Search for disoriented chiral condensate in cosmic gamma-hadron families -art. no. 054001

We present a systematic study of the large asymmetries in neutral pion frac tion distribution in high energy cosmic ray families (100 TeV<E-vis<700 TeV ) detected at high mountain altitudes at Pamir (4300 m, 595 g/cm(2)). With this in mind we have constructed robust observables, ratios of factorial mo ments, in experimental and simulated families in a similar way. We have fou nd that our experimental data do not exclude the possibility of a DCC forma tion mechanism in high energy interactions. [S0556-2821(99)06901-5].