Muon production heights determined in the KASCADE experiment PROCEEDiNGS SUPPLEMENTS

Muon production heights in EAS provide a specific tool to investigate the longitudinal development of EAS, since muons are little affected by subsequent interactions in the atmosphere. Multiplicity of muons presents also a unique tool to investigate hadronic interaction models. The capability of the Muon Tracking Detector to measure radial and tangential angles of muon tracks in EAS, in combination with the shower direction determined by the Array of the KASCADE experiment, has been investigated. Due to different characteristics in shower development of light and heavy primary cosmic ray particles the radial angle and therefore the related production height is sensitive to the mass of them. Muon production height (MPH) and muon production depth (MPD) were studied in different bins of the muon shower size for measured data and MC simulations, which have been performed using the Monte Carlo program CORSIKA with the hadronic interaction models QGSJet and NEXUS. First composition studies on the basis of MPD distributions have been carried out. 1. The Muon Tracking Detector 2. Radial and tangential angles The Muon Tracking Detector (MTD) (Fig. 1) [I] is located within the KASCADE experiment [2] in a tunnel beneath a shielding of 18 r.l., giv