New method to measure the attenuation of hadrons in extensive air showers
- Institut fuer Kernphysik, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, 76021 Karlsruhe (Germany)
Extensive air showers are generated through interactions of high-energy cosmic rays impinging the Earth's atmosphere. A new method is described to infer the attenuation of hadrons in air showers. The numbers of electrons and muons, registered with the scintillator array of the KASCADE experiment, are used to estimate the energy of the shower inducing primary particle. A large hadron calorimeter is used to measure the hadronic energy reaching observation level. The ratio of energy reaching ground level to the energy of the primary particle is used to derive an attenuation length of hadrons in air showers. In the energy range from 10{sup 6} to 3x10{sup 7} GeV the attenuation length obtained increases from 170 to 210 g/cm{sup 2}. The experimental results are compared to predictions of simulations based on contemporary high-energy interaction models.
- OSTI ID:
- 21316174
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 80, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.80.022002; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Delayed hadrons in extensive air showers: Evidence for the iron-group nuclei in primary cosmic-ray flux at energies approx. 10/sup 13/--10/sup 15/ eV
Study of hadrons near the cores of extensive air showers observed at sea level