Some Comments on Models of Hadronic Interactions at Air Shower Energies

Abstract

Several models of minimum-bias hadronic interactions at ultra-high energy that have been used for calculations of air showers share essential common features. In this talk I review these common elements and discuss some consequences. I concentrate on properties of hadron-nucleus interactions, and I use mean depth of shower maximum as a function of primary energy to illustrate my main points. I will contrast these models with models that use a more naive treatment of hadronic interactions in nuclei but which have been successfully used to interpret measurements of depth of shower maximum.