NEVOD–DECOR Experiment on the Measurement of the Energy Deposit of Cosmic Ray Muon Bundles

In comparison with calculations, the excess of multimuon events found in many experiments at ultrahigh energies of extensive air showers (EASs) cannot be explained using modern models of hadron interactions. The existence of muon excess is called the muon puzzle. One of the ways to solve this problem is to study the energy characteristics of the EAS muon component. For this purpose, the energy deposit of cosmic ray muon bundles is measured in the NEVOD–DECOR experiment. Registration of muon bundles in a wide range of zenith angles allows one to explore a wide range of energies of the primary particles of cosmic rays (from 10 to 1000 PeV) within a single experiment. The results of measurements of the energy deposit of muon bundles over a long observation period are presented.