Measurement of boron and carbon fluxes in cosmic rays with the PAMELA experiment

Journal Article · Wed Aug 20 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/791/2/93· OSTI ID:22365323

Adriani, O.; Bongi, M. ^[1]; Barbarino, G. C. ^[2]; Bazilevskaya, G. A. ^[3]; Bellotti, R.; Bruno, A. ^[4]; Boezio, M.; Bonvicini, V.; Carbone, R. ^[5]; Bogomolov, E. A. ^[6]; Bottai, S. ^[7]; Cafagna, F. ^[8]; Campana, D. ^[9]; Carlson, P. ^[10]; Casolino, M.; De Donato, C.; De Santis, C.; De Simone, N. ^[11]; Castellini, G. ^[12]; Danilchenko, I. A. ^[13] ; others, and

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Florence, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Florence (Italy)
2. Department of Physics, University of Naples "Federico II," I-80126 Naples (Italy)
3. Lebedev Physical Institute, RU-119991 Moscow (Russian Federation)
4. Department of Physics, University of Bari, I-70126 Bari (Italy)
5. INFN, Sezione di Trieste, I-34149 Trieste (Italy)
6. Ioffe Physical Technical Institute, RU-194021 St. Petersburg (Russian Federation)
7. INFN, Sezione di Florence, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Florence (Italy)
8. INFN, Sezione di Bari, I-70126 Bari (Italy)
9. INFN, Sezione di Naples, I-80126 Naples (Italy)
10. KTH, Department of Physics, and the Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics, AlbaNova University Centre, SE-10691 Stockholm (Sweden)
11. INFN, Sezione di Rome "Tor Vergata," I-00133 Rome (Italy)
12. IFAC, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Florence (Italy)
13. National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, RU-115409 Moscow (Russian Federation)

The propagation of cosmic rays inside our galaxy plays a fundamental role in shaping their injection spectra into those observed at Earth. One of the best tools to investigate this issue is the ratio of fluxes for secondary and primary species. The boron-to-carbon (B/C) ratio, in particular, is a sensitive probe to investigate propagation mechanisms. This paper presents new measurements of the absolute fluxes of boron and carbon nuclei as well as the B/C ratio from the PAMELA space experiment. The results span the range 0.44-129 GeV/n in kinetic energy for data taken in the period 2006 July to 2008 March.

• OSTI ID: 22365323
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 791, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
BORON
CARBON
CONCENTRATION RATIO
COSMIC RADIATION
COSMIC RAY PROPAGATION
GALAXIES
GALAXY NUCLEI
GEV RANGE
INJECTION
KINETIC ENERGY
SPACE
SPECTRA