Low-Energy Background Events in the Horizon-T Experiment at the Tien Shan High-Altitude Scientific Station of the Lebedev Physical Institute

Abstract

The Horizon-T installation at the Tien Shan High-Altittude Scientific Station of the Lebedev Physical Institute is designed to detect extensive air showers (EAS’s) of ultrahigh energies. The capabilities of the installation allow the signal measaured at the scintillation detector points to be digitized with a resolution of 2 ns and the fine time structure of EAS’s, in particular, the so-called multimodal events, to be studied. This paper examines a possible contribution of low-energy (10¹² eV ≤ E ≤ 10¹⁶ eV) showers to the detected signal. Background events measured in the Horizon-T experiment, which can be accidentally included in the recorded EAS event, as well as low-energy artificial events simulated using the CORSIKA-77500 code, are considered. A conclusion is made about the optimality of the simulation parameters and the contribution of random low-energy showers to the time sweeps recorded from high-energy EAS’s.