Abundances of ultraheavy elements in the cosmic radiation

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6839429

Newport, B J

Analysis of the data from the Heavy Nuclei Experiment on the HFAO-3 spacecraft has yielded the cosmic ray abundances of odd-even element pairs with atomic number, Z, in the range 33 less than or equal to A less than or equal to 60, and the abundances of broad element groups in the range 62 less than or equal to Z less than or equal to 83, relative to iron. These data show that the cosmic ray source composition in this charge range is quite similar to that of the solar system, provided an allowance is made for a source fractionation based on first ionization potential. The observations are inconsistent with a source composition which is dominated by either r-process or s-process material, whether or not an allowance is made for first ionization potential. The energy spectra of the even elements in the range 38 less than or equal to Z less than or equal to 60 are found to have a deficiency of particles in the range approx.1.5 to 3 GeV/amu, compared to iron. This deficiency may result from ionization energy loss in the interstellar medium, and is not predicted by propagation models which ignore such losses. In addition, the energy spectra of secondary elements are found to be different to those of the primary elements. Such effects are consistent with observations of lighter nuclei, and are in qualitative agreement with galactic propagation models using a rigidity dependent escape length. The energy spectra of secondaries arising from the platinum group are found to be much steeper than those of lower Z. This effect may result from energy dependent fragmentation cross sections.

• Research Organization: California Inst. of Tech., Pasadena (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6839429
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640101* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Cosmic Radiation
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
CHEMISTRY
COSMIC RADIATION
COSMOCHEMISTRY
DATA
ENERGY SPECTRA
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
HEAVY NUCLEI
INFORMATION
IONIZING RADIATIONS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NUCLEI
NUCLEOSYNTHESIS
NUMERICAL DATA
RADIATIONS
SPECTRA
SYNTHESIS