FRACTAL AND FACTORIAL STUDIES OF ELECTRON-DENSITY DISTRIBUTIONS IN EXTENSIVE AIR SHOWERS

For years there has been a problem in cosmic ray studies of how to dis tinguish cascades originated by primary photons from extensive air sho wers (EAS) originated by primary protons or heavy nuclei. In this pape r it is suggested that the investigations of factorial moments and mul tifractal structures of the density fluctuations of charged particles near EAS cores can solve the problem in question. The study of f(alpha )-alpha spectra seems to give us a chance of distinguishing the iron-o riginated EAS from the proton-initiated ones.