Comprehensive comparison of radio emission predicted by CoREAS and ZHAireS

C. CRUZ SANCHEZ; P. M. HANSEN; J. ALVAREZ MUÑIZ; M. TUEROS; D. MELO

Conferencia; 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2023); 2023

International Cosmic Ray Conference

Radio detection of cosmic-ray induced extended air showers (EAS) has undergone an impressivedevelopment in the last two decades. Several ultra-high energy cosmic ray experiments areroutinely detecting radio pulses in the MHz to GHz frequency range from EAS. These experimentaldevelopments require precise knowledge of the properties of the emitted radiation in order tointerpret and analyze the collected data. We present a comparison of predicted radio pulsesemitted by EAS simulated with CoREAS and ZHAireS, the two main and most widely usedMonte Carlo simulation packages for this purpose. We have performed a set of simulations ofthe radio emission in EAS induced by different primary particles, shower directions and magneticfield configurations. We have compared the frequency spectrum of the electric field amplitude onthe ground predicted by both packages at various observer positions with respect to the showeraxis. We have used in both simulations input parameters as similar as possible, as well as asimilar realistic atmospheric refractive index as a function of altitude. In addition, we havecompared showers with very similar values of depth of shower maximum. We have found a verygood agreement, with typical relative differences of less than 10%, between the CoREAS andZHAireS predictions for the dominant components of the electric field in the frequency rangefrom a few MHz to hundreds of MHz, where most experiments exploiting the radio technique forEAS detection operate.