THE PRIMARY COMPONENT OF COSMIC RADIATION IN THE SUPERHIGH ENERGY RANGE AND CERTAIN FEATURES OF ITS INTERACTION WITH THE ATOMS OF AIR

Journal Article · Sun Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1962 · Izvest. Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R., Ser. Fiz.

OSTI ID:4797824

Vernov, S N; Khristiansen, G B; Belyaeva, I F; Dmitriev, V A; Kulikov, G V; Nechin, Yu A; Solov'eva, V I; Khrenov, B A

For the last 3 years the extensive air showers created by superhigh- energy cosmic rays were investigated at the University of Moscow. The project makes use of chargedparticle detectors, mu -meson detectors, and nucleon-active detectors displayed on an area of 4 hectars. The large number of charged- particle detectors made it possible to detect the spatial distribution of the flux density for a given shower from which the number N of the charged particles at the observed energy level E/sub 0/ could be calculated. No clear correlation could be derived between E/sub 0/ and N. Examination of the particle spectrum indicated an irregularity at N ~ 10/sup 6/; this was probably due to a corresponding irregularity in the energy spectrum of the primary cosmic rays. The mu -meson detectors allowed the presence of electromagnetic radiation and gamma -quanta to be established. In the electron-photon avalanche mu -mesons may indeed appear as the result of the decay of pi /sup plus or minus / mesons. For explaining the observed phenomena, it may be assumed that in 3% of the cases the nuclear interaction is accompanied by the generation of beams containing mostly pi /sup plus or minus / mesons. The aIternate explanation requires that in nuclear interaction occurring at superhigh energies (E/sub 0/ ~ 10/sup 15/ ev) a faster generation of mu mesons takes place as the result of the pi /sup plus or minus / or K/sup plus or minus / meson decay. Further experiments are needed for choosing between these theories. (TTT)

• Research Organization: Originating Research Org. not identified
• NSA Number: NSA-16-027881
• OSTI ID: 4797824
• Journal Information: Izvest. Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R., Ser. Fiz., Journal Name: Izvest. Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R., Ser. Fiz. Vol. Vol: 26
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: Russian

Related Subjects

ATMOSPHERE
CONFIGURATION
COSMIC RADIATION
COUNTERS
DECAY
DETECTION
DISTRIBUTION
ELECTRONS
ENERGY
ENERGY RANGE
EXTENSIVE AIR SHOWERS
INTERACTIONS
KAONS
LATTICES
MEASURED VALUES
MUONS
NUCLEONS
NUMERICALS
PHOTONS
PHYSICS
PIONS
SCATTERING