title: Strong flux of low-energy neutrons produced by thunderstorms.
abstract: We report here for the first time about the registration of an extraordinary high flux of low-energy neutrons generated during thunderstorms. The measured neutron count rate enhancements are directly connected with thunderstorm discharges. The low-energy neutron flux value obtained in our work is a challenge for the photonuclear channel of neutron generation in thunderstorm: the estimated value of the needed high-energy γ-ray flux is about 3 orders of magnitude higher than that one observed.
authors.affiliation: P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of RAS, Moscow, Russia. alex@lpi.ru
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Gurevich
authors.forename: V P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Antonova
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Chubenko
authors.forename: A N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Karashtin
authors.forename: G G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Mitko
authors.forename: M O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Ptitsyn
authors.forename: V A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Ryabov
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Shepetov
authors.forename: Yu V
authors.initials: YV
authors.lastname: Shlyugaev
authors.forename: L I
authors.initials: LI
authors.lastname: Vildanova
authors.forename: K P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Zybin