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Modified Characteristics of Hadronic Interactions

The development of hadronic cascades in extensive air-showers is modeled by hadronic interaction models based on extrapolations of accelerator data. The models’ predictions at the highest energies (above ∼ 1018 eV) are at a known tension with the description of measurements of the muonic component, if the mass composition derived from the fluorescence detection technique is assumed. We apply an ad-hoc modification to the CORSIKA Monte-Carlo generator that allows for adjustment of features of hadronic interactions such as multiplicity, elasticity and cross-section. Compared to similar previous studies, we are now able to obtain not only information related to the longitudinal development of the shower, such as the mean depth of shower maximum, but also information about the lateral distribution of particles. Moreover, we generate a scan across the various possible combined modifications of the Sibyll 2.3d model using proton-initiated showers, quantify their effects on both the lateral and longitudinal features of a cosmic-ray shower and identify regions of the modification phase space which are promising for the explanation of both the ground-based and fluorescence-based measurements of cosmic rays at the highest energies.