Composition of primary cosmic rays at energies approx. 10/sup 15/ eV from data on high-energy muons in extensive air showers
A critical analysis of experimental data on high-energy muons in air showers is carried out to derive information about the composition of primary cosmic rays near the bend in the energy spectrum at approx.10/sup 15/ eV. A set of Monte Carlo simulated air showers from different elemental species have been used to study expectations for three different experiments: the Tien Shan study of muons with energy above 5 GeV at an altitude of 690 g/cm/sup 2/, the Moscow State University experiment for muons with energy above 10 GeV at sea level, and the Kolar-gold-field experiment for muons with energy above 220 GeV at 930 g/cm/sup 2/. The results show that when showers are grouped according to shower size the sensitivity of the total number of high-energy muons to primary composition is greatly reduced. In fact, it is found that the data cannot discriminate between models which assume energy-independent low-energy composition and those which assume energy spectra which steepen above some value of rigidity cutoff around 10/sup 14/ eV/nucleon. In order to make a composition-sensitive measurement of the high-energy muon component it is necessary to make these measurements at fixed energy rather than at fixed shower size.
- Research Organization:
- University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
- OSTI ID:
- 5020138
- Journal Information:
- Phys. Rev. D; (United States), Vol. 29:5
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
GENERAL PHYSICS
COSMIC MUONS
ENERGY SPECTRA
EXTENSIVE AIR SHOWERS
PRIMARY COSMIC RADIATION
CROSS SECTIONS
FRAGMENTATION
HADRON-HADRON INTERACTIONS
MONTE CARLO METHOD
PROBABILITY
SCALING LAWS
SIMULATION
COSMIC RADIATION
COSMIC SHOWERS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
INTERACTIONS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
LEPTONS
MUONS
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
RADIATIONS
SECONDARY COSMIC RADIATION
SHOWERS
SPECTRA
640101* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Cosmic Radiation