  Measurements of the muon content of extensive air showers at the highest
energies show discrepancies compared to simulations as large as the differences
between proton and iron. This so-called muon puzzle is commonly attributed to a
lack of understanding of the hadronic interactions in the shower development.
Furthermore, measurements of the fluctuations of muon numbers suggest that the
discrepancy is likely a cumulative effect of interactions of all energies in
the cascade. A feature of the air shower simulation code CORSIKA 8 allows us to
access all previous generations of final-state muons up to the first
interaction. With this technique, we study the influence of interactions
happening at any intermediate stage in the cascade on muons depending on their
lateral distance in a quantitative way and compare our results with predictions
of the Heitler-Matthews model.
