Employing cherenkov radiation and fluorescence light in calibrating the energy of giant air showers

A classic procedure for estimating the energy of giant air showers in terms of the parameter s(600) (density of energy deposition in a scintillator at a distance of 600 m from the shower axis) is analyzed on the basis of the model of quark-gluon strings. A simulation of the signal s(600) by means of the CORSIKA code leads to estimates of energy that are approximately 1.6 times lower than those adopted at the Yakutsk array. Estimates of energy on the basis of Cherenkov radiation agree with experimental data within the errors. Calculations of the distributions of energy deposited in the atmosphere indicate that more than 20% of this energy can be deposited at distances in excess of 100 m from the shower axis.     

Resolvent Expansions on Hybrid Manifolds

We study Laplace-type operators on hybrid manifolds, i.e., on configurations consisting of closed two-dimensional manifolds and one-dimensional segments. Such an operator can be constructed by using the Laplace–Beltrami operators on each component with some boundary conditions at the points of gluing. The large spectral parameter expansion of the trace of the second power of the resolvent is obtained. Some questions of the inverse spectral theory are addressed.     

Pions in primary cosmic rays of ultrahigh energies

In the framework of the Coleman-Glashow hypothesis of an extremely weak violation of Lorentz invariance, neutral and charged pions can be stable for energies above 10¹⁹ eV and enter into the composition of primary cosmic rays of ultrahigh energies. The kinematic exclusion of reactions of pions with relic photons is particularly important, because it allows the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin paradox to be resolved. The parameters of extensive air showers induced by primary pions calculated within the model of quark-gluon strings with allowance for the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal effect and interactions of neutral pions of ultrahigh energies are not contradictory to the available data of observations. It has been shown that observations of production heights of muons with energies above 10GeV will make it possible to distinguish between primary nuclei, protons, and pions; to verify Lorentz invariance for energies above 10²⁰ eV; and to obtain a new limit on the difference between the maximum possible velocities of muons and pions (c_µ?c_π)<4×10^?26.     

Methods for estimating the energy of extensive air showers

A multilevel scheme for calculating estimates of the energy of extensive air showers on the basis of signals in different detectors is considered. The numerical energy estimates at specified values of signals in scintillation detectors are smaller than the experimental ones by a factor of about 1.6. The results of the calculation confirmed that the total flux of Cherenkov light is proportional to the shower energy. The flux of fluorescent light generated within 100 m from the shower core is due to only 60% of the total energy.     

Muography of Large Natural and Industrial Objects

Physics of Atomic Nuclei -     

Features of the absorption of 2-to 40-TeV cosmic-ray hadrons in lead

For the first time, experimental data on 2-to 40-TeV hadronic cascades recorded by a lead ionization calorimeter at the Tien-Shan mountain station of the Lebedev Institute of Physics (Moscow) are compared with the results of a present-day simulation based on the GEANT 3.21 code and performed with allowance for the detection procedure. The conclusion that along-flying component appears in high-energy hadronic cascades was drawn previously on the basis of these data. Some special features of the procedure for recording TeV-range hadrons in the calorimeter are considered. It is shown that the averaged hadronic cascades and various features of single cascades having energies below 10 TeV are simulated adequately by using the QGSJET + FLUKA generators of nuclear interactions, but that they are not described by using the GHEISHA generator at lower energies. Some features of the experimentally observed cascades could not be described for cascade energies above 10 TeV.     

Longitudinal development of giant air showers and problem of estimating the energy of primary-cosmic-ray particles

The attenuation length for the charged-particle density at a distance of 600 m from the shower axis may differ from that adopted in experimental investigations by 40–50%. This casts some doubt on experimental estimates previously obtained for the energy of primary-cosmic-ray particles in the region of ultrahigh energies.     

New estimates of extensive-air-shower energies on the basis of signals in scintillation detectors

New formulas for estimating the energy of inclined extensive air showers (EASs) on the basis of signals in detectors by means of an original method and detailed tables of signals induced in scintillation detectors by photons, electrons, positrons, and muons and calculated with the aid of the GEANT4 code package were proposed in terms of the QGSJETII-04, EPOS LHC, and GHEISHA models. The parameters appearing in the proposed formulas were calculated by employing the CORSIKA code package. It is shown that, for showers of zenith angles in the range of 20?–45?, the standard constant-intensity-cut method, which is used to interpret data from the Yakutsk EAS array, overestimates the shower energy by a factor of 1.2 to 1.5. It is proposed to employ the calculated VEM (Vertical Equivalent Muon) signal units of 10.8 and 11.4 MeV for, respectively, ground-based and underground scintillation detectors and to take into account the dependence of signals on the azimuthal angle of the detector position and fluctuations in the development of showers.