SIMULTANEOUS OBSERVATION OF FAMILIES AND ACCOMPANIED AIR SHOWERS AT MT CHACALTAYA

Simultaneous observations of families and accompanied air showers with emulsion chambers and the air shower array of electronic equipment at Mt. Chacaltaya (5200 m, 540 g/cm(2)) reveal that families bear the da ta of nuclear interactions generated deep in the atmosphere. 47 outsta nding families with Sigma E(gamma)10 TeV are correlated with the accom panied air showers of the size 10(5)-10(8). A scatter plot of the aver age family energy versus the size of the relative air shower requires further energy fractionizing process(es) in the propagation of high en ergy cosmic rays in the atmosphere, such as a larger dissipative mecha nism in nuclear interaction heavier chemical composition of the primar y cosmic rays, etc. We reach the conclusion that nuclear interaction c hanges its features in the energy region E(0)>10(16) eV, because the h eavier composition, proposed so far, is not sufficient for the require d dissipative process. A comparison with the data from the HADRON expe riment at a similar altitude with a similar technique shows that no la rger deviations are present between both experiments.