CORSIKA 8: A General Framework for Particle Cascade Simulations
arXiv:2604.01850 · doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2026.103265
Abstract
The simulation of extensive air showers and particle cascades in general is a cornerstone of modern astroparticle physics. For more than two decades, CORSIKA, currently in version 7, has been one of the most widely used tools for this purpose. However, its architecture reflects design constraints of an earlier computing era, as well as increasingly limiting extensibility, maintainability, and adaptability to modern experimental requirements. CORSIKA 8 is a complete redesign of the original CORSIKA code, implemented in modern C++ and based on contemporary software engineering principles. It introduces a modular and extensible simulation framework with explicit handling of units, flexible geometry, and environment descriptions. In this paper, we present the design philosophy and core architecture of CORSIKA 8, describe the implementation of electromagnetic and hadronic shower physics, and validate air shower simulations against CORSIKA 7. The results demonstrate good agreement at the few-percent level for key observables, confirming the physics fidelity of CORSIKA 8. We also showcase new use cases that were beyond the capabilities of version 7, such as the simulation of cross-media showers and particle cascades in ice, including radio-signal propagation
29 pages, 21 figures
References in corpus (27)
- Array Programming with NumPy
- Herwig++ Physics and Manual
- EPOS LHC : test of collective hadronization with LHC data
- Monte Carlo treatment of hadronic interactions in enhanced Pomeron scheme: I. QGSJET-II model
- Monte-Carlo simulations of photohadronic processes in astrophysics
- Robust Independent Validation of Experiment and Theory: Rivet version 3
- Hadronic interaction model Sibyll 2.3d and extensive air showers
- The Offline Software Framework of the Pierre Auger Observatory
- Monte Carlo simulations of radio pulses in atmospheric showers using ZHAireS
- Simulating radio emission from air showers with CoREAS
- Radio detection of cosmic ray air showers in the digital era
- The Muon Puzzle in cosmic-ray induced air showers and its connection to the Large Hadron Collider
- General description of electromagnetic radiation processes based on instantaneous charge acceleration in `endpoints'
- Cherenkov radio pulses from electromagnetic showers in the time-domain
- Towards a Next Generation of CORSIKA: A Framework for the Simulation of Particle Cascades in Astroparticle Physics
- MCPLOTS: a particle physics resource based on volunteer computing
- Dethinning Extensive Air Shower Simulations
- Impact of Varying Atmospheric Profiles on Extensive Air Shower Observation: - Atmospheric Density and Primary Mass Reconstruction -
- Recent Improvements for the Lepton Propagator PROPOSAL
- Simulation of in-ice cosmic ray air shower induced particle cascades
- Radio Detection of High Energy Neutrinos in Ice
- Simulation of radio signals from cosmic-ray cascades in air and ice as observed by in-ice Askaryan radio detectors
- Simulating radio emission from particle cascades with CORSIKA 8
- Simulation of Deflection Uncertainties on Directional Reconstructions of Muons Using PROPOSAL
- Road map for the tuning of hadronic interaction models with accelerator-based and astroparticle data
- Observation of In-ice Askaryan Radiation from High-Energy Cosmic Rays
- In-ice Askaryan Emission from Air Showers: Implications for Radio Neutrino Detectors