Long formative time lags in nitrogen below the Paschen minimum

The formative time lag of an electric discharge for an overvoltage of 1-8%, below the minimum of the Paschen curve in nitrogen is investigated. The Laue distribution of the breakdown time delays is found to apply. The formative time rises with decreasing pd below pd min from values of 10 -3 s, up to the order of seconds. The suggested explanation is that avalanches in nitrogen are not independent. This poses the question of the definition of the discharge formative time.