Excessive production of electron pairs by soft photons in low multiplicity ion interactions

Three multiply charged primary cosmic ray interactions with carbon nuclei are reported, in which the number of materialized electron pairs within a distance of about 0.3 conversion length is larger than predicted from isospin considerations. These are the most energetic (sigma E gamma 4 TeV) of the low multiplicity ( 15 tracks) events observed in the Japanese-American Cooperative Experiment (JACEE-2) emulsion chamber.