Multi-Modal Clustering Events Observed by Horizon-10T and Axion Quark Nuggets

The Horizon-10T collaboration have reported observation of Multi-Modal Events (MME) containing multiple peaks suggesting their clustering origin. These events are proven to be hard to explain in terms of conventional cosmic rays (CR). We propose that these MMEs might be result of the dark matter annihilation events within the so-called axion quark nugget (AQN) dark matter model, which was originally invented for completely different purpose to explain the observed similarity between the dark and the visible components in the Universe, i.e., ΩDM∼Ωvisible without any fitting parameters. We support this proposal by demonstrating that the observations, including the frequency of appearance, intensity, the spatial distribution, the time duration, the clustering features, and many other properties nicely match the emission characteristics of the AQN annihilation events in atmosphere. We list a number of features of the AQN events which are very distinct from conventional CR air showers. The observation (non-observation) of these features may substantiate (refute) our proposal.

Extensive Air Showers with Unusual Spatial and Temporal Structure

The Extensive Air Shower (EAS) data collected by the Horizon-10T detector system has numerous events exhibiting the unusual spatial and temporal structure. These are events typically with two to four pulses of tens of ns wide that are present at distances above 300 m from the EAS axis, with these pulses being delayed by hundreds of ns. Each of such pulse groups were registered simultaneously by several detectors separated by up to a km from each other. The detectors brief overview and the analysis of simulated EAS by the CORSIKA software package are given in this article. The analysis indicates that such events with unusual structure cannot be formed by showers with EM and hadronic components only. This indicates a possibility for a new process observation beyond the standard model description in the energy range above ~1018 eV.

Exotic model of the cosmic ray spectrum

A detailed study of the cores of extensive air showers (EAS) at mountain level (Tien-Shan 690 g/cm2) was carried out in the hybrid experiment HADRON. An analysis of the fine structure of the EAS spectrum in the energy region1015- 1017(knee) showed that there are two breaks in the spectrum. Along with the previously known break at an energy of 3 · 1015eV, a change in the slope of the EAS spectrum is observed at an energy slightly below 1017eV. In addition the use of a large X-ray emulsion chamber (XREC) as a detector of EAS cores allowed us to obtain several new results. An abnormal scaling violation in hadron spectra for Ne~ 107(E0~ 1016eV) means the existence of a penetrating component of non-nuclear origin. The conclusion about the non-nuclear origin of the penetrating component in the primary radiation of CR is confirmed by the data about the excess of muons in the EAS containing hadrons of maximum energies. It is assumed that the mass composition of primary cosmic radiation varies sharply at energies of 1015- 1016eV, where quasi-nuclei (strangelets) appear instead of nuclei. A new model of the mass composition of cosmic rays in the region of ultrahigh energies is proposed on this basis .

Performance of the Horizon-10T detector system in Physics Run 1

This article overviews the performance of the Horizon-10T (H10T) detector system in Physics Run 1. The upgraded H10T detector system consists of ten charged particle detection points, separated by distances from a hundred meters up to 1.3 kilometer and is able to detect disks in primary particle energy ranges of 1016-1019 eV and zenith angles from 0° to 85° with a few ns precision.