Giant Atmospheric Showers Detected by the Yakutsk Extensive Air Shower Array

2025/05/31 by Glushkov, A. V., Lebedev, K. G., Ksenofontov, L. T. +11
#FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2506.00517

Abstract

The two most powerful extensive air showers (EAS) with energies of about 10²⁰ eV, registered at the Yakutsk EAS array during the entire observation period of 1974-2024, are considered. Both showers hit the array near the center and triggered all surface detectors and underground muon detectors with a threshold energy of E_μ = 1.0 × cos θ GeV. These events have an abnormally high fraction of muons, which is beyond current model predictions. This may change our understanding of hadron interactions at ultra-high energy, but there is also a possibility that these showers were initiated by some exotic primary particles.

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