The observability of jets in cosmic air showers

When a cosmic ray enters the atmosphere of the Earth it initiates a cosmic air shower. The evolution of the shower size along atmospheric depth is called the longitudinal profile. Existing longitudinal profiles can be related to the level of accuracy of the underlying model. The lateral density of the shower particles that reach the ground is a footprint of the shower. For inclined showers the lateral iso-density contours are ellipses. The centers of iso-density contours are shifted with respect to the core of the shower. In high-energy hadronic collisions jets can occur as a result of the hard scattering. Jets in cosmic air showers cause density fluctuations which can be detected. A jet fluctuation should be strong enough in order to distinguish it from background fluctuations. A large Monte Carlo is performed for the numerical investigation of jets in cosmic air showers. The HiSPARC data for the stations at Science Park Amsterdam is analyzed for jet fluctuations.