Cosmic ray interactions in the atmosphere: QGSJET-III and other models

The physics content of the QGSJET-III Monte Carlo generator of high energy hadronic collisions is discussed. New theoretical approaches implemented in QGSJET-III are addressed in some detail and a comparison to alternative treatments of other cosmic ray interaction models is performed. Calculated characteristics of cosmic ray-induced extensive air showers are presented and differences between the respective results of QGSJET-III and other models are analyzed. In particular, it is demonstrated that those differences are partly caused by severe deficiencies of the other interaction models.