Dependence of the average spatial and energy characteristics of the hadron-lepton cascade on the strong interaction parameters at superhigh energies

A method for calculating the average spatial and energy characteristics of hadron-lepton cascades in the atmosphsre is described. The results of calculations for various strong interaction models of primary protons and nuclei are presented. The sensitivity of the experimentally observed EAS characteristics to variations of the elementary act parameters is analyzed. The theoretical analysis of hadron-lepton cascade propagation in the atmosphere is possible at present by two methods: a) Monte-Carlo cascade simulation; b) solving the set of kinetic equations. Despite the advantages, the o Monte-Carlo method is at the same time the most cumbersome and demands much computer time. The main drawback of the second method is that shower characteristics for fixed primary energy are obtained, whereas in the experiment the showers with fixed Ne are studied. However the comparison of the results obtained by both methods shows that the dependence of the average shower characteristics on the strong interaction parameters turns out to be qualitatively the same, while the quantitative difference is small. As an example of this, we may point out the conclusion that the average experimental characteristics of EAS can be described using the strong interaction model with increasing