Georgian scientists explained the existence of the anomalies they discovered in cosmic rays by the fact that space is discrete and consists of cells of the minimum possible - Planck - length. Then topological defects can arise, on which cosmic radiation can be scattered. The work of physicists is published in the repository of arxiv.org repositories.
About 20 years ago, scientists studied extensive air showers (EAS) - rains of subatomic particles generated by the collision of primary cosmic rays (of extragalactic and galactic origin) with the Earth's atmosphere. When cosmic rays, made up of high-energy particles or atomic nuclei, slam into gas atoms, a multitude of energetic hadrons (quark particles) are produced, which immediately decay to form secondary cosmic rays formed by muons, electrons, protons and electromagnetic radiation.
The researchers studied the experimentally obtained dependence of the energy of EAS hadrons on the energy of particles of primary cosmic rays and found unexplained fluctuations in the range from 10 to the 15th power to 2 * 10 to the 16th power of electron volts. Then the scientists considered that the cause of the anomaly is the destruction of nuclei when interacting with the interstellar medium, consisting of particles with a mass of about 30 electron volts.
In the new work, the researchers proposed a different explanation for the observed anomaly. Since no particles with a mass of 30 electron volts were obtained in experiments, scientists believe that the cause is topological defects in space itself. According to the hypothesis, space is discrete and consists of Planck-scale quantum cells (of the order of 1.66 * 10 minus the 33rd power of a centimeter), which makes it capable of deforming. Quantum objects, such as subatomic particles, pass through such defects and begin to fluctuate. Thus, the effects of scattering of cosmic radiation appear.