ISSN 1063-7788, Physics of Atomic Nuclei, 2019, Vol. 82, No. 4, pp. 330–333.


c Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2019.

ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS

Experiment

Unusual Time Structure of Extensive Air Showers

at Energies Exceeding 1017 eV
R. U. Beisembaev1) , E. A. Beisembaeva1) , O. D. Dalkarov1),
V. D. Mosunov1) , V. A. Ryabov1), S. B. Shaulov1), M. I. Vildanova1) ,
V. V. Zhukov1), K. A. Baigarin2) , D. Beznosko3) , and T. Kh. Sadykov4)
Received March 21, 2019; revised March 21, 2019; accepted March 21, 2019

Abstract—Extensive air showers characterized by a multicomponent time structure were detected at

the experimental Horizon-T array deployed at the Tien Shan High-Altitude Science Station of Lebedev
Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, at an altitude of 3346 meters above sea level. Such
a structure manifested itself in showers of energy above 1017 eV and suggests that, in contrast to the
standard mechanism of the development of a nuclear-electromagnetic cascade, shower particles reach the
observation level as components of several shower disks.
DOI: 10.1134/S1063778819040057

INTRODUCTION HORIZON-Т ARRAY

Measurement of the energy spectrum and mass
composition of cosmic rays, along with searches for
the anisotropy in arrival directions, is the main objec-
tive of numerous astrophysical experiments [1]. In-
vestigation of unusual phenomena observed in recon-
structing extensive air showers (EAS) are of special
importance for obtaining deeper insight into the na-
ture of cosmic rays. The detection of delayed particles
in a shower, which were first observed by Jelly and
Whitehouse in 1953 [2], is one such phenomenon.
Later on, individual EAS events that have an unusual
time structure were detected in a number of inde-
pendent experiments [3–7]. On the basis of those
investigations, it was concluded that the origin of
showers that have unusual time distributions cannot
be explained by known physical processes of the de-
velopment of electron–nuclear cascades.
In order to study in detail the time structure of
EAS, the Horizon-T array that is able to detect
EAS propagation to a nanosecond precision was
created at the Tien Shan High-Altitude Science Sta-
tion (branch of Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian
Academy of Sciences) [8–10]. In this article, we
present the results of an analysis of EAS character-
ized by an unusual time features and detected within
the period from February 15 to May 12, 2018.
1)
Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences,
Moscow, 119991 Russia.
2)
Nazarbayev University, 010000 Astana, Kazakhstan.
3)
Bard College, 70117 New Orleans, USA.
4)
Institute for Physics and Technology, 050032 Almaty, Kaza-
khstan.
The Tien Shan High-Altitude Science Station is
deployed in north Tien Shan mountains at an al-
titude of 3340 m above sea level, where the depth
of the atmosphere is 690 g/cm2 . The Horizon-T
array, intended for studying in detail lateral and time
distributions of charged particles in individual EAS,
operates at the station. The array, whose layout is
shown in Fig. 1, has ten charged-particle detection
points.
Each of the ten detection points houses scintilla-
tion (SC) detectors in the form of polystyrene-based
plates of area 1 m2 and 5 cm in thickness. The
scintillation light is detected by Hamamatsu R7723
(at points 1–8) and Hamamatsu RA3168 (at points 9
and 10) photomultiplier tubes. The time resolution of
an SC detector is 7.16 ± 0.40 ns [10].
The analog pulses from all detectors of the array
are transmitted through cables to point 1, where
analog-to-digital converters are positioned along
with a computer that operates the array and saves
information about each of EAS in its memory.
A trigger that actuates the array is activated
upon a simultaneous detection of charged particles
at points 5 and 6. The trigger levels were chosen
in such a way that the shower-detection intensity
was 15 events per hour. At this trigger level, the
array detects EAS of energy above E0 = 2 × 1016 eV.
Table 1 gives the array sensitivity Г and the expected
intensity of detection of electron–nuclear showers,
N/t, versus the primary-particle energy E0 .

330
 UNUSUAL TIME STRUCTURE 331
North 393 m
7

155 m 1000 m
367 m
4 10
8 194 m
5
East
133 m 1
2
148 m
3
594 m
9

454 m
6

Fig. 1. Arrangement of ten detection points in the Horizon-T array. Indicated in this figure are distances from the detection
points to the array center at point 1.

1.0

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

5300 5400 5500 5600 5700 5800 5900 6000 6100 6200 6300 6400 t, ns

Fig. 2. Example of an extensive air shower having an energy of 2 × 1017 eV and involving two pulses that correspond to the
propagation of two shower disks through the detector at point 9 at a distance of R = 465 m from the shower axis. The lengths
of the first and second pulses are τ1 = 28 ns and τ2 = 31 ns, respectively. The time of delay of the second pulse with respect to
the first one is t12 = 292 ns.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS at point 9. Figure 2 shows an example of an event

Within 1896 hours, 26940 events of intensity
14.2 events per hour were detected by the Horizon-
T array at a detection threshold of 2 × 1016 eV. They
included 962 events of energy above 1017 eV such
that they featured pulses that had a multicomponent
time structure.
Here, we present the results of our analysis of
217 showers in which pulses of two-component time
structure were detected by the scintillation detector
featuring two pulses detected in a scintillation de-
tector by the propagation of a showers with energy
2 × 1017 eV. For chosen 217 showers, the times t12 of
delay of the second pulse with respect to the first one
versus the distance R from point 9 to the EAS axis
are given in Fig. 3. The delay time t12 turned out to
be shorter than 100 ns in 37 showers and longer than
1000 ns in 33 showers.
Figure 4 gives the distributions of the lengths of

PHYSICS OF ATOMIC NUCLEI Vol. 82 No. 4 2019

332 BEISEMBAEV et al.
t12, ns

10 000

1000

100

10
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 R, m
Fig. 3. Delay times t12 versus the distance R to the shower axis.

62 64
56
46 48

31
24 21
16
4 7 7 4 7
3 2
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 τ1, ns 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 τ2, ns
Fig. 4. Lengths of the (left-hand panel) first and (right-hand panel) second pulses in the scintillation detector. The number of
events in the respective length interval is indicated within each bin.

τ, ns

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 R, m
Fig. 5. Pulse lengths τ versus the distance R to the shower axis.

the first and second pulses, τ1 and τ2 . The left- and fluctuations, the first and second pulses do not differ
right-hand histograms in Fig. 3 show that, apart from from each other. This indicates that an extensive air

PHYSICS OF ATOMIC NUCLEI Vol. 82 No. 4 2019

 UNUSUAL TIME STRUCTURE 333

Table 1. Sensitivity and detection intensity for showers of various energy

E0 [eV] 1016 2 × 1016 5 × 1016 1017 2 × 1017 1018

Γ [km2 sr] 0.38 0.72 0.97 1.52 2.72 6.31
N/t [event/h] 25.60 7.98 2.25 1.04 0.52 0.06

shower featuring delayed particles consists of equiva- basis of the CORSIKA model, these pulse lengths
lent shower disks. at the above distances should change from 20 to
For 217 detected showers, we constructed a field 650 ns. This glaring contradiction implies that, in
of points, denoting their coordinates by (R, τ ), and the observed extensive air showers featuring a two-
showed it in Fig. 4. Here, τ is the pulse length, while component time structure, two groups of particles in
R is the distance to the shower axis. The curves in the composition of two equivalent shower disks tra-
Fig. 5 represent the dependence of the pulse length verse the observation level of our array. The observed
on the distance to the EAS axis for three showers of unusual time structure of extensive air showers can
energy 5 × 1017 eV. These showers were simulated hardly be explained within the standard mechanism of
on the basis of the CORSIKA code, where standard the development of nuclear–electromagnetic show-
ideas of the development of nuclear–electromagnetic ers. Therefore, further investigations along these lines
showers are implemented. are required.
An analysis of the experimental distribution of the
field of (R, τ ) points leads to an unexpected result.
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PHYSICS OF ATOMIC NUCLEI Vol. 82 No. 4 2019