Investigating the lateral distribution distortions of air showers at different observation levels

The comprehension of the basic properties of ultrahigh energy Extensive Air Showers (EAS) is affected by the description of hadronic interactions beyond the LHC energy range. Diffractive interactions with a 20 – 30 percent occurrence probability of all inelastic hadronic collisions lead to high elasticity and large transverse momentum. These interactions are expected to modify the lateral shower development, as well as the measurable observable of the longitudinal profile. This study provides a new approach exploring the impact of diffractive hadronic interactions on lateral development patterns by investigating the fluctuations of simulated lateral distributions. In particular, this research interprets the influence of the observation level and primary energy on fluctuations of lateral electron density. Eventually, an optimized observation level with the maximum fluctuation is introduced as the most probable level to see unconventional EAS.