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Influence of Low Energy Hadronic Interactions on Air-shower Simulations

Experiments measuring cosmic rays above an energy of 10^14 eV deduce the energy and mass of the primary cosmic ray particles from air-shower simulations. We investigate the importance of hadronic interactions at low and high energies on the distributions of muons and electrons in showers on ground. In air shower simulation programs, hadronic interactions below an energy threshold in the range from 80 GeV to 500 GeV are simulated by low energy interaction models, like Fluka or Gheisha, and above that energy by high energy interaction models, e.g. Sibyll or QGJSJet. We find that the impact on shower development obtained by switching the transition energy from 80 GeV to 500 GeV is comparable to the difference obtained by switching between Fluka and Gheisha.