A study on the penetrative nature of hadron-induced cascade showers in a thick lead chamber

The three-dimensional development of cascade showers in lead initiated by high energy proton-Pb and pion-Pb interactions are calculated by a full Monte Carlo simulation assuming a simple geometrical model for hadron-nucleus interactions and also taking into account the exact geometrical structure of the Pamir thick lead chamber. It is shown that fluctuations in the shower development are very large but the experimental hadronic cascade shower transition has a more gentle slope, in shape, than the one calculated, and the extraordinary long penetrating showers found in the experiment can not be explained by simple fluctuations of the calculated shower development. (orig.)