The lateral shower age parameter as an estimator of chemical composition

A. TAPIA; D. MELO; F. SÁNCHEZ; A. SEDOSKI CROCE; A. ETCHEGOYEN; J.M. FIGUEIRA; R.F. GAMARRA; B. GARCÍA; N. GONZÁLEZ; M. JOSEBACHUILI; D. RAVIGNANI; I. SIDELNIK; B. WUNDHEILER

Rio de Janeiro

Conferencia; The 33th International Cosmic Ray Conference; 2013

International Union of Pure and Applied Physics and Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas.

We explore the feasibility of estimating primary cosmic ray composition at ultra high energies from the study of lateral age parameter of Extensive Air Showers (EAS) at ground level. Using different types of lateral distribution functions, we fit the particle density of EAS simulated to find the lateral age parameter. We discuss the chemical composition calculating the merit factor for each parameter distribution. The analysis considers three different primary particles (proton, iron and gamma), four different zenith angles (0 deg, 15 deg, 30 deg and 45 deg) and primary energies of 10**17.25 eV, 10**17.50 eV and 10**17.75 eV.