Deficit of Ultrahigh Energy Extensive Air Showers

• Main Authors: Mikhailov, A A, Efremov, N N, Makarov, I T, Nikolayeva, G V, Struchkov, G G
• Language: English
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: Astrophysics and Astronomy; Yakutsk
• Online Access: http://cds.cern.ch/record/738763

Arrival directions of extensive air showers by using world data are considered. It is shown that distributions of showers in zenith angle at E>10^{19}eV and E>4.10^{19}eV differ from each other. On this basis the conclusions are made: the estimation of the energy of inclined showers at E>4.10^{19}eV at Yakutsk and AGASA arrays is incorrect; the cosmic ray spectrum is not break up and most likely continued up to E=10^{20}eV and higher. It is found that ultrahigh energy cosmic rays are, probably, superheavy nuclei.