-Poissonian. Such fluctuations are much more pronounced in the proton primaries than γ-ray primaries at all energies. The processes that contribute significantly to the observed fluctuations have been identified. It has been found that a significant contribution to fluctuations comes from photons emitted after the shower maximum. The electron number fluctuations and correlated emission of Cerenkov photons are mainly responsible for the observed fluctuations.