No muon excess in extensive air showers at 100–500 PeV primary energy: EAS–MSU results

Some discrepancies have been reported between observed and simulated muon content of extensive air showers: the number of observed muons exceeded the expectations in HiRes-MIA, Yakutsk and Pierre Auger Observatory data. Here, we analyze the data of the Moscow State University Extensive Air Shower (EAS–MSU) array on Eμ ≳ 10 GeV muons in showers caused by ∼(1017−1018) eV primary particles and demonstrate that they agree with simulations (QGSJET-II-04 hadronic interaction model) once the primary composition inferred from the surface-detector data is assumed.