Cosmic ray air shower characteristics in the framework of the parton-basedGribov-Regge model NEXUS - art. no. 054030

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first we want to introduce a new type of hadronic interaction model (NEXUS), which has a much more solid theoret ical basis than, for example, presently used models such as QGSJET and VENU S, and ensures therefore a much more reliable extrapolation towards high en ergies. Secondly, we want to promote an extensive air shower (EAS) calculat ion scheme, based on cascade equations rather than explicit Monte Carlo sim ulations, which is very accurate in calculations of main EAS characteristic s and extremely fast concerning computing time, We employ the NEXUS model t o provide the necessary data on particle production in hadron-air collision s and present the average EAS characteristics for energies 10(14) - 10(17) eV. The experimental data of the CASA-BLANCA group are analyzed in the fram ework of the new model.