INTEGRAL SPECTRUM OF EXTENSIVE AIR SHOWERS AT MOUNTAIN LEVEL IN THE PARTICLE-NUMBER RANGE 5.10(4)-5.10(7)

The results of the Maket-ANI experiment to study the basic characteris tics of EAS (extensive air showers) at mountain altitude in the range 5 . 10(4)-5 . 10(7) of the number of particles (N(e)) are given. The i ndices of the integral size spectrum of EAS were found to be 1.50 +/- 0.01 and 1.95 +/- 0.03 at the point N0 = (0.8 +/- 0.1) . 10(6) where t he spectrum shows a ''knee.'' For the first time it is shown that the position of the knee in the spectrum depends on the age parameter (s) of EAS and varies from the value approximately 5.1 . 10(5) for s < 0.8 to the value 5.6 . 10(6) for s > 1.2. The results of an investigation of N(e)-s correlations suggest the existence of an anomalous process of shower generation for primary energies greater-than-or-equal-to 2 . 10(15) eV/nucleon, which is the reason for the knee in the EAS size s pectrum at the level of observation.