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The results of a search for hydrogen-like atoms consisting of $\pi^{\mp}K^{\pm}$ mesons are presented. Evidence for $\pi K$ atom production by 24 GeV/c protons from CERN PS interacting with a nickel target has been seen in terms of characteristic $\pi K$ pairs from their breakup in the same target ($178 \pm 49$) and from Coulomb final state interaction ($653 \pm 42$). Using these results the analysis yields a first value for the $\pi K$ atom lifetime of $\tau=(2.5_{-1.8}^{+3.0})$ fs and a first model-independent measurement of the S-wave isospin-odd $\pi K$ scattering length $\left|a_0^-\right|=\frac{1}{3}\left|a_{1/2}-a_{3/2}\right|= \left(0.11_{-0.04}^{+0.09} \right)M_{\pi}^{-1}$ ($a_I$ for isospin $I$)., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures

The WILLI detector, built in IFIN-HH Bucharest, in collaboration with KIT Karlsruhe, is a rotatable modular detector for measuring charge ratio for cosmic muons with energy $<$ 1 GeV. It is under construction a mini-array for measuring the muon charge ratio in Extensive Air Showers. The EAS simulations have been performed with CORSIKA code. The values of the muon flux, calculated with semi-analytical formula, and simulated with CORSIKA code, based on DPMJET and QGSJET models for the hadronic interactions, are compared with the experimental data determined with WILLI detector. No significant differences between the two models and experimental data are observed. The measurements of the muon charge ratio for different angles-of-incidence, (performed with WILLI detector) shows an asymmetry due to the influence of magnetic field on muons trajectory; the values are in agreement with the simulations based on DPMJET hadronic interaction model. The simulations of muon charge ratio in EAS performed with CORSIKA code based on three hadronic interaction models (QGSJET2, EPOS and SYBILL) show relative small difference between models for H and for the Fe showers; the effect is more pronounced at higher inclination of WILLI detector. The future measurements should indicate which model is suitable., Comment: Poster presented at the XVI International Symposium on Very High Energy Cosmic Ray Interactions (ISVHECRI 2010), Batavia, IL, USA, 28 June 2 July 2010. 4 pages, 7 figures

We present evidence for the first observation of electromagnetically bound $\pi^\pm K^\mp$-pairs ($\pi K$-atoms) with the DIRAC experiment at the CERN-PS. The $\pi K$-atoms are produced by the 24 GeV/c proton beam in a thin Pt-target and the $\pi^\pm$ and $K^\mp$-mesons from the atom dissociation are analyzed in a two-arm magnetic spectrometer. The observed enhancement at low relative momentum corresponds to the production of 173 $\pm$ 54 $\pi K$-atoms. The mean life of $\pi K$-atoms is related to the s-wave $\pi K$-scattering lengths, the measurement of which is the goal of the experiment. From these first data we derive a lower limit for the mean life of 0.8 fs at 90% confidence level., Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures

The excitation functions for different fragments produced in the 27Al + 27Al dissipative collisions have been measured in steps of 250 keV in the energy range 122 - 132 MeV. Deep inelastic processes have been selected by integrating events over a total kinetic energy loss window of 12 MeV between 20 and 32 MeV. Large fluctuations have been observed in all the studied excitation functions. Non-satistical origin of these fluctuations is confirmed by large channel cross correlations coefficients. Energy autocorrelation function of cross section excitation function presents damped oscillation structure as predicted for the case when a di-nuclear system with a lifetime similar with its revolution period is formed. The periodicity of the energy autocorrelation function is used to obtain information on the deformation of the 27Al + 27 Al di-nucleus., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables

In view of the current efforts to extend the KASCADE experiment (KASCADE-Grande) for observations of Extensive Air Showers (EAS) of primary energies up to 1 EeV, the features of muon arrival time distributions and their correlations with other observable EAS quantities have been scrutinised on basis of high-energy EAS, simulated with the Monte Carlo code CORSIKA and using in general the QGSJET model as generator. Methodically various correlations of adequately defined arrival time parameters with other EAS parameters have been investigated by invoking non-parametric methods for the analysis of multivariate distributions, studying the classification and misclassification probabilities of various observable sets. It turns out that adding the arrival time information and the multiplicity of muons spanning the observed time distributions has distinct effects improving the mass discrimination. A further outcome of the studies is the feature that for the considered ranges of primary energies and of distances from the shower axis the discrimination power of global arrival time distributions referring to the arrival time of the shower core is only marginally enhanced as compared to local distributions referring to the arrival of the locally first muon., Comment: 24 pages, Journal Physics G accepted