Measurements of the energy deposit of inclined muon bundles in the CWD NEVOD

First results of investigations of the energy deposits of inclined muon bundles in the ground-based Cherenkov water detector NEVOD are presented. As a measure of the muon bundle energy deposit, the total number of photoelectrons detected by PMTs of the Cherenkov calorimeter is used. For each event, the local muon density at the observation point and the muon bundle arrival direction are estimated from the data of the coordinate-tracking detector DECOR. Registration of the bundles in a wide range of zenith angles allows to explore the interval of primary particle energies from ∼ 10¹⁶ to ∼ 10¹⁸ eV. Measurement results are compared with CORSIKA based simulations of EAS muon component. It is found that the mean energy of muons detected in the bundles rapidly increases with the zenith angle and reaches about 500 GeV near the horizon. (paper)