Studies of cosmic ray showers using neon flash tubes

This thesis describes experiments to determine the properties of the light output from neon flash-tubes traversed by ionizing particles under a wide range of conditions together with the determination of the density spectrum of extensive air showers in the region of mean shower size Ṉ = 9 x 10(^5) particles. It is shown that the intensity of the light output of the flash-tube in an array is such that an accurate estimate of the number of flashed tubes may be made by determining the total amount of light emitted using a photomultiplier. The possibilities of using this technique are discussed. Extensive air showers were selected by an array of four Cerenkov detectors and the particle density at a large flash- tube array was obtained for each shower. The slope of the differential density spectrum was found to be -3.3 ± 0.3. Comparisons were carried out between the expected shower sizes obtained by the Cerenkov detectors and the flash-tube array for different ranges of density and distances' from the shower core. A calibration of the Cerenkov detectors was obtained. The relationship between these results and those of other workers are considered.