WorldWideScience

Sample records for energy cosmic ray

  1. High energy cosmic rays

    CERN Document Server

    Stanev, Todor

    2010-01-01

    Offers an accessible text and reference (a cosmic-ray manual) for graduate students entering the field and high-energy astrophysicists will find this an accessible cosmic-ray manual Easy to read for the general astronomer, the first part describes the standard model of cosmic rays based on our understanding of modern particle physics. Presents the acceleration scenario in some detail in supernovae explosions as well as in the passage of cosmic rays through the Galaxy. Compares experimental data in the atmosphere as well as underground are compared with theoretical models

  2. High-energy cosmic-ray acceleration

    CERN Document Server

    Bustamante, M; de Paula, W; Duarte Chavez, J A; Gago, A M; Hakobyan, H; Jez, P; Monroy Montañez, J A; Ortiz Velasquez, A; Padilla Cabal, F; Pino Rozas, M; Rodriguez Patarroyo, D J; Romeo, G L; Saldaña-Salazar , U J; Velasquez, M; von Steinkirch, M

    2010-01-01

    We briefly review the basics of ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray acceleration. The Hillas criterion is introduced as a geometrical criterion that must be fulfilled by potential acceleration sites, and energy losses are taken into account in order to obtain a more realistic scenario. The different available acceleration mechanisms are presented, with special emphasis on Fermi shock acceleration and its prediction of a power-law cosmic-ray energy spectrum. We conclude that first-order Fermi acceleration, though not entirely satisfactory, is the most promising mechanism for explaining the ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray flux.

  3. Propagation of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stanev, Todor [Bartol Research Institute and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 (United States)], E-mail: stanev@bartol.udel.edu

    2009-06-15

    We briefly describe the energy loss processes of ultrahigh-energy protons, heavier nuclei and {gamma}-rays in interactions with the universal photon fields of the Universe. We then discuss the modification of the accelerated cosmic-ray energy spectrum in propagation by the energy loss processes and the charged cosmic-ray scattering in the extragalactic magnetic fields. The energy lost by the ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays goes into {gamma}-rays and neutrinos that carry additional information about the sources of highest energy particles. The new experimental results of the HiRes and the Auger collaborations are discussed in view of the predictions from propagation calculations.

  4. High-energy cosmic-ray acceleration

    OpenAIRE

    Bustamante, M; Carrillo Montoya, G; de Paula, W; Duarte Chavez, J A; Gago, A M; Hakobyan, H; Jez, P; Monroy Montañez, J A; Ortiz Velasquez, A; Padilla Cabal, F; Pino Rozas, M; Rodriguez Patarroyo, D J; Romeo, G L; Saldaña-Salazar , U J; Velasquez, M

    2010-01-01

    We briefly review the basics of ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray acceleration. The Hillas criterion is introduced as a geometrical criterion that must be fulfilled by potential acceleration sites, and energy losses are taken into account in order to obtain a more realistic scenario. The different available acceleration mechanisms are presented, with special emphasis on Fermi shock acceleration and its prediction of a power-law cosmic-ray energy spectrum. We conclude that first-order Fermi accelera...

  5. High energy physics in cosmic rays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jones, Lawrence W. [University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan (United States)

    2013-02-07

    In the first half-century of cosmic ray physics, the primary research focus was on elementary particles; the positron, pi-mesons, mu-mesons, and hyperons were discovered in cosmic rays. Much of this research was carried out at mountain elevations; Pic du Midi in the Pyrenees, Mt. Chacaltaya in Bolivia, and Mt. Evans/Echo Lake in Colorado, among other sites. In the 1960s, claims of the observation of free quarks, and satellite measurements of a significant rise in p-p cross sections, plus the delay in initiating accelerator construction programs for energies above 100 GeV, motivated the Michigan-Wisconsin group to undertake a serious cosmic ray program at Echo Lake. Subsequently, with the succession of higher energy accelerators and colliders at CERN and Fermilab, cosmic ray research has increasingly focused on cosmology and astrophysics, although some groups continue to study cosmic ray particle interactions in emulsion chambers.

  6. High-energy cosmic rays

    CERN Document Server

    Cronin, James Watson

    1996-01-01

    Recently two cosmic rays with energy in excess of 2 1020 eV have been recorded. These are some 108 times more energetic than the protons produced by accelerators on earth. There is no credible understanding of the mechanism of acceleration by known a Because of the short mean free path in the cosmic background radiation they must come from nearby distances on a cosmological scale (< 50 Mpc). Their magnetic rigidity suggests that they should point to their source. Lectures will cover the present available data on the highest energy cosmic rays, their detection, possible acceleration mechanisms, their propagation in the galaxy and in extra galactic space and design of new detectors where simulations of air show ers play an important role.

  7. Low-energy cosmic rays in the Orion region

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pohl, M.

    1998-01-01

    The recently observed nuclear gamma-ray line emission from the Orion complex implies a high flux of low-energy cosmic rays (LECR) with unusual abundance. This cosmic ray component would dominate the energy density, pressure, and ionising power of cosmic rays, and thus would have a strong impact...

  8. Ultra high-energy cosmic ray composition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Longley, N.P.

    1993-01-01

    The Soudan 2 surface-underground cosmic ray experiment can simultaneously measure surface shower size, underground muon multiplicity, and underground muon separation for ultra high energy cosmic ray showers. These measurements are sensitive to the primary composition. Analysis for energies from 10 1 to 10 4 TeV favors a light flux consisting of predominantly H and He nuclei

  9. Ultra high energy cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Watson, A.A.

    1986-01-01

    Cosmic radiation was discovered 70 years ago but its origin remains an open question. The background to this problem is outlined and attempts to discover the origin of the most energetic and rarest group above 10 15 eV are described. Measurements of the energy spectrum and arrival direction pattern of the very highest energy particles, mean energy about 6 x 10 19 eV, are used to argue that these particles originate outside our galaxy. Recent evidence from the new field of ultra high energy γ-ray astronomy are discussed in the context of a galactic origin hypothesis for lower energy cosmic rays. (author)

  10. High energy cosmic rays: sources and fluxes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stanev, Todor; Gaisser, Thomas K.; Tilav, Serap

    2014-04-01

    We discuss the production of a unique energy spectrum of the high energy cosmic rays detected with air showers by shifting the energy estimates of different detectors. After such a spectrum is generated we fit the spectrum with three or four populations of cosmic rays that might be accelerated at different cosmic ray sources. We also present the chemical composition that the fits of the spectrum generates and discuss some new data sets presented this summer at the ICRC in Rio de Janeiro that may require new global fits.

  11. High-energy cosmic rays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gaisser, Thomas K. [Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 (United States)]. E-mail: gaisser@bartol.udel.edu; Stanev, Todor [Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 (United States)

    2006-10-17

    After a brief review of galactic cosmic rays in the GeV to TeV energy range, we describe some current problems of interest for particles of very high energy. Particularly interesting are two features of the spectrum, the knee above 10{sup 15} eV and the ankle above 10{sup 18} eV. An important question is whether the highest-energy particles are of extra-galactic origin and, if so, at what energy the transition occurs. A theme common to all energy ranges is use of nuclear abundances as a tool for understanding the origin of the cosmic radiation.

  12. Progress in high-energy cosmic ray physics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mollerach, S.; Roulet, E.

    2018-01-01

    We review some of the recent progress in our knowledge about high-energy cosmic rays, with an emphasis on the interpretation of the different observational results. We discuss the effects that are relevant to shape the cosmic ray spectrum and the explanations proposed to account for its features and for the observed changes in composition. The physics of air-showers is summarized and we also present the results obtained on the proton-air cross section and on the muon content of the showers. We discuss the cosmic ray propagation through magnetic fields, the effects of diffusion and of magnetic lensing, the cosmic ray interactions with background radiation fields and the production of secondary neutrinos and photons. We also consider the cosmic ray anisotropies, both at large and small angular scales, presenting the results obtained from the TeV up to the highest energies and discuss the models proposed to explain their origin.

  13. Are gamma-ray bursts the sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baerwald, Philipp

    2014-07-01

    We reconsider the possibility that gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the sources of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) within the internal shock model, assuming a pure proton composition of the UHECRs. For the first time, we combine the information from gamma-rays, cosmic rays, prompt neutrinos, and cosmogenic neutrinos quantitatively in a joint cosmic ray production and propagation model, and we show that the information on the cosmic energy budget can be obtained as a consequence. In addition to the neutron model, we consider alternative scenarios for the cosmic ray escape from the GRBs, i.e., that cosmic rays can leak from the sources. We find that the dip model, which describes the ankle in UHECR observations by the pair production dip, is strongly disfavored in combination with the internal shock model because (a) unrealistically high baryonic loadings (energy in protons versus energy in electrons/gamma-rays) are needed for the individual GRBs and (b) the prompt neutrino flux easily overshoots the corresponding neutrino bound. On the other hand, GRBs may account for the UHECRs in the ankle transition model if cosmic rays leak out from the source at the highest energies. In that case, we demonstrate that future neutrino observations can efficiently test most of the parameter space - unless the baryonic loading is much larger than previously anticipated.

  14. Ultra-high energy cosmic rays and prompt TeV gamma rays from ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    physics pp. 789-792. Ultra-high energy cosmic rays and prompt. TeV gamma rays from gamma ray bursts ... The origin of the observed ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) events with ... are proton and electron rest mass, respectively.

  15. The Need for Direct High-Energy Cosmic-Ray Measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, Frank C.; Streitmatter, Robert

    2004-01-01

    Measuring the chemical composition of the cosmic rays in the energy region of greater than or equal to 10(exp 12)eV would be highly useful in settling several nagging questions concerning the propagation of cosmic rays in the galaxy. In particular an accurate measurement of secondary to primary ratios such as Boron to Carbon would gibe clear evidence as to whether the propagation of cosmic rays is determined by a diffusion coefficient that varies with the particle's energy as E(sup 0.5) or E(sup 0.3). This would go a long ways in helping us to understand the anistropy (or lack thereof) of the highest energy cosmic rays and the power requirements for producing those particles at approximately equal to 10(exp 18) eV which are believed to be highest energy particles produced in the Galaxy. This would be only one of the benefits of a mission such as ACCESS to perform direct particle measurements on very high energy cosmic rays.

  16. The intergalactic propagation of ultrahigh energy cosmic ray nuclei

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hooper, Dan; /Fermilab; Sarkar, Subir; /Oxford U., Theor. Phys.; Taylor, Andrew M.; /Oxford U.

    2006-08-01

    We investigate the propagation of ultra-high energy cosmic ray nuclei (A = 1-56) from cosmologically distant sources through the cosmic radiation backgrounds. Various models for the injected composition and spectrum and of the cosmic infrared background are studied using updated photodisintegration cross-sections. The observational data on the spectrum and the composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays are jointly consistent with a model where all of the injected primary cosmic rays are iron nuclei (or a mixture of heavy and light nuclei).

  17. High Energy Cosmic Electrons: Messengers from Nearby Cosmic Ray Sources or Dark Matter?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moiseev, Alexander

    2011-01-01

    This slide presentation reviews the recent discoveries by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on board the Fermi Gamma-Ray Telescope in reference to high energy cosmic electrons, and whether their source is cosmic rays or dark matter. Specific interest is devoted to Cosmic Ray electrons anisotropy,

  18. Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays: Facts, Myths, and Legends

    CERN Document Server

    Anchordoqui, Luis Alfredo

    2013-06-27

    This is a written version of a series of lectures aimed at graduate students in astrophysics/particle theory/particle experiment. In the first part, we explain the important progress made in recent years towards understanding the experimental data on cosmic rays with energies > 10^8 GeV. We begin with a brief survey of the available data, including a description of the energy spectrum, mass composition, and arrival directions. At this point we also give a short overview of experimental techniques. After that, we introduce the fundamentals of acceleration and propagation in order to discuss the conjectured nearby cosmic ray sources, and emphasize some of the prospects for a new (multi-particle) astronomy. Next, we survey the state of the art regarding the ultrahigh energy cosmic neutrinos which should be produced in association with the observed cosmic rays. In the second part, we summarize the phenomenology of cosmic ray air showers. We explain the hadronic interaction models used to extrapolate results from ...

  19. Cosmic rays at ultra high energies (Neutrinos.)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ahlers, M.; Ringwald, A.; Tu, H.

    2005-06-01

    Resonant photopion production with the cosmic microwave background predicts a suppression of extragalactic protons above the famous Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff at about E GZK ∼ 5 x 10 10 GeV. Current cosmic ray data measured by the AGASA and HiRes Collaborations do not unambiguously confirm the GZK cutoff and leave a window for speculations about the origin and chemical composition of the highest energy cosmic rays. In this work we analyze the possibility of strongly interacting neutrino primaries and derive model-independent quantitative requirements on the neutrino-nucleon inelastic cross section for a viable explanation of the cosmic ray data. Search results on weakly interacting cosmic particles from the AGASA and RICE experiments are taken into account simultaneously. Using a flexible parameterization of the inelastic neutrino-nucleon cross section we find that a combined fit of the data does not favor the Standard Model neutrino-nucleon inelastic cross section, but requires, at 90% confidence level, a steep increase within one energy decade around E GZK by four orders of magnitude. We illustrate such an enhancement within some extensions of the Standard Model. The impact of new cosmic ray data or cosmic neutrino search results on this scenario, notably from the Pierre Auger Observatory soon, can be immediately evaluated within our approach. (orig.)

  20. Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays from nearby starburst galaxies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Attallah, Reda; Bouchachi, Dallel

    2018-04-01

    Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays are the most energetic of any subatomic particles ever observed in nature. The quest for their mysterious origin is currently a major scientific challenge. Here we explore the possibility that these particles originate from nearby starburst galaxies, a scenario that matches the recent observation by the Telescope Array experiment of a cosmic-ray hotspot above 57 EeV not far from the direction of the starburst galaxy M82. Specifically, we study the stochastic propagation in space of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays through the state-of-the-art simulation framework CRPropa 3, taking into account all relevant particle interactions as well as deflections by the intervening magnetic fields. To ensure a comprehensive understanding of this model, we consider the energy spectrum, the cosmogenic neutrinos and gamma rays, and the distribution of arrival directions. The starburst galaxy scenario reproduces well observations from both the Telescope Array and Pierre Auger Observatories, making it very attractive for explaining the origin of cosmic rays at the highest energies.

  1. Interstellar propagation of low energy cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cesarsky, C.J.

    1975-01-01

    Wave particles interactions prevent low energy cosmic rays from propagating at velocities much faster than the Alfven velocity, reducing their range by a factor of order 50. Therefore, supernovae remnants cannot fill the neutral portions of the interstellar medium with 2 MeV cosmic rays [fr

  2. Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays: facts, myths and legends

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anchordoqui, L.A.

    2011-01-01

    This is a written version of a series of lectures aimed at graduate students in astrophysics and theoretical/experimental particle physics. In the first part, we explain the important progress made in recent years towards understanding the experimental data on cosmic rays with energies > or approx. 10 8 GeV. We begin with a brief survey of the available data, including a description of the energy spectrum, mass composition and arrival directions. At this point we also give a short overview of experimental techniques. After that, we introduce the fundamentals of acceleration and propagation in order to discuss the conjectured nearby cosmic-ray sources, and emphasize some of the prospects for a new (multiparticle) astronomy. Next, we survey the state of the art regarding the ultrahigh-energy cosmic neutrinos that should be produced in association with the observed cosmic rays. In the second part, we summarize the phenomenology of cosmic-ray air showers. We explain the hadronic interaction models used to extrapolate results from collider data to ultrahigh energies, and describe the prospects for insights into forward physics at the Large Hadron Collider. We also explain the main electromagnetic processes that govern the longitudinal shower evolution. Armed with these two principal shower ingredients and motivation from the underlying physics, we describe the different methods proposed to distinguish primary species. In the last part, we outline how ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray interactions can be used to probe new physics beyond the electroweak scale. (author)

  3. Experimental Summary: Very High Energy Cosmic Rays and their Interactions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kampert Karl-Heinz

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available The XVII International Symposium on Very High Energy Cosmic Ray Interactions, held in August of 2012 in Berlin, was the first one in the history of the Symposium,where a plethora of high precision LHC data with relevance for cosmic ray physics was presented. This report aims at giving a brief summary of those measurements andit discusses their relevance for observations of high energy cosmic rays. Enormous progress has been made also in air shower observations and in direct measurements of cosmic rays, exhibiting many more structure in the cosmic ray energy spectrum than just a simple power law with a knee and an ankle. At the highest energy, the flux suppression may not be dominated by the GZK-effect but by the limiting energy of a nearby source or source population. New projects and application of new technologies promise further advances also in the near future. We shall discuss the experimental and theoretical progress in the field and its prospects for coming years.

  4. ATLAS and ultra high energy cosmic ray physics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pinfold James

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available After a brief introduction to extended air shower cosmic ray physics the current and future deployment of forward detectors at ATLAS is discussed along with the various aspects of the current and future ATLAS programs to explore hadronic physics. The emphasis is placed on those results and future plans that have particular relevance for high-energy, and ultra high-energy, cosmic ray physics. The possible use of ATLAS as an “underground” cosmic muon observatory is briefly considered.

  5. Cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tkachev, I.I.

    2014-01-01

    In this talk I will review results of cosmic ray observations at the highest energies. This year the new results on energy spectra, composition and the study of arrival directions of cosmic ray primaries came from the Telescope Array collaboration. I present these results in comparison with measurements done by other recent experiments and discuss their implications for the search of cosmic ray sources. Some related results in gamma-ray astronomy and selected recent advances in theory are also covered. (author)

  6. High energy cosmic ray astronomy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fonseca, V.

    1996-01-01

    A brief introduction to High Energy Cosmic Ray Astronomy is presented. This field covers a 17 decade energy range (2.10 4 -10 20 ) eV. Recent discoveries done with gamma-ray detectors on-board satellites and ground-based Cherenkov devices are pushing for a fast development of new and innovative techniques, specially in the low energy region which includes the overlapping of satellite and ground-based measurements in the yet unexplored energy range 20 keV-250 GeV. Detection of unexpected extremely high energy events have triggered the interest of the international scientific community. (orig.)

  7. Some problems of physics of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Isaev, P.S.

    1999-01-01

    Nearest 15-20 years will be years of flourishing of experimental researches into the energy of cosmic rays at > or ∼ 10 15 eV and of new discoveries in the physics of elementary particles of ultrahigh energies. Unsolved problems of modern physics of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays, which are relevant to the problems of elementary particles physics, are reviewed

  8. Z-burst scenario for the highest energy cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fodor, Z.

    2002-10-01

    The origin of highest energy cosmic rays is yet unknown. An appealing possibility is the so-called Z-burst scenario, in which a large fraction of these cosmic rays are decay products of Z bosons produced in the scattering of ultrahigh energy neutrinos on cosmological relic neutrinos. The comparison between the observed and predicted spectra constrains the mass of the heaviest neutrino. The required neutrino mass is fairly robust against variations of the presently unknown quantities, such as the amount of relic neutrino clustering, the universal photon radio background and the extragalactic magnetic field. Considering different possibilities for the ordinary cosmic rays the required neutrino masses are determined. In the most plausible case that the ordinary cosmic rays are of extragalactic origin and the universal radio background is strong enough to suppress high energy photons, the required neutrino mass is 0.08 eV ≤ m ν ≤ 0.40 eV. The required ultrahigh energy neutrino flux should be detected in the near future by experiments such as AMANDA, RICE or the Pierre Auger Observatory. (orig.)

  9. Very high-energy gamma-ray signature of ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray acceleration in Centaurus A

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joshi, Jagdish C.; Miranda, Luis Salvador; Razzaque, Soebur; Yang, Lili

    2018-04-01

    The association of at least a dozen ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray (UHECR) events with energy ≳ 55 EeV detected by the Pierre Auger Observatory (PAO) from the direction of Centaurus-A, the nearest radio galaxy, supports the scenario of UHECR acceleration in the jets of radio galaxies. In this work, we model radio to very high energy (VHE,≳ 100 GeV) γ-ray emission from Cen A, including GeV hardness detected by Fermi-LAT and TeV emission detected by HESS. We consider two scenarios: (i) Two zone synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) and external-Compton (EC) models, (ii) Two zone SSC, EC and photo-hadronic emission from cosmic ray interactions. The GeV hardness observed by Fermi-LAT can be explained using these two scenarios, where zone 2 EC emission is very important. Hadronic emission in scenario (ii) can explain VHE data with the same spectral slope as obtained through fitting UHECRs from Cen A. The peak luminosity in cosmic ray proton at 1 TeV, to explain the VHE γ-ray data is ≈2.5 × 1046 erg/s. The bolometric luminosity in cosmic ray protons is consistent with the luminosity required to explain the origin of 13 UHECR signal events that are correlated with Cen A.

  10. Cosmic Ray Origin: Lessons from Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays and the Galactic/Extragalactic Transition

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Parizot, Etienne

    2014-11-15

    We examine the question of the origin of the Galactic cosmic-rays (GCRs) in the light of the data available at the highest energy end of the spectrum. We argue that the data of the Pierre Auger Observatory and of the KASCADE-Grande experiment suggest that the transition between the Galactic and the extragalactic components takes place at the energy of the ankle in the all-particle cosmic-ray spectrum, and at an energy of the order of 10{sup 17} eV for protons. Such a high energy for Galactic protons appears difficult to reconcile with the general view that GCRs are accelerated by the standard diffusive shock acceleration process at the forward shock of individual supernova remnants (SNRs). We also review various difficulties of the standard SNR-GCR connection, related to the evolution of the light element abundances and to significant isotopic anomalies. We point out that most of the power injected by the supernovæ in the Galaxy is actually released inside superbubbles, which may thus play an important role in the origin of cosmic-rays, and could solve some persistent problems of the standard SNR-GCR scenario in a rather natural way.

  11. Particle and astrophysics aspects of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sigl, G.

    2001-01-01

    The origin of cosmic rays is one of the major unresolved astrophysical questions. In particular, the highest energy cosmic rays observed possess macroscopic energies and their origin is likely to be associated with the most energetic processes in the Universe. Their existence triggered a flurry of theoretical explanations ranging from conventional shock acceleration to particle physics beyond the Standard Model and processes taking place at the earliest moments of our Universe. Furthermore, many new experimental activities promise a strong increase of statistics at the highest energies and a combination with γ-ray and neutrino astrophysics will put strong constraints on these theoretical models. Detailed Monte Carlo simulations indicate that charged ultra-high energy cosmic rays can also be used as probes of large scale magnetic fields whose origin may open another window into the very early Universe. We give an overview over this quickly evolving research field. (author)

  12. Particle and astrophysics aspects of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sigl, G [Institut d' Astrophysique de Paris, Paris (France)

    2001-11-15

    The origin of cosmic rays is one of the major unresolved astrophysical questions. In particular, the highest energy cosmic rays observed possess macroscopic energies and their origin is likely to be associated with the most energetic processes in the Universe. Their existence triggered a flurry of theoretical explanations ranging from conventional shock acceleration to particle physics beyond the Standard Model and processes taking place at the earliest moments of our Universe. Furthermore, many new experimental activities promise a strong increase of statistics at the highest energies and a combination with {gamma}-ray and neutrino astrophysics will put strong constraints on these theoretical models. Detailed Monte Carlo simulations indicate that charged ultra-high energy cosmic rays can also be used as probes of large scale magnetic fields whose origin may open another window into the very early Universe. We give an overview over this quickly evolving research field. (author)

  13. High-Energy Cosmic Ray Self-Confinement Close to Extra-Galactic Sources.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blasi, Pasquale; Amato, Elena; D'Angelo, Marta

    2015-09-18

    The ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays observed on the Earth are most likely accelerated in extra-Galactic sources. For the typical luminosities invoked for such sources, the electric current associated to the flux of cosmic rays that leave them is large. The associated plasma instabilities create magnetic fluctuations that can efficiently scatter particles. We argue that this phenomenon forces cosmic rays to be self-confined in the source proximity for energies Esources for energies Esource luminosity in units of 10^{44} erg/s.

  14. Cosmic very high-energy {gamma}-rays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Plaga, R. [Max-Planck-Institut fur Physik, Muenchen (Germany)

    1998-12-31

    The article gives a brief overview, aimed at nonspecialists, about the goals and selected recent results of the detection of very-high energy {gamma}-rays (energies above 100 GeV) with ground based detectors. The stress is on the physics questions, specially the origin of Galactic Cosmic Rays and the emission of TeV {gamma}-radiation from active galaxies. Moreover some particle-physics questions which are addressed in this area are discussed.

  15. Quasars as Sources of Ultrahigh-Energy Cosmic Rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Glushkov, A.V.

    2005-01-01

    The results are presented that were obtained by analyzing arrival directions for cosmic rays that the Yakutsk array for studying extensive air showers recorded between 1974 and 2002 in the energy region E 0 ≥5x10 17 eV for zenith angles in the region θ ≤60 deg. . It is shown that quasars for which the redshift lies in the region z≤2.5 can be sources of these cosmic rays. Ordered structures are observed in the disposition of quasars and in the cosmic-ray arrival directions. These structures can be associated in one way or another with the large-scale structure of the Universe

  16. CAN ULTRAHIGH-ENERGY COSMIC RAYS COME FROM GAMMA-RAY BURSTS? COSMIC RAYS BELOW THE ANKLE AND GALACTIC GAMMA-RAY BURSTS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eichler, David; Pohl, Martin

    2011-01-01

    The maximum cosmic-ray energy achievable by acceleration by a relativistic blast wave is derived. It is shown that forward shocks from long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) in the interstellar medium accelerate protons to large enough energies, and have a sufficient energy budget, to produce the Galactic cosmic-ray component just below the ankle at 4 x 10 18 eV, as per an earlier suggestion. It is further argued that, were extragalactic long GRBs responsible for the component above the ankle as well, the occasional Galactic GRB within the solar circle would contribute more than the observational limits on the outward flux from the solar circle, unless an avoidance scenario, such as intermittency and/or beaming, allows the present-day local flux to be less than 10 -3 of the average. Difficulties with these avoidance scenarios are noted.

  17. Cosmic-ray ultra high-energy multijet family event

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zou Bao-tang; Wang Cheng-rui; Ren Jing-ru

    1987-01-01

    A cosmic-ray ultra-high-energy multijet family event with visible energy of about 1500 TeV and five large cores is reported. This event was found in the 1980-1981 exposure of the Mt. Kambala (5500 M a.s.l.) emulsion-chamber experiment. The family characteristics are analyzed and compared with other cosmic ray events in the same energy range. The production and fragmentation characteristics of the five jets are studied and compared with the experimental results of accelerators and emulsion chamber C-jets as well as with QCD predictions above the TeV range. Some features on hadronic interactions in the TeV range are discussed

  18. Cosmic ray: Studying the origin

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Szabelski, J.

    1997-01-01

    Investigations of the origin of cosmic rays are presented. Different methods are discussed: studies of cosmic gamma rays of energy from 30 MeV to about 10 15 eV (since photons point to their places of origin), studies of the mass composition of cosmic rays (because it reflects source morphology), and studies of cosmic rays with energy above 1O 19 eV (for these are the highest energies observed in nature). (author)

  19. Angular correlation of cosmic neutrinos with ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays and implications for their sources

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Moharana, Reetanjali; Razzaque, Soebur, E-mail: reetanjalim@uj.ac.za, E-mail: srazzaque@uj.ac.za [Department of Physics, University of Johannesburg, P.O. Box 524, Auckland Park 2006 (South Africa)

    2015-08-01

    Cosmic neutrino events detected by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory with energy 0∼> 3 TeV have poor angular resolutions to reveal their origin. Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), with better angular resolutions at 0>6 EeV energies, can be used to check if the same astrophysical sources are responsible for producing both neutrinos and UHECRs. We test this hypothesis, with statistical methods which emphasize invariant quantities, by using data from the Pierre Auger Observatory, Telescope Array and past cosmic-ray experiments. We find that the arrival directions of the cosmic neutrinos are correlated with 0≥ 10 EeV UHECR arrival directions at confidence level ≈ 90%. The strength of the correlation decreases with decreasing UHECR energy and no correlation exists at energy 0∼ 6 EeV . A search in astrophysical databases within 3{sup o} of the arrival directions of UHECRs with energy 0≥ 10 EeV, that are correlated with the IceCube cosmic neutrinos, resulted in 18 sources from the Swift-BAT X-ray catalog with redshift z≤ 0.06. We also found 3 objects in the Kühr catalog of radio sources using the same criteria. The sources are dominantly Seyfert galaxies with Cygnus A being the most prominent member. We calculate the required neutrino and UHECR fluxes to produce the observed correlated events, and estimate the corresponding neutrino luminosity (25 TeV–2.2 PeV) and cosmic-ray luminosity (500 TeV–180 EeV), assuming the sources are the ones we found in the Swift-BAT and Kühr catalogs. We compare these luminosities with the X-ray luminosity of the corresponding sources and discuss possibilities of accelerating protons to 0∼> 10 EeV and produce neutrinos in these sources.

  20. Cosmic ray: Studying the origin

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Szabelski, J. [Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Soltan Institute for Nuclear Studies, Lodz (Poland)

    1997-12-31

    Investigations of the origin of cosmic rays are presented. Different methods are discussed: studies of cosmic gamma rays of energy from 30 MeV to about 10{sup 15} eV (since photons point to their places of origin), studies of the mass composition of cosmic rays (because it reflects source morphology), and studies of cosmic rays with energy above 1O{sup 19} eV (for these are the highest energies observed in nature). (author) 101 refs, 19 figs, 7 tabs

  1. Status of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2015-01-01

    I will review the recent results on Ultra-High energy cosmic rays obtained by the Auger and Telescope Array Observatories, and discuss some of the Astrophysical scenarios that could account for them, a connection with LHC results  as well as the possible connections to neutrino and gamma ray observations.

  2. Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays and neutrinos

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stanev, Todor [Bartol Research Foundation, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 (United States)], E-mail: stanev@bartol.udel.edu

    2008-04-01

    We discuss the relation between the highest energy cosmic rays (UHECR) and UHE neutrinos. The neutrinos produced in the sources of optically thin astrophysical sources have been linked to the UHECR emissivity of the Universe. The fluxes of cosmogenic neutrinos, generated in propagation by UHECR, also reflect the acceleration of these particles, the maximum acceleration energy, and the cosmological evolution of their sources.

  3. A cosmic ray super high energy multijet family event

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zou Baotang; Wang Chengrui; Ren Jingru

    1986-01-01

    A cosmic ray super high energy family event with visible energy of about 1500 TeV and five big cores is reported. This event was found in the 1980-1981 exposure of Mt. Kambala (5500 M a.s.l.) emulsion chamber experiment. The family characteristics are analyzed and compared with the other cosmic ray events in the same energy range. The production and fragmentation characteristics of the five jets are studied and compared with the experimntal results of accelerators and C-jets as well as with QCD predictions up to TeV. Some features on hadronic interactions at TeV range are discussed

  4. Energy determination of trans-EeV cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoshida, S.

    2004-01-01

    This article gives a summary of the primary energy estimation by observing ultra-high energy cosmic ray induced extensive air showers (down to the EeV energies - the energy range of the Japanese AGASA experiment). The shower cascade in air initiated by cosmic rays is called Extensive Air Shower (EAS) which has been playing a key role in the detection of cosmic ray particles. There are two types of detection techniques available to measure the energy (as well as the arrival directions and mass composition) of the primary UHECR (ultra high energy cosmic rays) particles: the Ground Arrays and the Fluorescence Detectors. The two methods are highly complementary: the ground array method measures the lateral development of EAS cascades. The dynamics to determine the behavior of the lateral spread of particle distributions in EAS is well understood and rather reliable, regardless of the mass of the primary cosmic rays, but some uncertainties remain due to our incomplete knowledge concerning the hadronic interactions and the multiple scattering of secondary electrons. The fluorescence method observes the longitudinal development of cascades. It is similar to the concept of calorimetric detectors in high energy physics, since the fluorescence light generated by the charged particles in the shower is proportional to the energy deposited in the atmosphere. These two methods are complementary since they view different components of the EAS. The ground array observes the particles at ∼ 1 km away from the EAS axis while the fluorescence method is sensitive to particle energy distributions very close to the shower axis, typically less than 100 m. Therefore, both methods have their own advantage and disadvantage as far as the energy estimation is concerned. In the following sections, we discuss how to deduce the primary energy and the possible sources of the systematic uncertainties. The energy spectrum of UHECRs is a key clue for the understanding of the origin of UHE particle

  5. Phenomenon of energy concentration in high-energy family events of cosmic rays

    CERN Document Server

    Wang He; Dai Zhi Qiang; Xue Liang; Feng Cun Feng; Zhang Xue Yao; Li Jin; Zhang Nai Jian; He Mao; Wang Cheng Rui; Ren Jing Ru; Lu Sui Ling

    2002-01-01

    The phenomenon of energy concentration in high-energy family events of cosmic rays is studied by comparing the results of family events of total visible energies 100-400 TeV observed in the Kanbala emulsion chamber experiment with the Monte Carlo simulation data. The simulation is made by the program CORSIKA in which QGSJET is applied as the hadronic interaction model, and the chemical composition of primary cosmic rays is obtained from the rigidity-cut model and the extrapolation of new results of direct measurements. This shows that the whole distribution tendency of the rate of energy concentration of simulated family events is basically consistent with that of the experiment

  6. Inverse problem for extragalactic transport of ultra-high energy cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ptuskin, V.S.; Rogovaya, S.I.; Zirakashvili, V.N.

    2015-01-01

    The energy spectra and composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays are changing in a course of propagation in the expanding Universe filled with background radiation. We developed a numerical code for solution of inverse problem for cosmic-ray transport equations that allows the determination of average source spectra of different nuclei from the cosmic ray spectra observed at the Earth. Employing this approach, the injection spectra of protons and Iron nuclei in extragalactic sources are found assuming that only these species are accelerated at the source. The data from the Auger experiment and the combined data from the Telescope Array + HiRes experiments are used to illustrate the method

  7. Inverse problem for extragalactic transport of ultra-high energy cosmic rays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ptuskin, V.S.; Rogovaya, S.I.; Zirakashvili, V.N., E-mail: vptuskin@izmiran.ru, E-mail: rogovaya@izmiran.ru, E-mail: zirak@izmiran.ru [Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IZMIRAN), Troitsk, Moscow, 142190 (Russian Federation)

    2015-03-01

    The energy spectra and composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays are changing in a course of propagation in the expanding Universe filled with background radiation. We developed a numerical code for solution of inverse problem for cosmic-ray transport equations that allows the determination of average source spectra of different nuclei from the cosmic ray spectra observed at the Earth. Employing this approach, the injection spectra of protons and Iron nuclei in extragalactic sources are found assuming that only these species are accelerated at the source. The data from the Auger experiment and the combined data from the Telescope Array + HiRes experiments are used to illustrate the method.

  8. Effect of energy deposited by cosmic-ray particles on interferometric gravitational wave detectors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamamoto, Kazuhiro; Hayakawa, Hideaki; Okada, Atsushi; Uchiyama, Takashi; Miyoki, Shinji; Ohashi, Masatake; Kuroda, Kazuaki; Kanda, Nobuyuki; Tatsumi, Daisuke; Tsunesada, Yoshiki

    2008-01-01

    We investigated the noise of interferometric gravitational wave detectors due to heat energy deposited by cosmic-ray particles. We derived a general formula that describes the response of a mirror against a cosmic-ray passage. We found that there are differences in the comic-ray responses (the dependence of temperature and cosmic-ray track position) in cases of interferometric and resonant gravitational wave detectors. The power spectral density of vibrations caused by low-energy secondary muons is 100 times smaller than the goal sensitivity of future second-generation interferometer projects, such as LCGT and Advanced LIGO. The arrival frequency of high-energy cosmic-ray muons that generate enough large showers inside mirrors of LCGT and Advanced LIGO is one per a millennium. We also discuss the probability of exotic-particle detection with interferometers.

  9. 11. European cosmic ray symposium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1989-03-01

    The biannual Symposium includes all aspects of cosmic ray research. The scientific programme was organized under three main headings: Cosmic rays in the heliosphere, Cosmic rays in the interstellar and extragalactic space, Properties of high-energy interactions as studied by cosmic rays. Seven invited talks were indexed seprately for the INIS database. (R.P.)

  10. Pulsars as the sources of high energy cosmic ray positrons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hooper, Dan; Blasi, Pasquale; Serpico, Pasquale Dario

    2009-01-01

    Recent results from the PAMELA satellite indicate the presence of a large flux of positrons (relative to electrons) in the cosmic ray spectrum between approximately 10 and 100 GeV. As annihilating dark matter particles in many models are predicted to contribute to the cosmic ray positron spectrum in this energy range, a great deal of interest has resulted from this observation. Here, we consider pulsars (rapidly spinning, magnetized neutron stars) as an alternative source of this signal. After calculating the contribution to the cosmic ray positron and electron spectra from pulsars, we find that the spectrum observed by PAMELA could plausibly originate from such sources. In particular, a significant contribution is expected from the sum of all mature pulsars throughout the Milky Way, as well as from the most nearby mature pulsars (such as Geminga and B0656+14). The signal from nearby pulsars is expected to generate a small but significant dipole anisotropy in the cosmic ray electron spectrum, potentially providing a method by which the Fermi gamma-ray space telescope would be capable of discriminating between the pulsar and dark matter origins of the observed high energy positrons

  11. On the Origin of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays II

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fowler, T K; Colgate, S; Li, H; Bulmer, R H; Pino, J

    2011-03-08

    We show that accretion disks around Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) could account for the enormous power in observed ultra high energy cosmic rays {approx}10{sup 20} eV (UHEs). In our model, cosmic rays are produced by quasi-steady acceleration of ions in magnetic structures previously proposed to explain jets around Active Galactic Nuclei with supermassive black holes. Steady acceleration requires that an AGN accretion disk act as a dynamo, which we show to follow from a modified Standard Model in which the magnetic torque of the dynamo replaces viscosity as the dominant mechanism accounting for angular momentum conservation during accretion. A black hole of mass M{sub BH} produces a steady dynamo voltage V {proportional_to} {radical}M{sub BH} giving V {approx} 10{sup 20} volts for M{sub BH} {approx} 10{sup 8} solar masses. The voltage V reappears as an inductive electric field at the advancing nose of a dynamo-driven jet, where plasma instability inherent in collisionless runaway acceleration allows ions to be steadily accelerated to energies {approx} V, finally ejected as cosmic rays. Transient events can produce much higher energies. The predicted disk radiation is similar to the Standard Model. Unique predictions concern the remarkable collimation of jets and emissions from the jet/radiolobe structure. Given MBH and the accretion rate, the model makes 7 predictions roughly consistent with data: (1) the jet length; (2) the jet radius; (3) the steady-state cosmic ray energy spectrum; (4) the maximum energy in this spectrum; (5) the UHE cosmic ray intensity on Earth; (6) electron synchrotron wavelengths; and (7) the power in synchrotron radiation. These qualitative successes motivate new computer simulations, experiments and data analysis to provide a quantitative verification of the model.

  12. The puzzle of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays

    CERN Document Server

    Tkachev, I I

    2003-01-01

    In early years the cosmic ray studies were ahead of accelerator research, starting from the discovery of positrons, through muons, to that of pions and strange particles. Today we are facing the situation that the puzzling saga of cosmic rays of the highest energies may again unfold in the discovery of new physics, now beyond the Standard Model; or it may bring to life an "extreme" astrophysics. After a short review of the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin puzzle, I discuss different models which were suggested for its resolution. Are there any hints pointing to the correct model? I argue that the small-scale clustering of arrival directions of cosmic rays gives a clue, and BL Lacs are the probable sources of the observed events. (58 refs).

  13. Interplanetary cosmic-ray scintillations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Toptygin, I N; Vasiliev, V N [Kalininskij Sel' skokhozyajstvennyj Inst. (USSR)

    1977-05-01

    The equation for the two-particles cosmic-ray distribution function is derived by means of the Boltzmann kinetic equation averaging. This equation is valid for arbitrary ratio of regular and random parts of the magnetic field. For small energy particles the guiding-center approximation is used. On the basis of the derived equation the dependence between power spectra of cosmic-ray intensity and random magnetic field is obtained. If power spectra are degree functions for high energy particles (approximately 10 GeV nucleon/sup -1/), then the spectral exponent ..gamma.. of magnetic field lies between rho and rho-2, where rho is the spectral exponent of cosmic-ray power spectra. The experimental data concerning moderate energy particles are in accordance with ..gamma..=rho, which demonstrates that the magnetic fluctuations are isotropic or cosmic-ray space gradient is small near the Earth orbit.

  14. On the Energy Spectra of GeV/TeV Cosmic Ray Leptons

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stawarz, Lukasz; /KIPAC, Menlo Park /Jagiellonian U., Astron. Observ.; Petrosian, Vahe; /KIPAC, Menlo Park /Stanford U., Phys. Dept. /Stanford U., Appl. Phys. Dept.; Blandford, Roger D.; /KIPAC, Menlo Park

    2011-08-19

    Recent observations of cosmic ray electrons from several instruments have revealed various degrees of deviation in the measured electron energy distribution from a simple power-law, in a form of an excess around 0.1 to 1 TeV energies. An even more prominent deviation and excess has been observed in the fraction of cosmic ray positrons around 10 and 100 GeV energies. These observations have received considerable attention and many theoretical models have been proposed to explain them. The models rely on either dark matter annihilation/decay or specific nearby astrophysical sources, and involve several additional assumptions regarding the dark matter distribution or particle acceleration. In this paper we show that the observed excesses in the electron spectrum may be easily reproduced without invoking any unusual sources other than the general diffuse Galactic components of cosmic rays. The model presented here assumes a power-law injection of electrons (and protons) by supernova remnants, and evaluates their expected energy spectrum based on a simple kinetic equation describing the propagation of charged particles in the interstellar medium. The primary physical effect involved is the Klein-Nishina suppression of the electron cooling rate around TeV energies. With a very reasonable choice of the model parameters characterizing the local interstellar medium, we can reproduce the most recent observations by Fermi and HESS experiments. Interestingly, in our model the injection spectral index of cosmic ray electrons becomes comparable to, or even equal to that of cosmic ray protons. The Klein-Nishina effect may also affect the propagation of the secondary e{sup {+-}} pairs, and therefore modify the cosmic ray positron-to-electron ratio. We have explored this possibility by considering two mechanisms for production of e{sup {+-}} pairs within the Galaxy. The first is due to the decay of {pi}{sup {+-}}'s produced by interaction of cosmic ray nuclei with ambient

  15. Department of Cosmic Ray Physics: Overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Szabelski, J.

    2001-01-01

    Full text: The Department of Cosmic Ray Physics in Lodz is involved in basic research in the area of high-energy physics and cosmic ray physics related to: Experimental and phenomenological studies of Extensive Air Showers induced by cosmic ray particles. Studies of ultra-high energy (above 10 19 eV) cosmic rays: determination of energy and primary particle mass composition. Studies of asymptotic properties of hadronic interactions based on the analysis of cosmic ray propagation through the atmosphere. Studies of mass composition of cosmic rays in the energy range 10 15 -10 17 eV. Registration of cosmic ray intensity variation correlated with solar activity. Theoretical and experimental studies of Extensive Air Shower properties are performed mostly based on the results obtained by the Lodz Extensive Air Shower Array. We have noticed unexplainable delayed signals registered about 500-900 microseconds after the main EAS pulse. We prepared hardware for further experimental study of this effect. In September we have started registration of 5 GeV muon flux with the underground muon telescope. We registered 3 decreases of muon intensity correlated with Forbush decreases registered at lower energies. Variations of primary cosmic ray of energies up to about 100 GeV were responsible for our registrations. These set the upper limits for geometrical size of geomagnetic disturbances in interplanetary space. In construction and data interpretation of cosmic ray experiments, the Lodz group collaborates with many foreign institutes and laboratories: Forschungszentrum in Karlsruhe (Germany), College de France, Institute for Nuclear Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Uppsala University (Sweden). We have organised (together with the Physics Department of the University of Lodz) the 17 th European Cosmic Ray Symposium (24-?8 July 2000) in which about 150 physicists participated (about 100 from abroad). (author)

  16. Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays

    CERN Document Server

    Dova, M.T.

    2015-05-22

    The origin of the ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) with energies above E > 10 17 eV, is still unknown. The discovery of their sources will reveal the engines of the most energetic astrophysical accelerators in the universe. This is a written version of a series of lectures devoted to UHECR at the 2013 CERN-Latin-American School of High-Energy Physics. We present anintroduction to acceleration mechanisms of charged particles to the highest energies in astrophysical objects, their propagation from the sources to Earth, and the experimental techniques for their detection. We also discuss some of the relevant observational results from Telescope Array and Pierre Auger Observatory. These experiments deal with particle interactions at energies orders of magnitude higher than achieved in terrestrial accelerators.

  17. Composition of cosmic rays in the knee region of the primary energy spectrum

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Das Gupta, U.

    1989-01-01

    The Soudan Surface-Underground Cosmic Ray Telescope is located at the Soudan iron mine in northern Minnesota. It consists of a coincidence arrangement of two detectors-one installed at the surface of the mine and the other located underground, at a vertical depth of 600 meters. Using such an arrangement, the energy and composition of a primary cosmic ray particle can be determined independently of one another. When a high energy cosmic ray enters the Earth's atmosphere, secondary particles are produced in successive interactions, creating an extensive air shower. Using the surface detector, the number of particles in the shower at the surface of the Earth can be counted and the energy of the primary particle estimated. Of all the particles that are created in a cosmic ray air shower, only the energetic muons are able to penetrate underground. The separations of the muons below ground are measured by the Soudan 1 detector and this serves as an indicator of the type of nucleus that initiated the shower. The Soudan surface-underground detector is sensitive to primary cosmic rays of energies between 10 14 and 10 18 eV. The data from the experiment were compared to the predictions of various cosmic ray composition models, within this energy range. The data supported a composition model that was proton dominated up to the highest energies measured. There was no indication of a shift in the composition towards heavier primaries as would be expected on the basis of some models

  18. The Cosmic Ray Energy Spectrum and Related Measurements with the Pierre Auger Observatory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Abraham, : J.; Abreu, P.; Aglietta, M.; Aguirre, C.; Ahn, E.J.; Allard, D.; Allekotte, I.; Allen, J.; Alvarez-Muniz, J.; Ambrosio, M.; Anchordoqui, L.

    2009-06-01

    These are presentations to be presented at the 31st International Cosmic Ray Conference, in Lodz, Poland during July 2009. It consists of the following presentations: (1) Measurement of the cosmic ray energy spectrum above 10{sup 18} eV with the Pierre Auger Observatory; (2) The cosmic ray flux observed at zenith angles larger than 60 degrees with the Pierre Auger Observatory; (3) Energy calibration of data recorded with the surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory; (4) Exposure of the Hybrid Detector of The Pierre Auger Observatory; and (5) Energy scale derived from Fluorescence Telescopes using Cherenkov Light and Shower Universality.

  19. Department of Cosmic Ray Physics; Overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Szabelski, J.

    2004-01-01

    Full text: Cosmic Rays are energetic particles from outside the Solar System. The energy spectrum (power law energy dependence) suggests a non-thermal origin of these particles. Most of the studies of Cosmic Rays address fundamental problems such as: - the nature of the physical and astrophysical processes responsible for the high energies of particles (up to about 10 20 eV/particle), - estimation of the astrophysical conditions at the acceleration sites and/or a search for sources of Cosmic Rays, - properties of high energy particle interactions at very high energies (nuclear interactions at energies exceeding energies available in the laboratories). Some Cosmic Ray studies might have practical (commercial) implications, e.g. - ''cosmic weather'' forecast - predictions of geomagnetic disturbances related to Solar activity changes (due to large Solar Flares / events of Coronal Mass Ejections); these are important for large electricity networks, gas pipes, radio-wave connections, space missions and satellite experiments. The Department of Cosmic Ray Physics in Lodz is involved in basic research in the high energy Cosmic Ray field. Energetic Cosmic Ray particles produce cascades of particles in the atmosphere, called Extensive Air Showers (EAS). Registering EAS and their properties is the main theme of experimental studies of very high energy Cosmic Rays. In the Lodz Department we run an Extensive Air Shower array where EAS are registered. We concentrate our experimental research on the explanation of particle detection delayed by hundreds of microseconds with respect to the main EAS signals. In the underground (I5 meters) laboratory we continuously register muon (5 GeV energy threshold) flux with the multidirectional telescope. We have observed several disturbances (Forbush Decreases) in muon counting rates. The interpretation of these events for ''cosmic weather'' and for Cosmic Ray transport models in the interplanetary plasma are on going in collaboration with

  20. Constraining sources of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays and shear acceleration mechanism of particles in relativistic jets

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liu, Ruoyu

    2015-06-10

    Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays are extreme energetic particles from outer space. They have aroused great interest among scientists for more than fifty years. However, due to the rarity of the events and complexity of the process of their propagation to Earth, they are still one of the biggest puzzles in modern high energy astrophysics. This dissertation is dedicated to study the origin of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays from various aspects. Firstly, we discuss a possible link between recently discovered sub-PeV/PeV neutrinos and ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. If these two kinds of particles share the same origin, the observation of neutrinos may provide additional and non-trivial constraints on the sources of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. Secondly, we jointly employ the chemical composition measurement and the arrival directions of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays, and find a robust upper limit for distances of sources of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays above ∝55 EeV, as well as a lower limit for their metallicities. Finally, we study the shear acceleration mechanism in relativistic jets, which is a more efficient mechanism for the acceleration of higher energy particle. We compute the acceleration efficiency and the time-dependent particle energy spectrum, and explore the feature of synchrotron radiation of the accelerated particles. The possible realizations of this mechanism for acceleration of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays in different astrophysical environments is also discussed.

  1. Cosmic rays in space

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fujitaka, Kazunobu

    2005-01-01

    Cosmos is a mysterious space by which many researchers are fascinated for many years. But, going into space means that we will receive extra exposure due to existence of cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are mainly composed of highly energetic protons. It was born in the last stage of stellar life. Understanding of cosmos will certainly bring right understanding of radiation energy, or energy itself. As no one could see the very early stage of cosmic rays, there is only a speculation. But it is better to speculate something based on certain side evidences, than to give up the whole. Such attitude shall be welcomed in the space researches. Anyway, cosmic rays were born in the last explosion of a star, which is called as Super Nova. After cosmic rays are emitted from the Super Nova, it will reach to the human surroundings. To indicate its intensity, special unit of ''dose rate'' is used. When a man climbs a mountain, cosmic ray intensity surely increases. It doubles as he goes up every 1500m elevation. It was ascertained by our own measurements. Then what happens when the goes up more? At aviation altitude, where airplanes fly, the dose rate will be increased up to 100times the high mountain cases. And what is expected when he goes up further more, up to space orbit altitude? In this case, the dose rate increases up to 10times the airplane cases. Geomagnetism affects the dose rate very much. As primary cosmic ray particles are charged particles, they cannot do well with existence of the magnetic field. In effect, cosmic rays can penetrate into the polar atmosphere along geomagnetic lines of forces which stand almost vertical, but penetration of low energy cosmic rays will be banned when they intend to penetrate crossing the geomagnetic lines of forces in equatorial region. Therefore, exposure due to cosmic rays will become large in polar region, while it remains small in equatorial region. In effect, airplanes which fly over the equator. Only, we have to know that the cosmos

  2. Cosmic Ray Physics with ACORDE at LHC

    CERN Document Server

    Pagliarone, C.

    2008-01-01

    The use of large underground high-energy physics experiments, for comic ray studies, have been used, in the past, at CERN, in order to measure, precisely, the inclusive cosmic ray flux in the energy range from 2x10^10 - 2x10^12 eV. ACORDE, ALICE Cosmic Rays DEtector, will act as Level 0 cosmic ray trigger and, together with other ALICE apparatus, will provide precise information on cosmic rays with primary energies around 10^15 - 10^17 eV. This paper reviews the main detector features, the present status, commissioning and integration with other apparatus. Finally, we discuss the ACORDE-ALICE cosmic ray physics program.

  3. Cosmic ray physics with ACORDE at LHC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pagliarone, C; Fernandez-Tellez, A

    2008-01-01

    The use of large underground high-energy physics experiments, for comic ray studies, have been used, in the past, at CERN, in order to measure, precisely, the inclusive cosmic ray flux in the energy range from 2·10 10 to 2· 10 12 eV. ACORDE, ALICE Cosmic Rays DEtector, will act as Level 0 cosmic ray trigger and, together with other ALICE apparatus, will provide precise information on cosmic rays with primary energies around 10 15 to 10 17 eV. This paper reviews the main detector features, the present status, commissioning and integration with other apparatus. Finally, we discuss the ACORDE-ALICE cosmic ray physics program

  4. A common origin of all the species of high energy cosmic rays?

    CERN Document Server

    Dar, Arnon; Antoniou, Nikos; Dar, Arnon; Antoniou, Nikos

    2000-01-01

    The cosmic ray nuclei with energy above a few GeV, the cosmic ray electrons of energy above a few MeV and the diffuse gamma-ray background above a few MeV, could all predominantly originate from our galaxy {\\it and its halo}. The mechanism accelerating hadrons and electrons is the same, the electron spectrum is modulated by inverse Compton scattering on the microwave background radiation, and the $\\gamma$-rays are the resulting recoiling photons. The spectra calculated on this basis agree with observations.

  5. Department of Cosmic Ray Physics - Overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Szabelski, J.

    2010-01-01

    Full text: The 31 st International Cosmic Ray Conference (31.ICRC) was held in Lodz on 7-15 July 2009. The Conference was organized by the University of Lodz (Department of High Energy Astrophysics and Department of Astrophysics) and IPJ (Department of Cosmic Ray Physics). ICRCs are held every two years and are the largest forums to present and discuss the current status of Cosmic Ray studies. The Conference we co-organized gathered about 750 scientists (including about 50 from Poland). This was a remarkable event. The Department of Cosmic Ray Physics in Lodz is involved in basic research in the field of high energy Cosmic Rays. Cosmic Rays are energetic panicles from outside the Solar System. Most studies of Cosmic Rays address fundamental problems: - the nature of the physical and astrophysical processes responsible for the high energies of the particles. - experimental search for sources of Cosmic Rays, - studies of the astrophysical conditions at the acceleration sites, - properties of particle interactions at very high energies. Presentation of Cosmic Ray registration to high school students has become a popular way to introduce panicle physics detectors and elementary particle detection techniques to young people, in Lodz and Poznan we organize workshops on particle physics for high school students. This is part of the European activity: EPPOG Masterclass - Hands on CERN. Energetic Cosmic Ray particles produce cascades of panicles in the atmosphere, called Extensive Air Showers (EAS). Registering EASs and their properties is the main means of studying experimentally high energy Cosmic Rays: · The satellite experiment JEM-EUSO will observe EASs from the International Space Station. The main target is to find Cosmic Ray Sources for the highest energy Cosmic Rays. JEM-EUSO will collect a large number of events since it will observe a large area of the atmosphere. We are participating in the preparation of this mission. · The KASCADE-Grande addresses

  6. Cosmic-ray energy densities in star-forming galaxies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Persic Massimo

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The energy density of cosmic ray protons in star forming galaxies can be estimated from π0-decay γ-ray emission, synchrotron radio emission, and supernova rates. To galaxies for which these methods can be applied, the three methods yield consistent energy densities ranging from Up ~ 0.1 − 1 eV cm−3 to Up ~ 102 − 103 eV cm−3 in galaxies with low to high star-formation rates, respectively.

  7. ALICE Cosmic Ray Detector

    CERN Multimedia

    Fernandez Tellez, A; Martinez Hernandez, M; Rodriguez Cahuantzi, M

    2013-01-01

    The ALICE underground cavern provides an ideal place for the detection of high energy atmospheric muons coming from cosmic ray showers. ACORDE detects cosmic ray showers by triggering the arrival of muons to the top of the ALICE magnet.

  8. Cosmic ray physics with ACORDE at LHC

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pagliarone, C [Universita degli Studi di Cassino and INFN Pisa, Largo B. Pontecorvo, 3 - Pisa (Italy); Fernandez-Tellez, A [Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla (BUAP), Puebla (Mexico)], E-mail: pagliarone@fnal.gov

    2008-05-15

    The use of large underground high-energy physics experiments, for comic ray studies, have been used, in the past, at CERN, in order to measure, precisely, the inclusive cosmic ray flux in the energy range from 2{center_dot}10{sup 10} to 2{center_dot} 10{sup 12} eV. ACORDE, ALICE Cosmic Rays DEtector, will act as Level 0 cosmic ray trigger and, together with other ALICE apparatus, will provide precise information on cosmic rays with primary energies around 10{sup 15} to 10{sup 17} eV. This paper reviews the main detector features, the present status, commissioning and integration with other apparatus. Finally, we discuss the ACORDE-ALICE cosmic ray physics program.

  9. COSMIC-RAY TRANSPORT AND ANISOTROPIES

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Biermann, Peter L. [MPI for Radioastronomy, Auf dem Huegel 69, D-53121 Bonn (Germany); Becker Tjus, Julia; Mandelartz, Matthias [Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, Fakultaet fuer Physik and Astronomie, Theoretische Physik I, D-44780 Bochum (Germany); Seo, Eun-Suk [Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States)

    2013-05-10

    We show that the large-scale cosmic-ray anisotropy at {approx}10 TeV can be explained by a modified Compton-Getting effect in the magnetized flow field of old supernova remnants. Cosmic rays arrive isotropically to the flow field and are then carried along with the flow to produce a large-scale anisotropy in the arrival direction. This approach suggests an optimum energy scale for detecting the anisotropy. Two key assumptions are that propagation is based on turbulence following a Kolmogorov law and that cosmic-ray interactions are dominated by transport via cosmic-ray-excited magnetic irregularities through the stellar wind of an exploding star and its shock shell. A prediction is that the amplitude is smaller at lower energies due to incomplete sampling of the velocity field and also smaller at larger energies due to smearing.

  10. Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (2/3)

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2012-01-01

    The origin of the highest energy cosmic rays (UHECR) with energies above 1000 TeV, is still unknown. The discovery of their sources will reveal the engines of the most energetic astrophysical accelerators in the universe. In these lectures we present the recent observational results from HiRes, Telescope Array and Pierre Auger Observatory as well as (some of) the possible astrophysical origins of UHECR. These experiments deal with particle interactions at energies orders of magnitude higher than achieved in terrestrial accelerators.

  11. Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (1/3)

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2012-01-01

    The origin of the highest energy cosmic rays (UHECR) with energies above 1000 TeV, is still unknown. The discovery of their sources will reveal the engines of the most energetic astrophysical accelerators in the universe. In these lectures we present the recent observational results from HiRes, Telescope Array and Pierre Auger Observatory as well as (some of) the possible astrophysical origins of UHECR. These experiments deal with particle interactions at energies orders of magnitude higher than achieved in terrestrial accelerators.

  12. Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (3/3)

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2012-01-01

    The origin of the highest energy cosmic rays (UHECR) with energies above 1000 TeV, is still unknown. The discovery of their sources will reveal the engines of the most energetic astrophysical accelerators in the universe. In these lectures we present the recent observational results from HiRes, Telescope Array and Pierre Auger Observatory as well as (some of) the possible astrophysical origins of UHECR. These experiments deal with particle interactions at energies orders of magnitude higher than achieved in terrestrial accelerators.

  13. Department of Cosmic Ray Physics; Overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Szabelski, J.

    2003-01-01

    Full text: Department of Cosmic Ray Physics in Lodz is involved in basic research in the area of high-energy physics and cosmic ray physics related to: - Experimental and phenomenological studies of Extensive Air Showers induced by cosmic ray particles. - Studies of ultra-high energy (above 10 19 eV) cosmic rays: determination of energy spectrum and mass composition of primary particles - Studies of asymptotic properties of hadronic interactions based on the analysis of cosmic ray propagation through the atmosphere. - Studies of mass composition of cosmic rays in the energy range 10 15 - 10 17 eV. - Registration of cosmic ray intensity variation correlated with solar activity. Theoretical and experimental studies of Extensive Air Shower properties are performed mostly basing on the results obtained by the Lodz Extensive Air Shower Array. We have noticed unexplainable delayed signals registered about 500-900 microseconds after the main EAS pulse. Neutron transport simulations were performed in collaboration with JINR in Dubna. We prepared hardware for further experimental study of this effect. Continuous registrations of 5 GeV muon flux with the underground muon telescope have been carried on over the year 2001. We have detected several changes of muon intensity correlated with Forbush decreases registered at lower energies. We have also started registrations of muon counting rate in the on-surface scintillation detectors. These measurements will be included to the analysis of the disturbed energy spectrum of primary cosmic rays and its dependence on interplanetary disturbances related to the solar activity. In construction and data interpretation of cosmic ray experiments the Lodz group collaborates with many foreign institutes and laboratories: Forschungszentrum in Karlsruhe (Germany), College de France, Institute for Nuclear Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, JINR in Dubna (Russia), Uppsala University (Sweden) and DESY (Germany). We have prepared a

  14. Department of Cosmic Ray Physics: Overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Szabelski, J.

    2002-01-01

    Full text:The Department of Cosmic Ray Physics in Lodz is involved in basic research in the area of high-energy physics and cosmic ray physics related to: * Experimental and phenomenological studies of Extensive Air Showers induced by cosmic ray particles. * Studies of ultra-high energy (above 10 19 eV) cosmic rays: determination of energy spectrum and mass composition of primary particles * Studies of asymptotic properties of hadronic interactions based on the analysis of cosmic ray propagation through the atmosphere. * Studies of mass composition of cosmic rays in the energy range 10 15 -10 17 eV. * Registration of cosmic ray intensity variation correlated with solar activity. Theoretical and experimental studies of Extensive Air Shower properties are performed mostly based on the results obtained by the Lodz Extensive Air Shower Array. We have noticed unexplainable delayed signals registered about 500-900 microseconds after the main EAS pulse. We prepared hardware for further experimental study of this effect. Continuous registrations of 5 GeV muon flux with the underground muon telescope have been carried on during 2001. We detected several changes of muon intensity correlated with Forbush decreases registered at lower energies. We have also started registration of the muon counting rate in on-surface scintillation detectors. These measurements will be included to the analysis of the disturbed energy spectrum of primary cosmic rays and its dependence on interplanetary disturbances related to solar activity. In construction and data interpretation of cosmic ray experiments the Lodz group collaborates with many foreign institutes and laboratories: Forschungszentrum in Karlsruhe (Germany), College de France, Institute for Nuclear Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Uppsala University (Sweden) and DESY (Germany). We have prepared a project of large air shower array for studies of cosmic rays up to 10 20 eV. Detectors would be placed on the roofs of high

  15. Cosmic-ray anisotropy studies with IceCube

    Science.gov (United States)

    McNally, Frank

    2014-03-01

    The IceCube neutrino observatory detects tens of billions of energetic muons per year produced by cosmic-ray interactions with the atmosphere. The size of this sample has allowed IceCube to observe a significant anisotropy in arrival direction for cosmic rays with median energies between 20 and 400 TeV. This anisotropy is characterized by a large scale structure of per-mille amplitude accompanied by structures with smaller amplitudes and with typical angular sizes between 10° and 20°. IceTop, the surface component of IceCube, has observed a similar anisotropy in the arrival direction distribution of cosmic rays, extending the study to PeV energies. The better energy resolution of IceTop allows for additional studies of the anisotropy, for example a comparison of the energy spectrum in regions of a cosmic-ray excess or deficit to the rest of the sky. We present an update on the cosmic-ray anisotropy observed with IceCube and IceTop and the results of first studies of the energy spectrum at locations of cosmic-ray excess or deficit.

  16. Department of Cosmic Ray Physics - Overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Szabelski, J

    2005-01-01

    Full text: The Department of Cosmic Ray Physics in Lodz is involved in basic research in the high energy Cosmic Ray field. Cosmic Rays are energetic particles from outside the Solar System. The energy spectrum (power law energy dependence) suggests a non-thermal origin of these particles. Most studies of Cosmic Rays address fundamental problems: - the nature of the physical and astrophysical processes responsible for high energies of particles (up to about 10 20 eV/particle), - estimation of the astrophysical conditions at the acceleration sites and/or search for sources of Cosmic Rays, - properties of high energy particle interactions at very high energies (nuclear interactions at energies exceeding energy available in laboratories). - Some Cosmic Ray studies might have practical (commercial) implications, e.g. - ''cosmic weather'' forecast - predictions of geomagnetic disturbances related to Solar activity changes (due to large Solar Flares / events of Coronal Mass Ejection); these are important for large electricity networks, gas pipes, radio-wave connections, space missions and satellite experiments. Presentation of Cosmic Ray registration to high school students is a popular way to introduce particle physics detectors and elementary particle detection techniques to young people. Energetic Cosmic Ray particles produce cascades of particles in the atmosphere, called Extensive Air Showers (EAS). Registering the EAS and their properties is the main way of experimental studies of very high energy Cosmic Rays. In our Lodz Department we run an Extensive Air Shower array where EAS are continuously being registered. We concentrate on the studies of detection of neutrons correlated with EAS and interpretation of this phenomenon. In 2004 we started realisation of the Roland Maze Project, the network of EAS detectors placed on the roofs of high schools in Lodz. We received funds from the City of Lodz's budget to make a pilot project and equip 10 high schools, each with

  17. Contribution from individual nearby sources to the spectrum of high-energy cosmic-ray electrons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sedrati, R.; Attallah, R.

    2014-01-01

    In the last few years, very important data on high-energy cosmic-ray electrons and positrons from high-precision space-born and ground-based experiments have attracted a great deal of interest. These particles represent a unique probe for studying local comic-ray accelerators because they lose energy very rapidly. These energy losses reduce the lifetime so drastically that high-energy cosmic-ray electrons can attain the Earth only from rather local astrophysical sources. This work aims at calculating, by means of Monte Carlo simulation, the contribution from some known nearby astrophysical sources to the cosmic-ray electron/positron spectra at high energy (≥10GeV). The background to the electron energy spectrum from distant sources is determined with the help of the GALPROP code. The obtained numerical results are compared with a set of experimental data

  18. Contribution from individual nearby sources to the spectrum of high-energy cosmic-ray electrons

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sedrati, R., E-mail: rafik.sedrati@univ-annaba.org; Attallah, R.

    2014-04-01

    In the last few years, very important data on high-energy cosmic-ray electrons and positrons from high-precision space-born and ground-based experiments have attracted a great deal of interest. These particles represent a unique probe for studying local comic-ray accelerators because they lose energy very rapidly. These energy losses reduce the lifetime so drastically that high-energy cosmic-ray electrons can attain the Earth only from rather local astrophysical sources. This work aims at calculating, by means of Monte Carlo simulation, the contribution from some known nearby astrophysical sources to the cosmic-ray electron/positron spectra at high energy (≥10GeV). The background to the electron energy spectrum from distant sources is determined with the help of the GALPROP code. The obtained numerical results are compared with a set of experimental data.

  19. Department of Cosmic Ray Physics - Overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Szabelski, J.

    2007-01-01

    The Department of Cosmic Ray Physics in Lodz is involved in basic research in the high energy Cosmic Ray field. Cosmic Rays are energetic particles from outside the Solar System. The energy spectrum (power law energy dependence) suggests non-thermal origin of these particles. Most of the studies of Cosmic Rays address fundamental problems: · the nature of the physical and astrophysical processes responsible for high energies of particles (up to about 1020 eV/particle), · an estimation of the astrophysical conditions at the acceleration sites and/or search for sources of Cosmic Rays, · properties of high energy particle interactions at very high energies (nuclear interactions at energies exceeding energy available in the laboratories). Some Cosmic Ray studies might have practical (commercial) implications, e.g.: · '' cosmic weather '' forecast - predictions of geomagnetic disturbances related to Solar activity changes (due to large Solar Flares / events of Coronal Mass Ejection); these are important for large electricity networks, gas pipes, radio-wave connections, space missions and satellite experiments. Presentation of Cosmic Ray registration to high school students becomes a popular way to introduce particle physics detectors and elementary particle detection techniques to young people. We organize in Lodz several workshops on particle physics for high school students. This is a part of European activity: Masterclass - Hands on CERN. Energetic Cosmic Ray particles produce cascades of particles in the atmosphere, called Extensive Air Showers (EAS). Registering EAS and their properties is the main way of experimental studies of very high energy Cosmic Rays. In Lodz Department we run Extensive Air Shower array where EAS are continuously being registered. We concentrate on the studies of detection of neutrons correlated with EAS and interpretation of this phenomenon. Back in 2004 we started realisation of the Roland Maze Project, the network of EAS detectors

  20. Restriction of cosmic-ray acceleration, mechanisms by high-energy Be7/Be data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Orth, C.D.; Buffington, A.; Mast, T.S.

    1979-01-01

    New high-energy cosmic-ray Be data indicate that the ratio Be 7 /Be drops by approximately a factor of two between 200 and 1500 MeV/nucleon. This result may provide a severe constraint for theories of cosmic-ray acceleration

  1. SimProp: a simulation code for ultra high energy cosmic ray propagation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aloisio, R.; Grillo, A.F.; Boncioli, D.; Petrera, S.; Salamida, F.

    2012-01-01

    A new Monte Carlo simulation code for the propagation of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays is presented. The results of this simulation scheme are tested by comparison with results of another Monte Carlo computation as well as with the results obtained by directly solving the kinetic equation for the propagation of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays. A short comparison with the latest flux published by the Pierre Auger collaboration is also presented

  2. Simulations of ultra-high energy cosmic rays in the local Universe and the origin of cosmic magnetic fields

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hackstein, S.; Vazza, F.; Brüggen, M.; Sorce, J. G.; Gottlöber, S.

    2018-04-01

    We simulate the propagation of cosmic rays at ultra-high energies, ≳1018 eV, in models of extragalactic magnetic fields in constrained simulations of the local Universe. We use constrained initial conditions with the cosmological magnetohydrodynamics code ENZO. The resulting models of the distribution of magnetic fields in the local Universe are used in the CRPROPA code to simulate the propagation of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. We investigate the impact of six different magneto-genesis scenarios, both primordial and astrophysical, on the propagation of cosmic rays over cosmological distances. Moreover, we study the influence of different source distributions around the Milky Way. Our study shows that different scenarios of magneto-genesis do not have a large impact on the anisotropy measurements of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. However, at high energies above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK)-limit, there is anisotropy caused by the distribution of nearby sources, independent of the magnetic field model. This provides a chance to identify cosmic ray sources with future full-sky measurements and high number statistics at the highest energies. Finally, we compare our results to the dipole signal measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory. All our source models and magnetic field models could reproduce the observed dipole amplitude with a pure iron injection composition. Our results indicate that the dipole is observed due to clustering of secondary nuclei in direction of nearby sources of heavy nuclei. A light injection composition is disfavoured, since the increase in dipole angular power from 4 to 8 EeV is too slow compared to observation by the Pierre Auger Observatory.

  3. High energy radiation from black holes gamma rays, cosmic rays, and neutrinos

    CERN Document Server

    Dermer, Charles D

    2009-01-01

    Bright gamma-ray flares observed from sources far beyond our Milky Way Galaxy are best explained if enormous amounts of energy are liberated by black holes. The highest- energy particles in nature--the ultra-high-energy cosmic rays--cannot be confined by the Milky Way's magnetic field, and must originate from sources outside our Galaxy. Understanding these energetic radiations requires an extensive theoretical framework involving the radiation physics and strong-field gravity of black holes. In High Energy Radiation from Black Holes, Charles Dermer and Govind Menon present a systemat

  4. Search for patterns by combining cosmic-ray energy and arrival directions at the Pierre Auger Observatory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aab, A.; Buchholz, P.; Erfani, M.; Froehlich, U.; Heimann, P.; Niechciol, M.; Ochilo, L.; Risse, M.; Tepe, A.; Yushkov, A.; Ziolkowski, M.; Abreu, P.; Andringa, S.; Assis, P.; Brogueira, P.; Cazon, L.; Conceicao, R.; Diogo, F.; Espadanal, J.; Goncalves, P.; Oliveira, M.; Pimenta, M.; Santo, C.E.; Sarmento, R.; Tome, B.; Aglietta, M.; Bertaina, M.E.; Bonino, R.; Castellina, A.; Chiavassa, A.; Gorgi, A.; Latronico, L.; Maldera, S.; Morello, C.; Navarra, G.; Ahn, E.J.; Fazzini, N.; Glass, H.; Hojvat, C.; Kasper, P.; Lebrun, P.; Mantsch, P.; Mazur, P.O.; Al Samarai, I.; Deligny, O.; Lhenry-Yvon, I.; Martraire, D.; Salamida, F.; Suomijaervi, T.; Albuquerque, I.F.M.; Gouffon, P.; Santos, E.M.; Allekotte, I.; Asorey, H.; Bertou, X.; Berisso, M.G.; Harari, D.; Mollerach, S.; Purrello, V.; Roulet, E.; Sidelnik, I.; Taborda, O.A.; Allen, J.; Awal, N.; Farrar, G.; Zaw, I.; Allison, P.; Beatty, J.J.; Gordon, J.; Griffith, N.; Stapleton, J.; Sutherland, M.S.; Almela, A.; Etchegoyen, A.; Wainberg, O.; Castillo, J.A.; D'Olivo, J.C.; Medina-Tanco, G.; Nellen, L.; Galicia, J.F.V.; Vargas Cardenas, B.; Alvarez-Muniz, J.; Ave, M.; Roca, S.T.G.; Agueera, A.L.; Parente, G.; Parra, A.; Carvalho, W.R. de; Cabo, I.R.; Elipe, G.T.; Tueros, M.; Valino, I.; Vazquez, R.A.; Zas, E.; Batista, R.A.; Schiffer, P.; Sigl, G.; Vliet, A. van; Ambrosio, M.; Aramo, C.; Buscemi, M.; Cilmo, M.; Colalillo, R.; Guarino, F.; Valore, L.; Aminaei, A.; Buitink, S.; Schulz, J.; Aar, G. van; Velzen, S. van; Wykes, S.; Anchordoqui, L.; Aranda, V.M.; Arqueros, F.; Garcia-Pinto, D.; Minaya, I.A.; Rosado, J.; Vazquez, J.R.; Aublin, J.; Billoir, P.; Blanco, M.; Caccianiga, L.; Gaior, R.; Ghia, P.L.; Letessier-Selvon, A.; Muenchmeyer, M.; Settimo, M.; Avenier, M.; Berat, C.; Le Coz, S.; Lebrun, D.; Louedec, K.; Montanet, F.; Stutz, A.; Tartare, M.; Avila, G.; Vitale, P.F.G.; Badescu, A.M.; Fratu, O.; Barber, K.B.; Bellido, J.A.; Blaess, S.; Clay, R.W.; Cooper, M.J.; Dawson, B.R.; Grubb, T.D.; Harrison, T.A.; Hill, G.C.; Malacari, M.; Nguyen, P.; Saffi, S.J.; Sorokin, J.; Bodegom, P. van; Baeuml, J.; Baus, C.; Fuchs, B.; Gonzalez, J.G.; Huber, D.; Kambeitz, O.; Katkov, I.; Link, K.; Ludwig, M.; Maurel, D.; Melissas, M.; Palmieri, N.; Werner, F.; Becker, K.H.; Homola, P.; Jandt, I.; Kaeaepae, A.; Kampert, K.H.; Krohm, N.; Kruppke-Hansen, D.; Mathys, S.; Neuser, J.; Niemietz, L.; Papenbreer, P.; Querchfeld, S.; Rautenberg, J.; Sarkar, B.; Winchen, T.; Wittkowski, D.; Biermann, P.L.; Caramete, L.; Curutiu, A.; Bleve, C.; Cataldi, G.; Cocciolo, G.; Coluccia, M.R.; De Mitri, I.; Marsella, G.; Martello, D.; Perrone, L.; Scherini, V.

    2015-01-01

    Energy-dependent patterns in the arrival directions of cosmic rays are searched for using data of the Pierre Auger Observatory. We investigate local regions around the highest-energy cosmic rays with E ≥ 6 x 10 19 eV by analyzing cosmic rays with energies above E ≥ 5 x 10 18 eVarriving within an angular separation of approximately 15 circle . We characterize the energy distributions inside these regions by two independent methods, one searching for angular dependence of energy-energy correlations and one searching for collimation of energy along the local system of principal axes of the energy distribution. No significant patterns are found with this analysis. The comparison of these measurements with astrophysical scenarios can therefore be used to obtain constraints on related model parameters such as strength of cosmic-ray deflection and density of point sources. (orig.)

  5. Radio-wave detection of ultra-high-energy neutrinos and cosmic rays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huege, Tim; Besson, Dave

    2017-12-01

    Radio waves, perhaps because our terrestrial atmosphere and the cosmos beyond are uniquely transparent to them, or perhaps because they are macroscopic, so the basic instruments of detection (antennas) are easily constructible, arguably occupy a privileged position within the electromagnetic spectrum, and, correspondingly, receive disproportionate attention experimentally. Detection of radio-frequency radiation, at macroscopic wavelengths, has blossomed within the last decade as a competitive method for the measurement of cosmic particles, particularly charged cosmic rays and neutrinos. Cosmic-ray detection via radio emission from extensive air showers has been demonstrated to be a reliable technique that has reached a reconstruction quality of the cosmic-ray parameters competitive with more traditional approaches. Radio detection of neutrinos in dense media seems to be the most promising technique to achieve the gigantic detection volumes required to measure neutrinos at energies beyond the PeV-scale flux established by IceCube. In this article, we review radio detection both of cosmic rays in the atmosphere, as well as neutrinos in dense media.

  6. Ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray spectrum

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hill, C.T.; Schramm, D.N.

    1985-01-01

    We analyze the evolution of the ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray spectrum upon traversing the 2.7 0 K microwave background with respect to pion photoproduction, pair-production reactions, and cosmological effects. Our approach employs exact transport equations which manifestly conserve nucleon number and embody the laboratory details of these reactions. A spectrum enhancement appears around 6 x 10 19 eV due to the ''pile-up'' of energy-degraded nucleons, and a ''dip'' occurs around 10 19 eV due to combined effects. Both of these features appear in the observational spectrum. We analyze the resulting neutrino spectrum and the effects of cosmological source distributions. We present a complete model of the ultrahigh-energy spectrum and anisotropy in reasonable agreement with observation and which predicts an observable electron-neutrino spectrum

  7. Cosmic Connections:. from Cosmic Rays to Gamma Rays, Cosmic Backgrounds and Magnetic Fields

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kusenko, Alexander

    2013-12-01

    Combined data from gamma-ray telescopes and cosmic-ray detectors have produced some new surprising insights regarding intergalactic and galactic magnetic fields, as well as extragalactic background light. We review some recent advances, including a theory explaining the hard spectra of distant blazars and the measurements of intergalactic magnetic fields based on the spectra of distant sources. Furthermore, we discuss the possible contribution of transient galactic sources, such as past gamma-ray bursts and hypernova explosions in the Milky Way, to the observed ux of ultrahigh-energy cosmicrays nuclei. The need for a holistic treatment of gamma rays, cosmic rays, and magnetic fields serves as a unifying theme for these seemingly unrelated phenomena.

  8. Cosmic-Ray Extremely Distributed Observatory: a global cosmic ray detection framework

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sushchov, O.; Homola, P.; Dhital, N.; Bratek, Ł.; Poznański, P.; Wibig, T.; Zamora-Saa, J.; Almeida Cheminant, K.; Alvarez Castillo, D.; Góra, D.; Jagoda, P.; Jałocha, J.; Jarvis, J. F.; Kasztelan, M.; Kopański, K.; Krupiński, M.; Michałek, M.; Nazari, V.; Smelcerz, K.; Smolek, K.; Stasielak, J.; Sułek, M.

    2017-12-01

    The main objective of the Cosmic-Ray Extremely Distributed Observatory (CREDO) is the detection and analysis of extended cosmic ray phenomena, so-called super-preshowers (SPS), using existing as well as new infrastructure (cosmic-ray observatories, educational detectors, single detectors etc.). The search for ensembles of cosmic ray events initiated by SPS is yet an untouched ground, in contrast to the current state-of-the-art analysis, which is focused on the detection of single cosmic ray events. Theoretical explanation of SPS could be given either within classical (e.g., photon-photon interaction) or exotic (e.g., Super Heavy Dark Matter decay or annihilation) scenarios, thus detection of SPS would provide a better understanding of particle physics, high energy astrophysics and cosmology. The ensembles of cosmic rays can be classified based on the spatial and temporal extent of particles constituting the ensemble. Some classes of SPS are predicted to have huge spatial distribution, a unique signature detectable only with a facility of the global size. Since development and commissioning of a completely new facility with such requirements is economically unwarranted and time-consuming, the global analysis goals are achievable when all types of existing detectors are merged into a worldwide network. The idea to use the instruments in operation is based on a novel trigger algorithm: in parallel to looking for neighbour surface detectors receiving the signal simultaneously, one should also look for spatially isolated stations clustered in a small time window. On the other hand, CREDO strategy is also aimed at an active engagement of a large number of participants, who will contribute to the project by using common electronic devices (e.g., smartphones), capable of detecting cosmic rays. It will help not only in expanding the geographical spread of CREDO, but also in managing a large manpower necessary for a more efficient crowd-sourced pattern recognition scheme to

  9. Department of Cosmic Ray Physics - Overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Szabelski, J.

    2008-01-01

    Full text: The Department of Cosmic Ray Physics in Lodz is involved in basic research in the high energy Cosmic Ray field. Cosmic Rays are energetic particles from outside the Solar System. Most of the studies of Cosmic Rays address fundamental problems: · the nature of the physical and astrophysical processes responsible for high energies of particles · an estimation of the astrophysical conditions at the acceleration sites and/or search for sources of Cosmic Rays, · properties of high energy particle interactions at very high energies. Some Cosmic Ray studies might have practical (commercial) implications, e.g. · '' cosmic weather '' forecast - predictions of geomagnetic disturbances related to Solar activity changes (due to large Solar Flares / events of Coronal Mass Ejection); these are important for large electricity networks, gas pipes, radio-wave connections, space missions and satellite experiments. Presentation of Cosmic Ray registration to high school students becomes a popular way to introduce particle physics detectors and elementary particle detection techniques to young people. We organize in Lodz several workshops on particle physics for high school students. This is a part of European activity: EPPOG's Masterclass - Hands on CERN. Energetic Cosmic Ray particles produce cascades of particles in the atmosphere, called Extensive Air Showers (EAS). Registering EAS and their properties is the main way of experimental studies of very high energy Cosmic Rays. In Lodz Department we run Extensive Air Shower array where EAS are continuously being registered. We concentrate on the studies of detection of neutrons correlated with EAS and interpretation of this phenomenon. In 2004 we started realisation of the Roland Maze Project, the network of EAS detectors placed on the roofs of high schools in Lodz. We received funds from the City of Lodz budget to make a pilot project and equip 10 high schools, each with four 1m 2 detectors and GPS. The network is

  10. Cosmic rays and tests of fundamental principles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gonzalez-Mestres, Luis

    2011-03-01

    It is now widely acknowledged that cosmic rays experiments can test possible new physics directly generated at the Planck scale or at some other fundamental scale. By studying particle properties at energies far beyond the reach of any man-made accelerator, they can yield unique checks of basic principles. A well-known example is provided by possible tests of special relativity at the highest cosmic-ray energies. But other essential ingredients of standard theories can in principle be tested: quantum mechanics, uncertainty principle, energy and momentum conservation, effective space-time dimensions, hamiltonian and lagrangian formalisms, postulates of cosmology, vacuum dynamics and particle propagation, quark and gluon confinement, elementariness of particles…Standard particle physics or string-like patterns may have a composite origin able to manifest itself through specific cosmic-ray signatures. Ultra-high energy cosmic rays, but also cosmic rays at lower energies, are probes of both "conventional" and new Physics. Status, prospects, new ideas, and open questions in the field are discussed.

  11. Cosmic rays and tests of fundamental principles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gonzalez-Mestres, Luis

    2011-01-01

    It is now widely acknowledged that cosmic rays experiments can test possible new physics directly generated at the Planck scale or at some other fundamental scale. By studying particle properties at energies far beyond the reach of any man-made accelerator, they can yield unique checks of basic principles. A well-known example is provided by possible tests of special relativity at the highest cosmic-ray energies. But other essential ingredients of standard theories can in principle be tested: quantum mechanics, uncertainty principle, energy and momentum conservation, effective space-time dimensions, hamiltonian and lagrangian formalisms, postulates of cosmology, vacuum dynamics and particle propagation, quark and gluon confinement, elementariness of particles... Standard particle physics or string-like patterns may have a composite origin able to manifest itself through specific cosmic-ray signatures. Ultra-high energy cosmic rays, but also cosmic rays at lower energies, are probes of both 'conventional' and new Physics. Status, prospects, new ideas, and open questions in the field are discussed.

  12. Department of Cosmic Ray Physics - Overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Szabelski, J.

    2006-01-01

    The Department of Cosmic Ray Physics in Lodz is involved in basic research in the high energy Cosmic Ray field. Cosmic Rays are energetic particles from outside the Solar System. The energy spectrum (power law energy dependence) suggests a non-thermal origin of these particles. Most of the studies of Cosmic Rays address fundamental problems: · The nature of the physical and astrophysical processes responsible for the high energies of the particles (up to about 1020 eV/particle), · An estimation of the astrophysical conditions at the acceleration sites and/or search for sources of Cosmic Rays, · properties of high energy particle interactions at very high energies (nuclear interactions at energies exceeding energy available in the laboratories). Some Cosmic Ray studies might have practical (commercial) implications, e.g. · 'cosmic weather' forecast - predictions of geomagnetic disturbances related to Solar activity changes (due to large Solar Flares / events of Coronal Mass Ejection); these are important for large electricity networks, gas pipes, radio-wave connections, space missions and satellite experiments. Presentation of Cosmic Ray registration to high school students becomes a popular way to introduce particle physics detectors and elementary particle detection techniques to young people. Energetic Cosmic Ray particles produce cascades of particles in the atmosphere, called Extensive Air Showers (EAS). Registering EAS and their properties is the main way of experimental studies of very high energy Cosmic Rays. In the Lodz Department we run the Extensive Air Shower array where EAS are being registered. We concentrate on the studies of detection of neutrons correlated with EAS and interpretation of this phenomenon. In 2004, we started realisation of the Roland Maze Project, the network of EAS detectors placed on roofs of high schools in Lodz. We received funds from the City of Lodz budget to make a pilot project and equip 10 high schools, each with four 1 m

  13. Search for patterns by combining cosmic-ray energy and arrival directions at the Pierre Auger Observatory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Aab, A.; Buchholz, P.; Erfani, M.; Froehlich, U.; Heimann, P.; Niechciol, M.; Ochilo, L.; Risse, M.; Tepe, A.; Yushkov, A.; Ziolkowski, M. [Universitaet Siegen, Siegen (Germany); Abreu, P.; Andringa, S.; Assis, P.; Brogueira, P.; Cazon, L.; Conceicao, R.; Diogo, F.; Espadanal, J.; Goncalves, P.; Oliveira, M.; Pimenta, M.; Santo, C.E.; Sarmento, R.; Tome, B. [Universidade de Lisboa - UL, Laboratorio de Instrumentacao e Fisica Experimental de Particulas - LIP and Instituto Superior Tecnico - IST, Lisbon (Portugal); Aglietta, M.; Bertaina, M.E.; Bonino, R.; Castellina, A.; Chiavassa, A.; Gorgi, A.; Latronico, L.; Maldera, S.; Morello, C.; Navarra, G. [Universita di Torino, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino (INAF), Torino (Italy); INFN, Torino (Italy); Ahn, E.J.; Fazzini, N.; Glass, H.; Hojvat, C.; Kasper, P.; Lebrun, P.; Mantsch, P.; Mazur, P.O. [Fermilab, Batavia, IL (United States); Al Samarai, I.; Deligny, O.; Lhenry-Yvon, I.; Martraire, D.; Salamida, F.; Suomijaervi, T. [Universite Paris 11, CNRS-IN2P3, Institut de Physique Nucleaire d' Orsay (IPNO), Orsay (France); Albuquerque, I.F.M.; Gouffon, P.; Santos, E.M. [Universidade de Sao Paulo, Instituto de Fisica, Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil); Allekotte, I.; Asorey, H.; Bertou, X.; Berisso, M.G.; Harari, D.; Mollerach, S.; Purrello, V.; Roulet, E.; Sidelnik, I.; Taborda, O.A. [Centro Atomico Bariloche and Instituto Balseiro (CNEA-UNCuyo-CONICET), San Carlos de Bariloche (Argentina); Allen, J.; Awal, N.; Farrar, G.; Zaw, I. [New York University, New York, NY (United States); Allison, P.; Beatty, J.J.; Gordon, J.; Griffith, N.; Stapleton, J.; Sutherland, M.S. [Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (United States); Almela, A.; Etchegoyen, A.; Wainberg, O. [Instituto de Tecnologias en Deteccion y Astroparticulas (CNEA, CONICET, UNSAM), Buenos Aires (Argentina); Universidad Tecnologica Nacional - Facultad Regional Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires (Argentina); Castillo, J.A.; D' Olivo, J.C.; Medina-Tanco, G.; Nellen, L.; Galicia, J.F.V.; Vargas Cardenas, B. [Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico, D.F. (Mexico); Alvarez-Muniz, J.; Ave, M.; Roca, S.T.G.; Agueera, A.L.; Parente, G.; Parra, A.; Carvalho, W.R. de; Cabo, I.R.; Elipe, G.T.; Tueros, M.; Valino, I.; Vazquez, R.A.; Zas, E. [Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela (Spain); Batista, R.A.; Schiffer, P.; Sigl, G.; Vliet, A. van [Universitaet Hamburg, Hamburg (Germany); Ambrosio, M.; Aramo, C.; Buscemi, M.; Cilmo, M.; Colalillo, R.; Guarino, F.; Valore, L. [Universita di Napoli ' ' Federico II' ' , Napoli (Italy); INFN, Napoli (Italy); Aminaei, A.; Buitink, S.; Schulz, J.; Aar, G. van; Velzen, S. van; Wykes, S. [IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen (Netherlands); Anchordoqui, L. [City University of New York, Department of Physics and Astronomy, New York (United States); Aranda, V.M.; Arqueros, F.; Garcia-Pinto, D.; Minaya, I.A.; Rosado, J.; Vazquez, J.R. [Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid (Spain); Aublin, J.; Billoir, P.; Blanco, M.; Caccianiga, L.; Gaior, R.; Ghia, P.L.; Letessier-Selvon, A.; Muenchmeyer, M.; Settimo, M. [Universites Paris 6 et Paris 7, CNRS-IN2P3, Laboratoire de Physique Nucleaire et de Hautes Energies (LPNHE), Paris (France); Avenier, M.; Berat, C.; Le Coz, S.; Lebrun, D.; Louedec, K.; Montanet, F.; Stutz, A.; Tartare, M. [Universite Grenoble-Alpes, CNRS/IN2P3, Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie (LPSC), Grenoble (France); Avila, G.; Vitale, P.F.G. [Observatorio Pierre Auger and Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, Malarguee (Argentina); Badescu, A.M.; Fratu, O. [University Politehnica of Bucharest, Bucharest (Romania); Barber, K.B.; Bellido, J.A.; Blaess, S.; Clay, R.W.; Cooper, M.J.; Dawson, B.R.; Grubb, T.D.; Harrison, T.A.; Hill, G.C.; Malacari, M.; Nguyen, P.; Saffi, S.J.; Sorokin, J.; Bodegom, P. van [University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA (Australia); Baeuml, J.; Baus, C.; Fuchs, B.; Gonzalez, J.G.; Huber, D.; Kambeitz, O.; Katkov, I.; Link, K.; Ludwig, M.; Maurel, D.; Melissas, M.; Palmieri, N.; Werner, F. [Karlsruhe Institute of Technology - Campus South - Institut fuer Experimentelle, Kernphysik (IEKP), Karlsruhe (Germany); Becker, K.H.; Homola, P.; Jandt, I.; Kaeaepae, A.; Kampert, K.H.; Krohm, N.; Kruppke-Hansen, D.; Mathys, S.; Neuser, J.; Niemietz, L.; Papenbreer, P.; Querchfeld, S.; Rautenberg, J.; Sarkar, B.; Winchen, T.; Wittkowski, D. [Bergische Universitaet Wuppertal, Wuppertal (Germany); Biermann, P.L.; Caramete, L.; Curutiu, A. [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Radioastronomie, Bonn (Germany); Bleve, C.; Cataldi, G.; Cocciolo, G.; Coluccia, M.R.; De Mitri, I.; Marsella, G.; Martello, D.; Perrone, L.; Scherini, V. [Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica ' ' E. De Giorgi' ' , Universita del Salento, Lecce (Italy); INFN, Lecce (Italy); and others

    2015-06-15

    Energy-dependent patterns in the arrival directions of cosmic rays are searched for using data of the Pierre Auger Observatory. We investigate local regions around the highest-energy cosmic rays with E ≥ 6 x 10{sup 19} eV by analyzing cosmic rays with energies above E ≥ 5 x 10{sup 18} eVarriving within an angular separation of approximately 15 {sup circle}. We characterize the energy distributions inside these regions by two independent methods, one searching for angular dependence of energy-energy correlations and one searching for collimation of energy along the local system of principal axes of the energy distribution. No significant patterns are found with this analysis. The comparison of these measurements with astrophysical scenarios can therefore be used to obtain constraints on related model parameters such as strength of cosmic-ray deflection and density of point sources. (orig.)

  14. Summary of super high energy events and exotic phenomena in cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miyake, S.

    1979-01-01

    In this report, the features of superhigh energy events and exotic phenomena are presented. The examples obtained with emulsion chambers show clear trend of change in the hadron interaction characteristics with energy. The scaling law is violated in the very high energy region above 10 15 eV. In the energy region from 10 to 100 TeV, there is mild violation of scaling. The cosmic ray data on the diffusion of high energy particles in the atmosphere was used to study the mild violation of scaling. It is not easy to discuss the violation in the energy region higher than 10 15 eV, because such event can be obtained very rarely. The only method is the observation of extensive air showers. The relation of average transverse momenta to primary cosmic ray energy was compared with some accelerator data. The cosmic ray data tend to show smaller momentum values. The energy spectrum of cosmic ray muons can be measured by the underground observation, the observation of muon-production burst with emulsion chambers, or the observation of horizontal air showers. Analysis of this spectrum shows that there is an upper limit for the direct production of muons at primary energy of several times of 10 14 eV. Other support for the change of interaction character at 10 14 eV is seen. Possible examples of heavy lepton events were found in the deep underground observation. In deep underground observation, anomalous showers with energy content larger than several hundred GeV were observed. Comment on the long tail nuclear cascade is presented. Some experiments for future are introduced. (Kato, T.)

  15. Cosmic rays and global warming

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Erlykin, A.D. [P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute, Moscow (Russian Federation); Sloan, T. [Lancaster University (United Kingdom); Wolfendale, A.W. [Durham University (United Kingdom)

    2010-07-01

    The possible effects of cosmic rays on clouds could contribute to global warming. The argument is that the observed increased solar activity during the last century caused a decrease in the ionization due to cosmic rays since the lower energy cosmic particles are deflected by the magnetic field created by the increasing solar wind. This would lead to a decrease in cloud cover allowing more heating of the earth by the sun. Meteorological data combined to solar activity observations and simulations show that any effect of solar activity on clouds and the climate is likely to be through irradiance rather than cosmic rays. Since solar irradiance transfers 8 orders of magnitude more energy to the atmosphere than cosmic rays it is more plausible that this can produce a real effect. The total contribution of variable solar activity to global warming is shown to be less than 14% of the total temperature rise. (A.C.)

  16. Ultra high energy cosmic rays above 10 GeV: Hints to new physics ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Ultra high energy cosmic rays; physics beyond standard model. ... The origin of the observed cosmic ray (CR) events above 10ѕј eV — the so-called ex- .... to arise simply from decay of some supermassive particles (of mass> 10ѕЅ eV) ...

  17. Energy and flux measurements of ultra-high energy cosmic rays observed during the first ANITA flight

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schoorlemmer, H.; Belov, K.; Romero-Wolf, A.; García-Fernández, D.; Bugaev, V.; Wissel, S. A.; Allison, P.; Alvarez-Muñiz, J.; Barwick, S. W.; Beatty, J. J.; Besson, D. Z.; Binns, W. R.; Carvalho Jr., W. R.; Chen, C.; Chen, P.; Clem, J. M.; Connolly, A.; Dowkontt, P. F.; DuVernois, M. A.; Field, R. C.; Goldstein, D.; Gorham, P. W.; Hast, C.; Huege, T.; Heber, C. L.; Hoover, S.; Israel, M. H.; Javaid, A.; Kowalski, J.; Lam, J.; Learned, J. G.; Link, J. T.; Lusczek, E.; Matsuno, S.; Mercurio, B. C.; Miki, C.; Miočinović, P.; Mulrey, K.; Nam, J.; Naudet, C. J.; Ng, J.; Nichol, R. J.; Palladino, K.; Rauch, B. F.; Roberts, J.; Reil, K.; Rotter, B.; Rosen, M.; Ruckman, L.; Saltzberg, D.; Seckel, D.; Urdaneta, D.; Varner, G. S.; Vieregg, A. G.; Walz, D.; Wu, F.; Zas, E.

    2016-04-01

    The first flight of the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment recorded 16 radio signals that were emitted by cosmic-ray induced air showers. The dominant contribution to the radiation comes from the deflection of positrons and electrons in the geomagnetic field, which is beamed in the direction of motion of the air shower. For 14 of these events, this radiation is reflected from the ice and subsequently detected by the ANITA experiment at a flight altitude of ~36 km. In this paper, we estimate the energy of the 14 individual events and find that the mean energy of the cosmic-ray sample is 2.9 × 1018 eV, which is significantly lower than the previous estimate. By simulating the ANITA flight, we calculate its exposure for ultra-high energy cosmic rays. We estimate for the first time the cosmic-ray flux derived only from radio observations and find agreement with measurements performed at other observatories. In addition, we find that the ANITA data set is consistent with Monte Carlo simulations for the total number of observed events and with the properties of those events.

  18. New detection technologies for ultra-high energy cosmic rays and neutrinos

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Böser Sebastian

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Even with an accumulated data set from an integrated six years of lifetime from the Auger experiment, no point sources of charged cosmic rays have be identified at the highest energies. Significantly increased apertures such as promised by the JEMEUSO mission will be required to identify these sources from the cosmic ray signatures themselves. However, in employing water-cherenkov surface detectors as well as fluorescence telescopes, Auger has demonstrated the power provided by the hybrid technology approach. New detection technologies thus provide a valuable tool, in particular for the study of systematic effects. Over the past decade, in particular radio detection of cosmic ray air-showers has become a viable future detection technology to enhance and complement existing air-shower experiments. Following the proof-of-principle provided by the Lopes experiment, this technology is now being pursued in all major air-shower detectors. In the MHz regime, the radio signal is dominated by geomagnetic emission from the electrons deflected in the earth magnetic field, with secondary contributions from a global charge excess. As the majority of the energy in the shower is carried by these electron and the radio signal traverses the atmosphere basically unattenuated, this approach not only promises superior energy resolution but may also provide an independent handle on the longitudinal shower development and hence the primary composition. Theoretical signal predictions provided by detailed Monte-Carlo simulations as well as analytic shower parametrizations are in good agreement with measurements provided by the AERA and Codalema experiments. Recent efforts also include studies of the radio emission in the GHz regime, where the ambient noise is significantly reduced, yet the emission mechanism in this regime has not been firmly established yet. As neutrinos are not deflected in the intergalactic magnetic fields, the detection of neutrino-induced cascades

  19. At what particle energy do extragalactic cosmic rays start to predominate?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wibig, Tadeusz; Wolfendale, Arnold W

    2005-01-01

    We have previously argued (e.g. Szabelski et al 2002 Astropart. Phys. 17 125) that the well-known 'ankle' in the cosmic ray energy spectrum, at log E (eV) ∼ 18.7-19.0, marks the transition from mainly galactic sources at lower energies to mainly extragalactic above. Recently, however, there have been claims for lower transitional energies, specifically from log E (eV) ∼ 17.0 (Thompson et al 2004 Proc. Catania Cosmic Ray Conf.) via 17.2-17.8 (Berezinsky et al 2004 Astropart. Phys. 21 617) to 18.0 (Hillas 2004 Proc. Leeds Cosmic Ray Conf.). In our model the ankle arises naturally from the sum of simple power law-spectra with slopes differing by Δγ ∼ 1.8; from differential slope γ = -3.8 for galactic particles (near log E = 19) to γ ∼ -2.0 for extragalactic sources. In the other models, on the other hand, the ankle is intrinsic to the extragalactic component alone, and arises from the shape of the rate of energy loss versus energy for the (assumed) protons interacting with the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Our detailed analysis of the world's data on the ultra-high energy spectrum shows that taken together, or separately, the resulting mean sharpness of the ankle (second derivative of the log(intensity x E 3 ) with respect to log E) is consistent with our 'mixed' model. For explanation in terms of extragalactic particles alone, however, the ankle will be at the wrong energy-for reasonable production models and of insufficient magnitude if, as seems likely, there is still a significant fraction of heavy nuclei at the ankle energy

  20. Instrumentation for continuous monitoring of low energy cosmic ray intensity

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kumar, S; Prasad, R; Yadav, R S [Aligarh Muslim Univ. (India). Dept. of Physics; Naqvi, T H [Z.H. Engineering Coll., Aligarh (India); Ahmed, Rais [National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi (India)

    1975-12-01

    A high counting rate neutron monitor developed at Aligarh for continuous monitoring of low energy nucleonic component of cosmic rays is described. Transistorized electronic circuits used are described.

  1. Intermittency in super-high energy cosmic ray events

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gladysz-Dziadus, E.

    1988-12-01

    The factorial moments method described by Bialas and Peschanski was used for investigations of fluctuations in pseudorapidity distributions of nine cosmic-ray events at energy of about 1000 TeV. Both electromagnetic and hadronic components of these events reveal very strong intermittent behaviour. 8 refs., 7 figs., 2 tabs. (author)

  2. LHCf sheds new light on cosmic rays

    CERN Multimedia

    Anaïs Schaeffer

    2011-01-01

    The energy spectrum of the single photon obtained using data from the LHCf experiment has turned out to be very different from that predicted by the theoretical models used until now to describe the interactions between very high-energy cosmic rays and the earth's atmosphere. The consequences of this discrepancy for cosmic ray studies could be significant.   Artistic impression of cosmic rays entering Earth's atmosphere. (Credit: Asimmetrie/Infn). It took physicists by surprise when analysis of the data collected by the two LHCf calorimeters in 2010 showed that high-energy cosmic rays don't interact with the atmosphere in the manner predicted by theory. The LHCf detectors, set up 140 metres either side of the ATLAS interaction point, are dedicated to the study of the secondary particles emitted at very small angles during proton-proton collisions in the LHC, with energies comparable to cosmic rays entering the earth's atmosphere at 2.5x1016 eV. The aim of the experiment is to r...

  3. Muon Production in Relativistic Cosmic-Ray Interactions

    OpenAIRE

    Klein, Spencer

    2009-01-01

    Cosmic-rays with energies up to $3\\times10^{20}$ eV have been observed. The nuclear composition of these cosmic rays is unknown but if the incident nuclei are protons then the corresponding center of mass energy is $\\sqrt{s_{nn}} = 700$ TeV. High energy muons can be used to probe the composition of these incident nuclei. The energy spectra of high-energy ($>$ 1 TeV) cosmic ray induced muons have been measured with deep underground or under-ice detectors. These muons come from pion and kaon de...

  4. Cosmic Rays and Extensive Air Showers

    CERN Document Server

    Stanev, Todor

    2010-01-01

    We begin with a brief introduction of the cosmic ray energy spectrum and its main features. At energies higher than 105 GeV cosmic rays are detected by the showers they initiate in the atmosphere. We continues with a brief description of the energy spectrum and composition derived from air shower data.

  5. Instrumentation for continuous monitoring of low energy cosmic ray intensity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kumar, S.; Prasad, R.; Yadav, R.S.; Ahmed, Rais

    1975-01-01

    A high counting rate neutron monitor developed at Aligarh for continuous monitoring of low energy nucleonic component of cosmic rays is described. Transistorized electronic circuits used are described. (author)

  6. The TUS Detector of Extreme Energy Cosmic Rays on Board the Lomonosov Satellite

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klimov, P. A.; Panasyuk, M. I.; Khrenov, B. A.; Garipov, G. K.; Kalmykov, N. N.; Petrov, V. L.; Sharakin, S. A.; Shirokov, A. V.; Yashin, I. V.; Zotov, M. Y.; Biktemerova, S. V.; Grinyuk, A. A.; Grebenyuk, V. M.; Lavrova, M. V.; Tkachev, L. G.; Tkachenko, A. V.; Park, I. H.; Lee, J.; Jeong, S.; Martinez, O.; Salazar, H.; Ponce, E.; Saprykin, O. A.; Botvinko, A. A.; Senkovsky, A. N.; Puchkov, A. E.

    2017-11-01

    The origin and nature of extreme energy cosmic rays (EECRs), which have energies above the 5\\cdot10^{19} eV—the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) energy limit, is one of the most interesting and complicated problems in modern cosmic-ray physics. Existing ground-based detectors have helped to obtain remarkable results in studying cosmic rays before and after the GZK limit, but have also produced some contradictions in our understanding of cosmic ray mass composition. Moreover, each of these detectors covers only a part of the celestial sphere, which poses problems for studying the arrival directions of EECRs and identifying their sources. As a new generation of EECR space detectors, TUS (Tracking Ultraviolet Set-up), KLYPVE and JEM-EUSO, are intended to study the most energetic cosmic-ray particles, providing larger, uniform exposures of the entire celestial sphere. The TUS detector, launched on board the Lomonosov satellite on April 28, 2016 from Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia, is the first of these. It employs a single-mirror optical system and a photomultiplier tube matrix as a photo-detector and will test the fluorescent method of measuring EECRs from space. Utilizing the Earth's atmosphere as a huge calorimeter, it is expected to detect EECRs with energies above 10^{20} eV. It will also be able to register slower atmospheric transient events: atmospheric fluorescence in electrical discharges of various types including precipitating electrons escaping the magnetosphere and from the radiation of meteors passing through the atmosphere. We describe the design of the TUS detector and present results of different ground-based tests and simulations.

  7. Department of Cosmic Ray Physics - Overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Szabelski, J.

    2009-01-01

    Full text: The Department of Cosmic Ray Physics in Lodz is involved in basic research in the high-energy Cosmic Ray field. Cosmic Rays are energetic particles from outside the Solar System. Most of the studies of Cosmic Rays address fundamental problems: - the nature of the physical and astrophysical processes responsible for the high energies of the particles - an estimation of the astrophysical conditions at the acceleration sites and/or the search for sources of Cosmic Rays, - properties of high-energy particle interactions at very high energies. Some Cosmic Ray studies might have practical (commercial) implications, e.g. - '' cosmic weather '' forecasting - predictions of geomagnetic disturbances related to Solar activity changes (due to large Solar Flares/Coronal Mass Ejection events); these are important for large electricity networks, gas pipelines, radio-wave connections, space missions and satellite experiments. Presentation of Cosmic Ray registration to high school students has become a popular way to introduce particle physics detectors and elementary particle detection techniques to young people. We organize in Lodz and Poznan workshops on particle physics for high school students. This is a part of the European activity: EPPOG's Masterclass - Hands on CERN. Energetic Cosmic Ray particles produce cascades of particles in the atmosphere, called Extensive Air Showers (EAS). Registering EAS and their properties is the main way of experimentally study's very high energy Cosmic Rays. Locally in Lodz we concentrate on methodological studies of the detection of neutrons correlated with EAS and the interpretation of this phenomenon. We have also performed two series of neutron background measurements in the deep underground Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy (within the ILIAS-TA Project). In 2004, we began the Roland Maze Project, a network of EAS detectors placed on the roofs of high schools in Lodz. The pilot project is to equip 10 high schools, each with four 1m

  8. Cosmic ray modulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ueno, Hirosachi

    1974-01-01

    It is important to know the physical state of solar plasma region by the observation of intensity variation of cosmic ray which passed through the solar plasma region, because earth magnetosphere is formed by the interaction between geomagnetic field and solar plasma flow. The observation of cosmic ray intensity is useful to know the average condition of the space of 0.1--3 A.U., and gives the structure of the magnetic field in solar wind affecting the earth magnetosphere. The observation of neutron component in cosmic ray has been carried out at Norikura, Tokyo, Fukushima and Morioka. The lower limit of the energy of incident cosmic ray which can be observed at each station is different, and the fine structure of the variation can be known by comparison. The intensity of meson component in cosmic ray has been measured in underground, and the state of solar plasma region 2--3 A.U. from the earth can be known. The underground measurement has been made at Takeyama and Matsumoto, and a new station at Sakashita is proposed. The measurement at Sakashita will be made by proportional counters at the depth of 100m (water equivalent). Arrangement of detectors is shown. (Kato, T.)

  9. Ultrahigh-energy Cosmic Rays from Fanaroff Riley class II radio galaxies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rachen, Joerg; Biermann, Peter L.

    1992-08-01

    The hot spots of very powerful radio galaxies (Fanaroff Riley class II) are argued to be the sources of the ultrahigh energy component in Cosmic Rays. We present calculations of Cosmic Ray transport in an evolving universe, taking the losses against the microwave background properly into account. As input we use the models for the cosmological radio source evolution derived by radioastronomers (mainly Peacock 1985). The model we adopt for the acceleration in the radio hot spots has been introduced by Biermann and Strittmatter (1987), and Meisenheimer et al. (1989) and is based on first order Fermi theory of particle acceleration at shocks (see, e.g., Drury 1983). As an unknown the actual proportion of energy density in protons enters, which together with structural uncertainties in the hot spots should introduce no more than one order of magnitude in uncertainty: We easily reproduce the observed spectra of high energy cosmic rays. It follows that scattering of charged energetic particles in intergalactic space must be sufficiently small in order to obtain contributions from sources as far away as even the nearest Fanaroff Riley class II radio galaxies. This implies a strong constraint on the turbulent magnetic field in intergalactic space.

  10. Can diffusive shock acceleration in supernova remnants account for high-energy galactic cosmic rays?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hillas, A M

    2005-01-01

    Diffusive shock acceleration at the outer front of expanding supernova remnants has provided by far the most popular model for the origin of galactic cosmic rays, and has been the subject of intensive theoretical investigation. But several problems loomed at high energies-how to explain the smooth continuation of the cosmic-ray spectrum far beyond 10 14 eV, the very low level of TeV gamma-ray emission from several supernova remnants, and the very low anisotropy of cosmic rays (seeming to conflict with the short trapping times needed to convert a E -2 source spectrum into the observed E -2.7 spectrum of cosmic rays). However, recent work on the cosmic ray spectrum (especially at KASCADE) strongly indicates that about half of the flux does turn down rather sharply near 3 x 10 15 V rigidity, with a distinct tail extending to just beyond 10 17 V rigidity; whilst a plausible description (Bell and Lucek) of the level of self-generated magnetic fields at the shock fronts of young supernova remnants implies that many SNRs in varying environments might very well generate spectra extending smoothly to just this 'knee' position, and a portion of the exploding red supergiants could extend the spectrum approximately as needed. At low energies, recent progress in relating cosmic ray compositional details to modified shock structure also adds weight to the belief that the model is working on the right lines, converting energy into cosmic rays very efficiently where injection can occur. The low level of TeV gamma-ray flux from many young SNRs is a serious challenge, though it may relate to variations in particle injection efficiency with time. The clear detection of TeV gamma rays from SNRs has now just begun, and predictions of a characteristic curved particle spectrum give a target for new tests by TeV observations. However, the isotropy seriously challenges the assumed cosmic-ray trapping time and hence the shape of the spectrum of particles released from SNRs. There is

  11. Relativistic transport theory for cosmic-rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Webb, G.M.

    1985-01-01

    Various aspects of the transport of cosmic-rays in a relativistically moving magnetized plasma supporting a spectrum of hydromagnetic waves that scatter the cosmic-rays are presented. A local Lorentz frame moving with the waves or turbulence scattering the cosmic-rays is used to specify the individual particle momentum. The comoving frame is in general a noninertial frame in which the observer's volume element is expanding and shearing, geometric energy change terms appear in the cosmic-ray transport equation which consist of the relativistic generalization of the adiabatic deceleration term and a further term involving the acceleration vector of the scatterers. A relativistic version of the pitch angle evolution equation, including the effects of adiabatic focussing, pitch angle scattering, and energy changes is presented

  12. Radar detection of ultra high energy cosmic rays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Myers, Isaac J.

    TARA (Telescope Array Radar) is a cosmic ray radar detection experiment co-located with Telescope Array, the conventional surface scintillation detector (SD) and fluorescence telescope detector (FD) near Delta, UT. The TARA detector combines a 40 kW transmitter and high gain transmitting antenna which broadcasts the radar carrier over the SD array and in the FD field of view to a 250 MS/s DAQ receiver. Data collection began in August, 2013. TARA stands apart from other cosmic ray radar experiments in that radar data is directly compared with conventional cosmic ray detector events. The transmitter is also directly controlled by TARA researchers. Waveforms from the FD-triggered data stream are time-matched with TA events and searched for signal using a novel signal search technique in which the expected (simulated) radar echo of a particular air shower is used as a matched filter template and compared to radio waveforms. This technique is used to calculate the radar cross-section (RCS) upper-limit on all triggers that correspond to well-reconstructed TA FD monocular events. Our lowest cosmic ray RCS upper-limit is 42 cm2 for an 11 EeV event. An introduction to cosmic rays is presented with the evolution of detection and the necessity of new detection techniques, of which radar detection is a candidate. The software simulation of radar scattering from cosmic rays follows. The TARA detector, including transmitter and receiver systems, are discussed in detail. Our search algorithm and methodology for calculating RCS is presented for the purpose of being repeatable. Search results are explained in context of the usefulness and future of cosmic ray radar detection.

  13. Introduction to high energy cosmic ray physics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Battistoni, G.; Grillo, A.F.

    1995-01-01

    After a few general qualitative considerations about the characteristics of primary cosmic rays arriving at the top of atmosphere, the fundamental concepts on their propagation and acceleration are discussed. The experimental situation, both from direct and indirect experiments, is presented, followed by a discussion on some concepts on hadronic interactions at high energy which are applied in a simplified and analytical model to the production of secondary particles in atmosphere

  14. Search for the end of the cosmic ray energy spectrum

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Linsley, John

    1998-01-01

    The title I was asked to speak about expresses an idea that occurred rather recently in the history of cosmic ray studies. I argue that the idea of a possible end of the cosmic ray energy spectrum came into being after a sequence of three rapid advances in knowledge which I describe, calling them 'breakthroughs'. I suggest that the present workshop be regarded as a step toward a fourth breakthrough. I argue that this may occur through application of the Space Airwatch concept--the earth atmosphere as target and signal generator--as embodied in the NASA OWL project

  15. Development and data analysis of a radio-detection of ultra high energy cosmic rays experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Belletoile, A.

    2007-10-01

    The radio-detection of cosmic rays was first attempted in the sixties. Unfortunately at that time, the results suffered from poor reproducibility and the technique was abandoned in favour of direct particle and fluorescence detection. Taking advantage of recent technological improvements the radio-detection of ultra high energy cosmic rays is being reinvestigated. In this document, first, we remind the reader of the global problematic of cosmic rays. Then, the several mechanisms involved in the emission of an electric field associated with extensive air showers are discussed. The CODALEMA (cosmic detection array with logarithmic electro magnetic antenna) experiment that aims to demonstrate the feasibility of cosmic ray radio-detection, is extensively described along with the first experimental results. A radio-detection test experiment implanted at the giant detector Pierre Auger is presented. It should provide inputs to design the future detector using this technique at extreme energies. (author)

  16. Workshop on Hadron-Hadron & Cosmic-Ray Interactions at multi-TeV Energies

    CERN Document Server

    Alessandro, B; Bergman, D; Bongi, M; Bunyatyan, A; Cazon, L; d'Enterria, D; de Mitri, I; Doll, P; Engel, R; Eggert, K; Garzelli, M; Gerhardt, L; Gieseke, S; Godbole, R; Grosse-Oetringhaus, J F; Gustafson, G; Hebbeker, T; Kheyn, L; Kiryluk, J; Lipari, P; Ostapchenko, S; Pierog, T; Piskounova, O; Ranft, J; Rezaeian, A; Rostovtsev, A; Sakurai, N; Sapeta, S; Schleich, S; Schulz, H; Sjostrand, T; Sonnenschein, L; Sutton, M; Ulrich, R; Werner, K; Zapp, K; CRLHC10; CRLHC 10

    2011-01-01

    The workshop on "Hadron-Hadron and Cosmic-Ray Interactions at multi-TeV Energies" held at the ECT* centre (Trento) in Nov.-Dec. 2010 gathered together both theorists and experimentalists to discuss issues of the physics of high-energy hadronic interactions of common interest for the particle, nuclear and cosmic-ray communities. QCD results from collider experiments -- mostly from the LHC but also from the Tevatron, RHIC and HERA -- were discussed and compared to various hadronic Monte Carlo generators, aiming at an improvement of our theoretical understanding of soft, semi-hard and hard parton dynamics. The latest cosmic-ray results from various ground-based observatories were also presented with an emphasis on the phenomenological modeling of the first hadronic interactions of the extended air-showers generated in the Earth atmosphere. These mini-proceedings consist of an introduction and short summaries of the talks presented at the meeting.

  17. Cosmic physics: the high energy frontier

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stecker, F W

    2003-01-01

    Cosmic rays have been observed up to energies 10 8 times larger than those of the best particle accelerators. Studies of astrophysical particles (hadrons, neutrinos and photons) at their highest observed energies have implications for fundamental physics as well as astrophysics. Thus, the cosmic high energy frontier is the nexus to new particle physics. This overview discusses recent advances being made in the physics and astrophysics of cosmic rays and cosmic γ-rays at the highest observed energies as well as the related physics and astrophysics of very high energy cosmic neutrinos. These topics touch on questions of grand unification, violations of Lorentz invariance as well as Planck scale physics and quantum gravity. (topical review)

  18. Ultrahigh energy cosmic ray nuclei from extragalactic pulsars and the effect of their Galactic counterparts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fang, Ke; Olinto, Angela V.; Kotera, Kumiko

    2013-01-01

    The acceleration of ultrahigh energy nuclei in fast spinning newborn pulsars can explain the observed spectrum of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays and the trend towards heavier nuclei for energies above 10 19 eV as reported by the Auger Observatory. Pulsar acceleration implies a hard injection spectrum ( ∼ E −1 ) due to pulsar spin down and a maximum energy E max ∼ Z 10 19 eV due to the limit on the spin rate of neutron stars. We have previously shown that the escape through the young supernova remnant softens the spectrum, decreases slightly the maximum energy, and generates secondary nuclei. Here we show that the distribution of pulsar birth periods and the effect of propagation in the interstellar and intergalactic media modifies the combined spectrum of all pulsars. By assuming a normal distribution of pulsar birth periods centered at 300 ms, we show that the contribution of extragalactic pulsar births to the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray spectrum naturally gives rise to a contribution to very high energy cosmic rays (VHECRs, between 10 16 and 10 18 eV) by Galactic pulsar births. The required injected composition to fit the observed spectrum depends on the absolute energy scale, which is uncertain, differing between Auger Observatory and Telescope Array. The contribution of Galactic pulsar births can also bridge the gap between predictions for cosmic ray acceleration in supernova remnants and the observed spectrum just below the ankle, depending on the composition of the cosmic rays that escape the supernova remnant and the diffusion behavior of VHECRs in the Galaxy

  19. Theory Summary: Very High Energy Cosmic Rays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sarkar Subir

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available This is a summary of ISVHECRI 2012 from a theorist’s perspective. A hundred years after their discovery, there is renewed interest in very high energy cosmic raysand their interactions which can provide unique information on new physics well beyond the Standard Model if only we knew how to unambiguously decipher the experimental data. While the observational situation has improved dramatically on the past decade with regard to both improved statistics and better understood systematics, the long standing questions regarding the origin of cosmic rays remain only partially answered, while further questions have been raised by new data. A recent development discussed at this Symposium is the advent of forward physics data from several experiments at the LHC, which have broadly vindicated the air shower simulation Monte Carlos currently in use and reduced their uncertainties further. Nevertheless there is still a major extrapolation required to interpret the highest energy air showers observed which appear to be undergoing a puzzling change in their elemental composition, even casting doubt on whether the much vaunted GZK cutoff has indeedbeen observed. The situation is further compounded by the apparent disagreement between Auger and Telescope Array data. A crucial diagnostic will be provided by the detection of the accompanying ultra-high energy cosmic neutrinos — two intriguing events have recently been recorded by IceCube.

  20. The ALTA cosmic ray experiment electronics system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brouwer, W.; Burris, W.J.; Caron, B.; Hewlett, J.; Holm, L.; Hamilton, A.; McDonald, W.J.; Pinfold, J.L.; Price, P.; Schaapman, J.R.; Sibley, L.; Soluk, R.A.; Wampler, L.J.

    2005-01-01

    Understanding the origin and propagation of high-energy cosmic rays is a fundamental area of astroparticle physics with major unanswered questions. The study of cosmic rays with energy more than 10 14 eV, probed only by ground-based experiments, has been restricted by the low particle flux. The Alberta Large-area Time-coincidence Array (ALTA) uses a sparse array of cosmic ray detection stations located in high schools across a large geographical area to search for non-random high-energy cosmic ray phenomena. Custom-built ALTA electronics is based on a modular board design. Its function is to control the detectors at each ALTA site allowing precise measurements of event timing and energy in the local detectors as well as time synchronization of all of the sites in the array using the global positioning system

  1. Response of spherical gravitational wave antenna modes to high-energy cosmic ray particles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jr, R M Marinho; Magalhaes, N S; Aguiar, O D; Frajuca, C

    2002-01-01

    High-energy cosmic ray particles are expected to be a significant source of noise in resonant mass gravitational wave detectors close to the quantum limit. The spherical, fourth generation antennas have been designed to attain such a limit. In this work we will show how the energy of a cosmic ray particle interacting with such an antenna is distributed over its eigenmodes. We will then make some comments on the relevant consequences of such a distribution for gravitational wave detection

  2. Response of spherical gravitational wave antenna modes to high-energy cosmic ray particles

    CERN Document Server

    Marinho, R M; Aguiar, O D; Frajuca, C

    2002-01-01

    High-energy cosmic ray particles are expected to be a significant source of noise in resonant mass gravitational wave detectors close to the quantum limit. The spherical, fourth generation antennas have been designed to attain such a limit. In this work we will show how the energy of a cosmic ray particle interacting with such an antenna is distributed over its eigenmodes. We will then make some comments on the relevant consequences of such a distribution for gravitational wave detection.

  3. Cosmic ray investigations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zatsepin, Georgii T; Roganova, Tat'yana M

    2009-01-01

    The history of cosmic ray research at the Lebedev Institute beginning with the first work and continuing up to now is reviewed. The milestones and main avenues of research are outlined. Pioneering studies on the nuclear cascade process in extensive air showers, investigations of the Vavilov-Cherenkov radiation, and some work on the origin of cosmic rays are discussed. Recent data on ultrahigh-energy particle detection at the Pierre Auger Observatory and the High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) experiments are presented. (conferences and symposia)

  4. Cosmic rays and radiations from the cosmos

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Parizot, E.

    2005-12-01

    This document gathers a lot of recent information concerning cosmic radiations, it is divided into 4 parts. Part I: energy, mass and angular spectra of cosmic rays. Part II: general phenomenology of cosmic rays, this part deals with the standard model, the maximal energy of protons inside supernova remnants, nucleosynthesis of light elements, and super-bubbles. Part III: radiations from the cosmos, this part deals with high energy gamma rays, non-thermal radiation of super-bubbles, positron transport, and the Compton trail of gamma-ray bursts. Part IV: the Pierre Auger observatory (OPA), this part deals with the detection of gamma ray bursts at OPA, the measurement of anisotropy, and top-down models. (A.C.)

  5. Source composition of cosmic rays at high energy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Juliusson, E.; Cesarsky, C.J.; Meneguzzi, M.; Casse, M.

    1975-01-01

    The source composition of the cosmic ray is usually calculated at an energy of a few GeV per nucleon. Recent measurements have however indicated that the source composition may be energy dependent. In order to give a quantitative answer to this question the source composition at 50GeV/nucleon has been calculated using an exponential distribution of path lengths and in the slab approximation. The results obtained at high energy agree very well with the source composition obtained at lower energies, except the abundance of carbon which is significantly lower than the generally accepted value of low energies [fr

  6. Heavy Ion Testing at the Galactic Cosmic Ray Energy Peak

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pellish, Jonathan A.; Xapsos, M. A.; LaBel, K. A.; Marshall, P. W.; Heidel, D. F.; Rodbell, K. P.; Hakey, M. C.; Dodd, P. E.; Shaneyfelt, M. R.; Schwank, J. R.; hide

    2009-01-01

    A 1 GeV/u Fe-56 Ion beam allows for true 90 deg. tilt irradiations of various microelectronic components and reveals relevant upset trends for an abundant element at the galactic cosmic ray (GCR) flux-energy peak.

  7. Exploring the cosmic rays energy frontier with the Auger Observatory

    CERN Document Server

    CERN. Geneva

    2006-01-01

    The existence of cosmic rays with energies in excess of 1020 eV represents a longstanding scientific mystery. Unveileing the mechanism and source of production/acceleration of particles of such enormous energies is a challenging experimental task due to their minute flux, roughly one km2 century. The Pierre Auger Observatory, now nearing completion in Malargue, Mendoza Province, Argentina, is spread over an area of 3000 km2. Two techniques are employed to observe the cosmic ray showers: detection of the shower particles on the ground and detection of fluorescence light produced as the shower particles pass through the atmosphere. I will describe the status of the Observatory and its detectors, and early results from the data recorded while the observatory is reaching its completion.Organiser(s): L. Alvarez-Gaume / PH-THNote: * Tea & coffee will be served at 16:00.

  8. Ultrahigh energy cosmic ray fluxes and cosmogenic neutrinos

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stanev, Todor

    2013-04-15

    We discuss the possible origin of the two neutrino shower events reported by the IceCube Collaboration at the Neutrino 2012 conference in Kyoto, Japan. The suspicion early on was that these two events are due to cosmogenic neutrinos and possibly by electron antineutrinos generating the Glashow resonance. The difference of the energy of the W{sup −} in the resonance and the energy estimates of the detected cascade events makes this assumption unlikely. The conclusion then may be that these high energy neutrinos are produced at sources of high energy cosmic rays such as Active Galactic Nuclei.

  9. Cosmic ray physics goes to school

    CERN Multimedia

    2002-01-01

    With the help of a CERN physicist, German Schools bring the Largest Cosmic Ray Detector in Europe one step closer to reality   Eric Berthier and Robert Porret (CERN, ST/HM), Frej Torp and Christian Antfolk from the Polytechnics Arcada in Finland, and Karsten Eggert, physicist at CERN who initiated this project, during the installation of cosmic ray detectors in the Pays de Gex, at point 4. Niina Patrikainen and Frej Torp, Finnish students from Rovaniemi and Arcada Polytechnics, installing cosmic ray counters at the Fachhochschule in Duesseldorf. The science of cosmic ray detection is growing, literally. Cosmic rays, energetic particles from space, strike our planet all the time. They collide with the air molecules in our upper atmosphere and initiate large showers of elementary particles (mainly electrons, photons, hadrons and muons) which rain down upon the earth. The shower size and the particle density in the showers reflect the initial energy of the cosmic ray particle, a detail which makes d...

  10. Proceedings of the 21. European Cosmic Ray Symposium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kiraly, P.; Kudela, K.; Wolfendale, A. W.

    2008-09-01

    Scientific symposium deals with problems of cosmic ray. The Symposium included the following sessions: (1): Relationship of cosmic rays to the environment; (2) Energetic particles and the magnetosphere of the Earth; (3) Energetic particles in the heliosphere; (4) Solar-terrestrial effects on different time scales; (5) Cosmic rays below the knee; (6) Cosmic rays above the knee (7) High energy interactions; (8) GeV and TeV gamma ray astronomy; (9) European projects related to cosmic rays; Future perspectives. Proceedings contains 122 papers dealing with the scope of INIS.

  11. Cosmic ray air showers in the knee energy region

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    The cosmic ray extensive air showers in the knee energy region have been studied by the North Bengal University array. The differential size spectra at different atmospheric depths show a systematic shift of the knee towards smaller shower size with the increase in atmospheric depth. The measured values of spectral ...

  12. Measuring the low-energy cosmic ray spectrum with the AFIS detector

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Losekamm, Martin [Physics Department E18, Technische Universitaet Muenchen (Germany); Institute of Astronautics, Technische Universitaet Muenchen (Germany); Gaisbauer, Dominic; Greenwald, Daniel; Hahn, Alexander; Hauptmann, Philipp; Konorov, Igor; Meng, Lingxin; Paul, Stephan; Poeschl, Thomas [Physics Department E18, Technische Universitaet Muenchen (Germany); Renker, Dieter [Physics Department E17, Technische Universitaet Muenchen (Germany)

    2014-07-01

    High-energy cosmic rays interact with Earth's upper atmosphere and produce antiprotons, which can be trapped in Earth's magnetic field. The Antiproton Flux in Space (AFIS) Mission will measure the flux of trapped antiprotons with energies less than 100 MeV aboard the nanosatellite MOVE 2. An active-target tracking detector comprised of scintillating plastic fibers and silicon photomultipliers is already under construction at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen. As a precursor to the space-bound mission, a prototype version of the detector will be launched aboard a balloon from Kiruna, Sweden as part of the REXUS/BEXUS student program by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Named AFIS-P, it will be used to measure the low-energy part of the cosmic-ray spectrum for energies less than 100 MeV-per-nucleon. Spectrometers in previous balloon missions were not sensitive in this low-energy region. Thus AFIS-P will deliver unprecedented data, while simultaneously allowing us to field-test the AFIS detector.

  13. Gamma ray astronomy and the origin of galactic cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gabici, Stefano

    2011-01-01

    Diffusive shock acceleration operating at expanding supernova remnant shells is by far the most popular model for the origin of galactic cosmic rays. Despite the general consensus received by the model, an unambiguous and conclusive proof of the supernova remnant hypothesis is still missing. In this context, the recent developments in gamma ray astronomy provide us with precious insights into the problem of the origin of galactic cosmic rays, since production of gamma rays is expected both during the acceleration of cosmic rays at supernova remnant shocks and during their subsequent propagation in the interstellar medium. In particular, the recent detection of a number of supernova remnants at TeV energies nicely fits with the model, but it still does not constitute a conclusive proof of it, mainly due to the difficulty of disentangling the hadronic and leptonic contributions to the observed gamma ray emission. The main goal of my research is to search for an unambiguous and conclusive observational test for proving (or disproving) the idea that supernova remnants are the sources of galactic cosmic rays with energies up to (at least) the cosmic ray knee. Our present comprehension of the mechanisms of particle acceleration at shocks and of the propagation of cosmic rays in turbulent magnetic fields encourages beliefs that such a conclusive test might come from future observations of supernova remnants and of the Galaxy in the almost unexplored domain of multi-TeV gamma rays. (author)

  14. Cosmic ray antimatter and baryon symmetric cosmology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stecker, F. W.; Protheroe, R. J.; Kazanas, D.

    1982-01-01

    The relative merits and difficulties of the primary and secondary origin hypotheses for the observed cosmic-ray antiprotons, including the new low-energy measurement of Buffington, et al. We conclude that the cosmic-ray antiproton data may be evidence for antimatter galaxies and baryon symmetric cosmology. The present bar P data are consistent with a primary extragalactic component having /p=/equiv 1+/- 3.2/0.7x10 = to the -4 independent of energy. We propose that the primary extragalactic cosmic ray antiprotons are most likely from active galaxies and that expected disintegration of bar alpha/alpha ban alpha/alpha. We further predict a value for ban alpha/alpha =/equiv 10 to the -5, within range of future cosmic ray detectors.

  15. Search for correlated high energy cosmic ray events with CHICOS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carlson, B E; Brobeck, E; Jillings, C J; Larson, M B; Lynn, T W; McKeown, R D; Hill, James E; Falkowski, B J; Seki, R; Sepikas, J; Yodh, G B

    2005-01-01

    We present the results of a search for time correlations in high energy cosmic ray data (primary E > 10 14 eV) collected by the California HIgh school Cosmic ray ObServatory (CHICOS) array. Data from 60 detector sites spread over an area of 400 km 2 were studied for evidence of isolated events separated by more than 1 km with coincidence times ranging from 1 μs up to 1 s. The results are consistent with the absence of excess coincidences except for a 2.9σ excess observed for coincidence times less than 10 μs. We report upper limits for the coincidence probability as a function of coincidence time

  16. Relative distribution of cosmic rays and magnetic fields

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seta, Amit; Shukurov, Anvar; Wood, Toby S.; Bushby, Paul J.; Snodin, Andrew P.

    2018-02-01

    Synchrotron radiation from cosmic rays is a key observational probe of the galactic magnetic field. Interpreting synchrotron emission data requires knowledge of the cosmic ray number density, which is often assumed to be in energy equipartition (or otherwise tightly correlated) with the magnetic field energy. However, there is no compelling observational or theoretical reason to expect such a tight correlation to hold across all scales. We use test particle simulations, tracing the propagation of charged particles (protons) through a random magnetic field, to study the cosmic ray distribution at scales comparable to the correlation scale of the turbulent flow in the interstellar medium (≃100 pc in spiral galaxies). In these simulations, we find that there is no spatial correlation between the cosmic ray number density and the magnetic field energy density. In fact, their distributions are approximately statistically independent. We find that low-energy cosmic rays can become trapped between magnetic mirrors, whose location depends more on the structure of the field lines than on the field strength.

  17. Cosmic Ray Studies with IceCube

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gonzalez, Javier

    In this contribution we will give an overview of the cosmic ray studies conducted within the IceCube collaboration. The IceCube detector in the geographical south pole can be used to measure various characteristics of the extensive air showers induced by high energy cosmic rays. With IceTop, the surface component of the detector, we detect the electromagnetic and muon components of the air showers, while with the deep detector we detect the high energy muons. We have measured the energy spectrum of cosmic ray primaries in the range between 1.58PeV and 1.26 EeV. A combined analysis of the high energy muon bundles in the ice and the air shower footprint in IceTop provides a measure of primary composition. We will also discuss how the sensitivity to low energy muons in the air showers has the potential to produce additional measures of primary composition.

  18. High-energy cosmic rays and tests of basic principles of Physics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gonzalez-Mestres L.

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available With the present understanding of data, the observed flux suppression for ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR at energies above 4.1019 eV can be a signature of the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK cutoff or be related to a similar mechanism. But it may also correspond, for instance, to the maximum energies available at the relevant sources. In both cases, violations of special relativity modifying cosmic-ray propagation or acceleration at very high energy can potentially play a role. Other violations of fundamental principles of standard particle physics (quantum mechanics, energy and momentum conservation, vacuum homogeneity and “static” properties, effective space dimensions, quark confinement… can also be relevant at these energies. In particular, UHECR data would in principle allow to set bounds on Lorentz symmetry violation (LSV in patterns incorporating a privileged local reference frame (the “vacuum rest frame”, VRF. But the precise analysis is far from trivial, and other effects can also be present. The effective parameters can be related to Planckscale physics, or even to physics beyond Planck scale, as well as to the dynamics and effective symmetries of LSV for nucleons, quarks, leptons and the photon. LSV can also be at the origin of GZK-like effects. In the presence of a VRF, and contrary to a “grand unification” view, LSV and other violations of standard principles can modify the internal structure of particles at very high energy and conventional symmetries may cease to be valid at energies close to the Planck scale. We present an updated discussion of these topics, including experimental prospects, new potentialities for high-energy cosmic ray phenomenology and the possible link with unconventional pre-Big Bang scenarios, superbradyon (superluminal preon patterns… The subject of a possible superluminal propagation of neutrinos at accelerator energies is also dealt with.

  19. Cosmic ray riddle solved?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1995-01-01

    Full text: Physicists from Japan and the United States have discovered a possible answer to the puzzle of the origin of high energy cosmic rays that bombard Earth from all directions in space. Using data from the Japanese/US X-ray astronomical satellite ASCA, physicists have found strong evidence for the production of cosmic particles in the shock wave of a supernova remnant, the expanding fireball produced by the explosion of a star. Primary cosmic rays, mostly electrons and protons, travel near the speed of light. Each second, approximately 4 such particles cross one square centimetre of space just outside the Earth's atmosphere. Subsequently, collisions of these primary particles with atoms in the upper atmosphere produce slower secondary particles. Ever since the discovery of cosmic rays early this century, scientists have debated the origin of these particles and how they can be accelerated to such high speeds. Supernova remnants have long been thought to provide the high energy component, but the evidence has been lacking until now. The international team of investigators used the satellite to determine that cosmic rays are generated profusely in the remains of the supernova of 1006 AD - which appeared to medieval viewers to be as bright as the Moon - and that they are accelerated to high velocities by an iterative process first suggested by Enrico Fermi in 1949. Using solid-state X-ray cameras, the ASCA satellite records simultaneous images and spectra of X-rays from celestial sources, allowing astronomers to distinguish different types of X-ray emission. The tell-tale clue to the discovery was the detection of two diametrically opposite regions in the rapidly expanding supernova remnant, the debris from the stellar explosion. The two regions glow intensely from the synchrotron radiation produced when fast-moving electrons are bent by a magnetic field. The remainder of the supernova remnant, in contrast, emits ordinary ''thermal'' X-rays

  20. Observation of superheavy primary cosmic ray nuclei with solid state track detectors and x-ray films

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doke, Tadayoshi; Hayashi, Takayoshi; Ito, Kensai; Yanagimachi, Tomoki; Kobayashi, Shigeru.

    1977-01-01

    The measurements of energy spectra and the nuclear charge distribution of superheavy nuclei heavier than iron in primary cosmic ray can provide information on the origin, propagation and life time of the cosmic ray. Since incident particles are in the region of relativistic velocity (the low energy cosmic ray below the cutoff energy is forbidden from entering), the charges of cosmic ray nuclei can be determined without knowing the energy of particles. The balloon-borne solid state track detector and plastic and X-ray films were employed for the detection of superheavy cosmic ray, and the five events were detected with the cellulose nitrate film. The flux of superheavy nuclei is predicted from the present analysis. (Yoshimori, M.)

  1. ON ULTRA-HIGH-ENERGY COSMIC RAYS AND THEIR RESULTANT GAMMA-RAYS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gavish, Eyal; Eichler, David [Physics Department, Ben-Gurion University, Be’er-Sheva 84105 (Israel)

    2016-05-01

    The Fermi Large Area Telescope collaboration has recently reported on 50 months of measurements of the isotropic extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGRB) spectrum between 100 MeV and 820 GeV. Ultra-high-energy cosmic ray (UHECR) protons interact with the cosmic microwave background photons and produce cascade photons of energies 10 MeV–1 TeV that contribute to the EGRB flux. We examine seven possible evolution models for UHECRs and find that UHECR sources that evolve as the star formation rate (SFR), medium low luminosity active galactic nuclei type-1 ( L = 10{sup 43.5} erg s{sup −1} in the [0.5–2] KeV band), and BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs) are the most acceptable given the constraints imposed by the observed EGRB. Other possibilities produce too much secondary γ -radiation. In all cases, the decaying dark matter (DM) contribution improves the fit at high energy, but the contribution of still unresolved blazars, which would leave the smallest role for decaying DM, may yet provide an alternative improvement. The possibility that the entire EGRB can be fitted with resolvable but not-yet-resolved blazars, as recently claimed by Ajello et al., would leave little room in the EGRB to accommodate γ -rays from extragalactic UHECR production, even for many source evolution rates that would otherwise be acceptable. We find that under the assumption of UHECRs being mostly protons, there is not enough room for producing extragalactic UHECRs with active galactic nucleus, gamma-ray burst, or even SFR source evolution. Sources that evolve as BL Lacs, on the other hand, would produce much less secondary γ -radiation and would remain a viable source of UHECRs, provided that they dominate.

  2. Maximum entropy analysis of cosmic ray composition

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Nosek, D.; Ebr, Jan; Vícha, Jakub; Trávníček, Petr; Nosková, J.

    2016-01-01

    Roč. 76, Mar (2016), s. 9-18 ISSN 0927-6505 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA14-17501S Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : ultra-high energy cosmic rays * extensive air showers * cosmic ray composition Subject RIV: BF - Elementary Particles and High Energy Physics Impact factor: 3.257, year: 2016

  3. All-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum measured by the HAWC experiment from 10 to 500 TeV

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alfaro, R.; Alvarez, C.; Álvarez, J. D.; Arceo, R.; Arteaga-Velázquez, J. C.; Avila Rojas, D.; Ayala Solares, H. A.; Barber, A. S.; Becerril, A.; Belmont-Moreno, E.; BenZvi, S. Y.; Brisbois, C.; Caballero-Mora, K. S.; Capistrán, T.; Carramiñana, A.; Casanova, S.; Castillo, M.; Cotti, U.; Cotzomi, J.; Coutiño de León, S.; De León, C.; De la Fuente, E.; Diaz Hernandez, R.; Dichiara, S.; Dingus, B. L.; DuVernois, M. A.; Díaz-Vélez, J. C.; Ellsworth, R. W.; Enriquez-Rivera, O.; Fiorino, D. W.; Fleischhack, H.; Fraija, N.; García-González, J. A.; González Muñoz, A.; González, M. M.; Goodman, J. A.; Hampel-Arias, Z.; Harding, J. P.; Hernandez-Almada, A.; Hinton, J.; Hueyotl-Zahuantitla, F.; Hui, C. M.; Hüntemeyer, P.; Iriarte, A.; Jardin-Blicq, A.; Joshi, V.; Kaufmann, S.; Lara, A.; Lauer, R. J.; Lennarz, D.; León Vargas, H.; Linnemann, J. T.; Longinotti, A. L.; Luis Raya, G.; Luna-García, R.; López-Cámara, D.; López-Coto, R.; Malone, K.; Marinelli, S. S.; Martinez, O.; Martinez-Castellanos, I.; Martínez-Castro, J.; Martínez-Huerta, H.; Matthews, J. A.; Miranda-Romagnoli, P.; Moreno, E.; Mostafá, M.; Nellen, L.; Newbold, M.; Nisa, M. U.; Noriega-Papaqui, R.; Pelayo, R.; Pretz, J.; Pérez-Pérez, E. G.; Ren, Z.; Rho, C. D.; Rivière, C.; Rosa-González, D.; Rosenberg, M.; Ruiz-Velasco, E.; Salesa Greus, F.; Sandoval, A.; Schneider, M.; Schoorlemmer, H.; Sinnis, G.; Smith, A. J.; Springer, R. W.; Surajbali, P.; Taboada, I.; Tibolla, O.; Tollefson, K.; Torres, I.; Ukwatta, T. N.; Villaseñor, L.; Weisgarber, T.; Westerhoff, S.; Wood, J.; Yapici, T.; Zepeda, A.; Zhou, H.; HAWC Collaboration

    2017-12-01

    We report on the measurement of the all-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum with the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory in the energy range 10 to 500 TeV. HAWC is a ground-based air-shower array deployed on the slopes of Volcan Sierra Negra in the state of Puebla, Mexico, and is sensitive to gamma rays and cosmic rays at TeV energies. The data used in this work were taken over 234 days between June 2016 and February 2017. The primary cosmic-ray energy is determined with a maximum likelihood approach using the particle density as a function of distance to the shower core. Introducing quality cuts to isolate events with shower cores landing on the array, the reconstructed energy distribution is unfolded iteratively. The measured all-particle spectrum is consistent with a broken power law with an index of -2.49 ±0.01 prior to a break at (45.7 ±0.1 ) TeV , followed by an index of -2.71 ±0.01 . The spectrum also represents a single measurement that spans the energy range between direct detection and ground-based experiments. As a verification of the detector response, the energy scale and angular resolution are validated by observation of the cosmic ray Moon shadow's dependence on energy.

  4. A combined cosmic ray muon spectrometer and high energy air shower array

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cherry, M.L.; Ayres, D.S.; Halzen, F.

    1986-01-01

    Cosmic rays have been detected at energies in excess of 10 20 eV, and individual sources have been conclusively identified as intense emitters of gamma rays at energies up to 10 16 eV. There is clearly a great deal of exciting astrophysics to be learned from such studies, but it has been suggested that there may be particle physics to be learned from the cosmic beam as well. Based in particular on the reports of surprisingly high fluxes of underground muons from the direction of Cygnus X-3 modulated by the known orbital period, there have been several suggestions recently invoking stable supersymmetric particles produced at Cygnus X-3, enhanced muon production from high energy photons, quark matter, and ''cygnets.'' Although the underground muon results have been questioned, it may still be worthwhile to consider the possibility of new physics beyond the standard model with energy scale (G/sub F/)/sup -1/2/ ≥ 0.25 TeV. For example, there have been recent discussions on the experimental signatures to be observed from new high energy photon couplings to matter, exchanges between constituent quarks and leptons, and stable gluinos and photinos mixed in with the cosmic gamma ray flux. We describe here a possible detector to search for such effects. We utilize the possibility that point sources like Cygnus X-3 can be used to provide a directional time-modulated ''tagged'' high energy photon beam

  5. The energy spectrum of cosmic rays measured with the HEAT extension at the Pierre Auger Observatory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Scharf, Nils Sven Sebastian

    2013-01-01

    This thesis describes the calculation of the energy spectrum of cosmic rays, that is the absolute flux of cosmic rays as a function of energy, from data of air showers observed with the HEAT (High Elevation Auger Telescopes) extension and the fluorescence detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The Pierre Auger Observatory is the largest observatory for the study of cosmic rays. The Pierre Auger Observatory observes air showers, that are cascades of particles that were instigated by cosmic rays hitting the Earth's atmosphere, with two different detection concepts. The surface detector samples the secondary particles of air showers that hit the ground with an array of surface detector stations, whereas the fluorescence detector measures the energy loss profile of air showers by detecting fluorescence light, produced by the air showers when they travel through the atmosphere, with optical telescopes. The properties of the cosmic rays are not directly measurable but have to be reconstructed from the observed air shower parameters. Properties of particular interest are the type of the primary cosmic ray particle, its energy and its arrival direction. HEAT is an extension to the fluorescence detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. It is designed to lower the energy threshold by one order of magnitude down to 10 17 eV or lower. HEAT is taking data since 2010. The calculation of the absolute flux of cosmic rays needs two ingredients: the number of detected air showers as a function of shower energy and the exposure of the detector as a function of energy. The studied air shower class are hybrid events, which are events that have been detected by a fluorescence detector and at least one surface detector station. The used air showers were observed in a time period of fifteen month starting from June 2010. A first step of the analysis is the reconstruction of air showers and cosmic ray parameters from raw data. To calculate the exposure, the uptime, that is the integral

  6. High-energy cosmic rays: Puzzles, models, and giga-ton neutrino ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    magnetic field, it is believed that cosmic rays of energy <1019 eV are of galactic ... high energy near the central source is impossible due to the high density of pho- .... 1020 eV, the Fly's Eye, HiRes and Yakutsk experiments are in agreement .... detection rate of ~20 neutrino-induced muon events per year (over 4π sr) in a.

  7. Cosmic-ray-modified stellar winds. III. A numerical iterative approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ko, C.M.; Jokipii, J.R.; Webb, G.M.

    1988-01-01

    A numerical iterative method is used to determine the modification of a stellar wind flow with a termination shock by the galactic cosmic rays. A two-fluid model consisting of cosmic rays and thermal stellar wind gas is used in which the cosmic rays are coupled to the background flow via scattering with magnetohydrodynamic waves or irregularities. A polytropic model is used to describe the thermal stellar wind gas, and the cosmic-rays are modeled as a hot, low-density gas with negligible mass flux. The positive galactic cosmic-ray pressure gradient serves to brake the outflowing stellar wind gas, and the cosmic rays modify the location of the critical point of the wind, the location of the shock, the wind fluid velocity profile, and the thermal gas entropy constants on both sides of the shock. The transfer of energy to the cosmic rays results in an outward radial flux of cosmic-ray energy. 21 references

  8. Multi-resolution anisotropy studies of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Aab, A.; Abreu, P.; Aglietta, M.; Blažek, Jiří; Boháčová, Martina; Chudoba, Jiří; Ebr, Jan; Mandát, Dušan; Palatka, Miroslav; Pech, Miroslav; Prouza, Michael; Řídký, Jan; Schovánek, Petr; Trávníček, Petr; Vícha, Jakub

    2017-01-01

    Roč. 2017, č. 6 (2017), 1-26, č. článku 026. ISSN 1475-7516 R&D Projects: GA MŠk LM2015038; GA MŠk LG15014; GA ČR(CZ) GA14-17501S Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : cosmic ray experiments * ultra high energy cosmic rays Subject RIV: BF - Elementary Particles and High Energy Physics OBOR OECD: Particles and field physics Impact factor: 4.734, year: 2016

  9. The MIDAS telescope for microwave detection of ultra-high energy cosmic rays

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Alvarez-Muñiz, J.; Soares, E.A.; Berlin, A.; Bogdan, M.; Boháčová, Martina; Bonifazi, C.; Carvalho, W.R.; de Mello Neto, J.R.T.; San Luis, P.F.; Genat, J.F.; Hollon, N.; Mills, E.; Monasor, M.; Privitera, P.; Ramos de Castro, A.; Reyes, L.C.; Richardson, M.; Rouille D’Orfeuil, B.; Santos, E.M.; Wayne, S.; Williams, C.; Zas, E.; Zhou, J.

    2013-01-01

    Roč. 719, Aug (2013), s. 70-80 ISSN 0168-9002 Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : ultra high energy cosmic rays * radio-detection * microwave * GHz Subject RIV: BF - Elementary Particles and High Energy Physics Impact factor: 1.316, year: 2013

  10. Cosmic Ray-Air Shower Measurement from Space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takahashi, Yoshiyuki

    1997-01-01

    A feasibility study has been initiated to observe from space the highest energy cosmic rays above 1021 eV. A satellite observatory concept, the Maximum-energy Auger (Air)-Shower Satellite (MASS), is recently renamed as the Orbital Wide-angle Collector (OWL) by taking its unique feature of using a very wide field-of-view (FOV) optics. A huge array of imaging devices (about 10(exp 6) pixels) is required to detect and record fluorescent light profiles of cosmic ray cascades in the atmosphere. The FOV of MASS could extend to as large as about 60 in. diameter, which views (500 - 1000 km) of earth's surface and more than 300 - 1000 cosmic ray events per year could be observed above 1020 eV. From far above the atmosphere, the MASS/OWL satellite should be capable of observing events at all angles including near horizontal tracks, and would have considerable aperture for high energy photon and neutrino observation. With a large aperture and the spatial and temporal resolution, MASS could determine the energy spectrum, the mass composition, and arrival anisotropy of cosmic rays from 1020 eV to 1022 eV; a region hitherto not explored by ground-based detectors such as the Fly's Eye and air-shower arrays. MASS/OWL's ability to identify cosmic neutrinos and gamma rays may help providing evidence for the theory which attributes the above cut-off cosmic ray flux to the decay of topological defects. Very wide FOV optics system of MASS/OWL with a large array of imaging devices is applicable to observe other atmospheric phenomena including upper atmospheric lightning. The wide FOV MASS optics being developed can also improve ground-based gamma-ray observatories by allowing simultaneous observation of many gamma ray sources located at different constellations.

  11. Cosmic Rays in Intermittent Magnetic Fields

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shukurov, Anvar; Seta, Amit; Bushby, Paul J.; Wood, Toby S.; Snodin, Andrew P.

    2017-01-01

    The propagation of cosmic rays in turbulent magnetic fields is a diffusive process driven by the scattering of the charged particles by random magnetic fluctuations. Such fields are usually highly intermittent, consisting of intense magnetic filaments and ribbons surrounded by weaker, unstructured fluctuations. Studies of cosmic-ray propagation have largely overlooked intermittency, instead adopting Gaussian random magnetic fields. Using test particle simulations, we calculate cosmic-ray diffusivity in intermittent, dynamo-generated magnetic fields. The results are compared with those obtained from non-intermittent magnetic fields having identical power spectra. The presence of magnetic intermittency significantly enhances cosmic-ray diffusion over a wide range of particle energies. We demonstrate that the results can be interpreted in terms of a correlated random walk.

  12. Cosmic Rays in Intermittent Magnetic Fields

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shukurov, Anvar; Seta, Amit; Bushby, Paul J.; Wood, Toby S. [School of Mathematics and Statistics, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU (United Kingdom); Snodin, Andrew P., E-mail: a.seta1@ncl.ac.uk, E-mail: amitseta90@gmail.com [Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Applied Science, King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, Bangkok 10800 (Thailand)

    2017-04-10

    The propagation of cosmic rays in turbulent magnetic fields is a diffusive process driven by the scattering of the charged particles by random magnetic fluctuations. Such fields are usually highly intermittent, consisting of intense magnetic filaments and ribbons surrounded by weaker, unstructured fluctuations. Studies of cosmic-ray propagation have largely overlooked intermittency, instead adopting Gaussian random magnetic fields. Using test particle simulations, we calculate cosmic-ray diffusivity in intermittent, dynamo-generated magnetic fields. The results are compared with those obtained from non-intermittent magnetic fields having identical power spectra. The presence of magnetic intermittency significantly enhances cosmic-ray diffusion over a wide range of particle energies. We demonstrate that the results can be interpreted in terms of a correlated random walk.

  13. Ultra-high energy cosmic rays: Setting the stage

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sokolsky, P.

    2013-06-01

    The history of ultra-high energy cosmic ray physics is reviewed from the post-war era of arrays such as Volcano Ranch, Haverah Park and Akeno to the development of air-fluorescence and current hybrid arrays. The aim of this paper is to present the background information needed for a better understanding of the current issues in this field that are discussed in much greater depth in the rest of this conference.

  14. Ultra-high energy cosmic rays: Setting the stage

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sokolsky P.

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available The history of ultra-high energy cosmic ray physics is reviewed from the post-war era of arrays such as Volcano Ranch, Haverah Park and Akeno to the development of air-fluorescence and current hybrid arrays. The aim of this paper is to present the background information needed for a better understanding of the current issues in this field that are discussed in much greater depth in the rest of this conference.

  15. ULTRAHIGH ENERGY COSMIC RAYS: REVIEW OF THE CURRENT SITUATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Todor Stanev

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available We describe the current situation of the data on the highest energy particles in the Universe – the ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. The new results in the field come from the Telescope Array experiment in Utah, U.S.A. For this reason we concentrate on the results from these experiments and compare them to the measurements of the other two recent experiments, the High Resolution Fly’sEye and the Southern Auger Observatory.

  16. Study of cosmic rays reveals secrets of solar-terrestrial science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jokipii, J. R.

    For many years cosmic rays provided the most important source of energetic particles for studies of subatomic physics. Today, cosmic rays are being studied as a natural phenomenon that can tell us much about both the Earth's environment in space and distant astrophysical processes. Cosmic rays are naturally occurring energetic particles—mainly ions—with kinetic energies extending from just above thermal energies to more than 1020 electron volts (eV). They constantly bombard the Earth from all directions, with more than 1018 particles having energies >1 MeV striking the top of the Earth's atmosphere each second. Figure 1 illustrates the continuous cosmic ray energy spectrum.

  17. Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass

    CERN Multimedia

    Baylon cardiel, J L; Wallace, K C; Anderson, T B; Copley, M

    The cosmic-ray energetics and mass (CREAM) investigation is designed to measure cosmic-ray composition to the supernova energy scale of 10$^{15}$ eV in a series of ultra long duration balloon (ULDB) flights. The first flight is planned to be launched from Antarctica in December 2004. The goal is to observe cosmic-ray spectral features and/or abundance changes that might signify a limit to supernova acceleration. The particle ($\\{Z}$) measurements will be made with a timing-based charge detector and a pixelated silicon charge detector to minimize the effect of backscatter from the calorimeter. The particle energy measurements will be made with a transition radiation detector (TRD) for $\\{Z}$ > 3 and a sampling tungsten/scintillator calorimeter for $\\{Z}$ $\\geq$1 particles, allowing inflight cross calibration of the two detectors. The status of the payload construction and flight preparation are reported in this paper.

  18. Multi-spectra Cosmic Ray Flux Measurement

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Xiaochun; Dayananda, Mathes

    2010-02-01

    The Earth's upper atmosphere is constantly bombarded by rain of charged particles known as primary cosmic rays. These primary cosmic rays will collide with the atmospheric molecules and create extensive secondary particles which shower downward to the surface of the Earth. In recent years, a few studies have been done regarding to the applications of the cosmic ray measurements and the correlations between the Earth's climate conditions and the cosmic ray fluxes [1,2,3]. Most of the particles, which reach to the surface of the Earth, are muons together with a small percentage of electrons, gammas, neutrons, etc. At Georgia State University, multiple cosmic ray particle detectors have been constructed to measure the fluxes and energy distributions of the secondary cosmic ray particles. In this presentation, we will briefly describe these prototype detectors and show the preliminary test results. Reference: [1] K.Borozdin, G.Hogan, C.Morris, W.Priedhorsky, A.Saunders, L.Shultz, M.Teasdale, Nature, Vol.422, 277 (2003). [2] L.V. Egorova, V. Ya Vovk, O.A. Troshichev, Journal of Atmospheric and Terrestrial Physics 62, 955-966 (2000). [3] Henrik Svensmark, Phy. Rev. Lett. 81, 5027 (1998). )

  19. Measurement Over Large Solid Angle of Low Energy Cosmic Ray Muon Flux

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schreiner, H. F., III; Schwitters, R. F.

    2015-12-01

    Recent advancements in portable muon detectors have made cosmic ray imaging practical for many diverse applications. Working muon attenuation detectors have been built at the University of Texas and are already successfully being used to image tunnels, structures, and Mayan pyramids. Most previous studies have focused on energy measurements of the cosmic ray spectrum from of 1 GeV or higher. We have performed an accurate measurement of the ultra-low energy (muon spectrum down to the acceptance level of our detector, around one hundred MeV. Measurements include angular dependence, with acceptance approaching horizontal. Measurements were made underwater using a custom enclosure in Lake Travis, Austin, TX. This measurement will allow more accurate predictions and simulations of attenuation for small (muon tomography.

  20. New test of Lorentz symmetry using ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anchordoqui, Luis A.; Soriano, Jorge F.

    2018-02-01

    We propose an innovative test of Lorentz symmetry by observing pairs of simultaneous parallel extensive air showers produced by the fragments of ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray nuclei which disintegrated in collisions with solar photons. We show that the search for a cross-correlation of showers in arrival time and direction becomes background free for an angular scale ≲3 ° and a time window O (10 s ) . We also show that if the solar photo-disintegration probability of helium is O (10-5.5) then the hunt for spatiotemporal coincident showers could be within range of existing cosmic ray facilities, such as the Pierre Auger Observatory. We demonstrate that the actual observation of a few events can be used to constrain Lorentz violating dispersion relations of the nucleon.

  1. Propagation of cosmic rays in the Earth's atmosphere

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Putze, Antje

    2006-06-01

    Cosmic rays are composed of charged particles, which arrive after a long travel through the Galaxy on Earth. Supernova explosions are considered to be galactic sources, which accelerate these particles up to energies around 10 18 eV. Beyond this energy, one supposes that the extragalactic sources, like active galaxy nuclei (AGN), gamma ray bursts or pulsars, are the origin of the ultra high energy cosmic rays. The spectral index of the elemental energy distributions of cosmic rays reflects the dynamic of its propagation, particularly the conjugation of the effects connected to the cosmic ray source spectrum and those connected to its propagation (acceleration, absorption and escape). The evolution of the spectral index with the cosmic-ray particle energy constitutes a sensitive test of the components, which determine this evolution. The precise index measurement of individual elemental spectra of the cosmic rays by AMS up to TeV and by the experiment CREAM beyond it, from TeV to PeV, will permit to proceed in this problematic. One of the difficulties on this measurement is to take well into account the systematic errors. During the data analysis we have to take into account in particular the interaction (diffusion and fragmentation) of the ions while their travel through the Earth's atmosphere. The study of the interaction and the fragmentation of these ions in the atmosphere is hence indispensable and described in this work. The study is based on a matrix calculation, which had been successfully implemented and tested and which has permitted to analyse the effects, caused by the experimental uncertainties on the cross sections, on the spectral index measurement. (author)

  2. The end of the galactic cosmic ray spectrum

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stanev, Todor [Bartol Research Institute, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 (United States)

    2007-03-15

    We discuss the region of transition between galactic and extragalactic cosmic rays. The exact shapes and compositions of these two components contains information about important parameters of powerful astrophysical sources and the conditions in extragalactic space as well as for the cosmological evolution of the sources of high energy cosmic rays. Several types of experimental data, including the exact shape of the ultrahigh energy cosmic rays, their chemical composition and their anisotropy, and the fluxes of cosmogenic neutrinos have to be included in the solution of this problem.

  3. A strategy to unveil transient sources of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Takami Hajime

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Transient generation of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs has been motivated from promising candidates of UHECR sources such as gamma-ray bursts, flares of active galactic nuclei, and newly born neutron stars and magnetars. Here we propose a strategy to unveil transient sources of UHECRs from UHECR experiments. We demonstrate that the rate of UHECR bursts and/or flares is related to the apparent number density of UHECR sources, which is the number density estimated on the assumption of steady sources, and the time-profile spread of the bursts produced by cosmic magnetic fields. The apparent number density strongly depends on UHECR energies under a given rate of the bursts, which becomes observational evidence of transient sources. It is saturated at the number density of host galaxies of UHECR sources. We also derive constraints on the UHECR burst rate and/or energy budget of UHECRs per source as a function of the apparent source number density by using models of cosmic magnetic fields. In order to obtain a precise constraint of the UHECR burst rate, high event statistics above ∼ 1020 eV for evaluating the apparent source number density at the highest energies and better knowledge on cosmic magnetic fields by future observations and/or simulations to better estimate the time-profile spread of UHECR bursts are required. The estimated rate allows us to constrain transient UHECR sources by being compared with the occurrence rates of known energetic transient phenomena.

  4. Cosmic rays on earth

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Allkofer, O.C.; Grieder, P.K.F.

    1984-01-01

    A data collection is presented that covers cosmic rays on earth. Included are all relevant data on flux and intensity measurements, energy spectra, and related data of all primary and secondary components of the cosmic radiation at all levels in the atmosphere, at sea level and underground. In those cases where no useful experimental data have been available, theoretical predictions were substituted. (GSCH)

  5. The propagation of galactic cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hall, A.N.

    1981-01-01

    Large scale (approximately 15 pc) turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM) causes the firehose and mirror instabilities to occur. These produce small scale (approximately 10 -7 pc) magnetic irregularities, which scatter cosmic rays. We use pulsar scintillation data, and a model of the origin of these scintillations, to construct a slab model of the turbulent ISM. Then we find the amplitudes and wavelengths of the magnetic irregularities that arise, and we calculate the coefficients for the diffusion of cosmic rays along the interstellar magnetic fields. We incorporate this diffusion into our model of the turbulent ISM, and show that it can account naturally for both the lifetime of low energy cosmic rays, and the variation of their mean pathlength with energy. Our model has no galactic halo, and contains no scattering by Alfven waves. (author)

  6. Telescope Array Radar (TARA) observatory for Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Abbasi, R.; Othman, M. Abou Bakr [University of Utah, 115 S 1400 E #201 JFB, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 (United States); Allen, C. [University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045 (United States); Beard, L. [Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 (United States); Belz, J. [University of Utah, 115 S 1400 E #201 JFB, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 (United States); Besson, D. [University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045 (United States); Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute, 31 Kashirskaya Shosse, Moscow 115409 (Russian Federation); Byrne, M.; Farhang-Boroujeny, B.; Gardner, A. [University of Utah, 115 S 1400 E #201 JFB, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 (United States); Gillman, W.H. [Gillman and Associates, Salt Lake City, UT 84106 (United States); Hanlon, W. [University of Utah, 115 S 1400 E #201 JFB, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 (United States); Hanson, J. [University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045 (United States); Jayanthmurthy, C. [University of Utah, 115 S 1400 E #201 JFB, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 (United States); Kunwar, S. [University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045 (United States); Larson, S.L. [Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322 (United States); Myers, I., E-mail: isaac@cosmic.utah.edu [University of Utah, 115 S 1400 E #201 JFB, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 (United States); Prohira, S.; Ratzlaff, K. [University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045 (United States); Sokolsky, P. [University of Utah, 115 S 1400 E #201 JFB, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 (United States); Takai, H. [Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973 (United States); and others

    2014-12-11

    Construction was completed during summer 2013 on the Telescope Array RAdar (TARA) bi-static radar observatory for Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR). TARA is co-located with the Telescope Array, the largest “conventional” cosmic ray detector in the Northern Hemisphere, in radio-quiet Western Utah. TARA employs an 8 MW Effective Radiated Power (ERP) VHF transmitter and smart receiver system based on a 250 MS/s data acquisition system in an effort to detect the scatter of sounding radiation by UHECR-induced atmospheric ionization. TARA seeks to demonstrate bi-static radar as a useful new remote sensing technique for UHECRs. In this report, we describe the design and performance of the TARA transmitter and receiver systems.

  7. Telescope Array Radar (TARA) observatory for Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abbasi, R.; Othman, M. Abou Bakr; Allen, C.; Beard, L.; Belz, J.; Besson, D.; Byrne, M.; Farhang-Boroujeny, B.; Gardner, A.; Gillman, W.H.; Hanlon, W.; Hanson, J.; Jayanthmurthy, C.; Kunwar, S.; Larson, S.L.; Myers, I.; Prohira, S.; Ratzlaff, K.; Sokolsky, P.; Takai, H.

    2014-01-01

    Construction was completed during summer 2013 on the Telescope Array RAdar (TARA) bi-static radar observatory for Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR). TARA is co-located with the Telescope Array, the largest “conventional” cosmic ray detector in the Northern Hemisphere, in radio-quiet Western Utah. TARA employs an 8 MW Effective Radiated Power (ERP) VHF transmitter and smart receiver system based on a 250 MS/s data acquisition system in an effort to detect the scatter of sounding radiation by UHECR-induced atmospheric ionization. TARA seeks to demonstrate bi-static radar as a useful new remote sensing technique for UHECRs. In this report, we describe the design and performance of the TARA transmitter and receiver systems

  8. Telescope Array Radar (TARA) observatory for Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abbasi, R.; Othman, M. Abou Bakr; Allen, C.; Beard, L.; Belz, J.; Besson, D.; Byrne, M.; Farhang-Boroujeny, B.; Gardner, A.; Gillman, W. H.; Hanlon, W.; Hanson, J.; Jayanthmurthy, C.; Kunwar, S.; Larson, S. L.; Myers, I.; Prohira, S.; Ratzlaff, K.; Sokolsky, P.; Takai, H.; Thomson, G. B.; Von Maluski, D.

    2014-12-01

    Construction was completed during summer 2013 on the Telescope Array RAdar (TARA) bi-static radar observatory for Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR). TARA is co-located with the Telescope Array, the largest "conventional" cosmic ray detector in the Northern Hemisphere, in radio-quiet Western Utah. TARA employs an 8 MW Effective Radiated Power (ERP) VHF transmitter and smart receiver system based on a 250 MS/s data acquisition system in an effort to detect the scatter of sounding radiation by UHECR-induced atmospheric ionization. TARA seeks to demonstrate bi-static radar as a useful new remote sensing technique for UHECRs. In this report, we describe the design and performance of the TARA transmitter and receiver systems.

  9. Evaluation of the Neutron Detector Response for Cosmic Ray Energy Spectrum by Monte Carlo Transport Simulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pazianotto, Mauricio T.; Carlson, Brett V.; Federico, Claudio A.; Gonzalez, Odair L.

    2011-01-01

    Neutrons generated by the interaction of cosmic rays with the atmosphere make an important contribution to the dose accumulated in electronic circuits and aircraft crew members at flight altitude. High-energy neutrons are produced in spallation reactions and intranuclear cascade processes by primary cosmic-ray particle interactions with atoms in the atmosphere. These neutrons can produce secondary neutrons and also undergo a moderation process due to atmosphere interactions, resulting in a wider energy spectrum, ranging from thermal energies (0.025 eV) to energies of several hundreds of MeV. The Long-Counter (LC) detector is a widely used neutron detector designed to measure the directional flux of neutrons with about constant response over a wide energy range (thermal to 20 MeV). ). Its calibration process and the determination of its energy response for the wide-energy of cosmic ray induced neutron spectrum is a very difficult process due to the lack of installations with these capabilities. The goal of this study is to assess the behavior of the response of a Long Counter using the Monte Carlo (MC) computational code MCNPX (Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended). The dependence of the Long Counter response on the angle of incidence, as well as on the neutron energy, will be carefully investigated, compared with the experimental data previously obtained with 241 Am-Be and 252 Cf neutron sources and extended to the neutron spectrum produced by cosmic rays. (Author)

  10. Measurement of the ultra high energy cosmic ray flux from data of very inclined showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dembinski, Hans Peter

    2009-01-01

    This work describes the derivation of the energy dependent flux of ultra-high energy cosmic rays from data of very inclined air showers observed with the Pierre Auger Observatory. It focuses on the event class of very inclined air showers with zenith angles larger than 60 . The lateral ground profile of these showers is muon dominated and not radially symmetric around the shower axis due to geomagnetic deflections and other effects. The dependency of this profile on the direction, energy and mass of the cosmic ray is discussed with a mixture of detailed Monte-Carlo simulations and a simplified analytical model of the air shower cascade. It is found in agreement with other studies that the normalized shape of the muon density profile is approximately universal over the range of cosmic ray energies and masses measured at the Pierre Auger Observatory, that the amplitude of the profile is almost proportional to the cosmic ray energy, and that its shower-to-shower fluctuations are sensitive to the mass composition of the cosmic rays. (orig.)

  11. Measurement of the ultra high energy cosmic ray flux from data of very inclined showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dembinski, Hans Peter

    2009-12-03

    This work describes the derivation of the energy dependent flux of ultra-high energy cosmic rays from data of very inclined air showers observed with the Pierre Auger Observatory. It focuses on the event class of very inclined air showers with zenith angles larger than 60 . The lateral ground profile of these showers is muon dominated and not radially symmetric around the shower axis due to geomagnetic deflections and other effects. The dependency of this profile on the direction, energy and mass of the cosmic ray is discussed with a mixture of detailed Monte-Carlo simulations and a simplified analytical model of the air shower cascade. It is found in agreement with other studies that the normalized shape of the muon density profile is approximately universal over the range of cosmic ray energies and masses measured at the Pierre Auger Observatory, that the amplitude of the profile is almost proportional to the cosmic ray energy, and that its shower-to-shower fluctuations are sensitive to the mass composition of the cosmic rays. (orig.)

  12. Measurement of the energy spectrum of cosmic rays from the Pierre Auger Observatory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roth, M.

    2009-01-01

    The large sample of data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory has led to a significant improvement over previous measurements on the energy spectrum of cosmic rays. We observe a suppression of the flux at the highest energy with a significance of more than 6 standard deviations. The spectral index γ of the flux, J∝E -γ , at energies between 4x10 18 eV and 4x10 19 eV is 2.69±0.02 (stat) ±0.06 (syst), steepening to 4.2±0.4 (stat) ±0.06 (syst) at higher energies, consistent with the prediction by Greisen and by Zatsepin and Kuz'min. Observations of cosmic rays by the fluorescence detector allowed the extension of the energy spectrum to lower energies, where the efficiency of the surface detector is less then 100% and a change in the spectral index is expected.

  13. A Tale of cosmic rays narrated in γ rays by Fermi

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tibaldo, Luigi

    2014-01-01

    Because cosmic rays are charged particles scrambled by magnetic fields, combining direct measurements with other observations is crucial to understanding their origin and propagation. As energetic particles traverse matter and electromagnetic fields, they leave marks in the form of neutral interaction products. Among those, γ rays trace interactions of nuclei that inelastically collide with interstellar gas, as well as of leptons that undergo Bremsstrahlung and inverse-Compton scattering. Data collected by the Fermi large area telescope (LAT) are therefore telling the story of cosmic rays along their journey from sources through their home galaxies. Supernova remnants emerge as a notable γ -ray source population, and older remnants interacting with interstellar matter finally show strong evidence of the presence of accelerated nuclei. Yet the maximum energy attained by shock accelerators is poorly constrained by observations. Cygnus X, a massive star-forming region established by the LAT as housing cosmic-ray sources, provides a test case to study the impact of wind-driven turbulence on the early propagation. Interstellar emission resulting from the large-scale propagation of cosmic rays in the Milky Way is revealed in unprecedented detail that challenges some of the simple assumptions used for the modeling. Moreover, the cosmic-ray induced γ -ray luminosities of galaxies-scale quasi-linearly with their massive-star formation rates: the overall normalization of that relation below the calorimetric limit suggests that for most systems, a substantial fraction of energy in cosmic rays escapes into the intergalactic medium. The nuclear production models and the distribution of target gas and radiation fields, not determined precisely enough yet, are key to exploiting the full potential of γ - ray data. Nevertheless, data being collected by Fermi and complementary multiwavelength/multi messenger observations are bringing ever closer to solving the cosmic-ray mystery

  14. A Tale of cosmic rays narrated in γ rays by Fermi

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tibaldo, Luigi, E-mail: ltibaldo@slac.stanford.edu [Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park (United States)

    2014-07-01

    Because cosmic rays are charged particles scrambled by magnetic fields, combining direct measurements with other observations is crucial to understanding their origin and propagation. As energetic particles traverse matter and electromagnetic fields, they leave marks in the form of neutral interaction products. Among those, γ rays trace interactions of nuclei that inelastically collide with interstellar gas, as well as of leptons that undergo Bremsstrahlung and inverse-Compton scattering. Data collected by the Fermi large area telescope (LAT) are therefore telling the story of cosmic rays along their journey from sources through their home galaxies. Supernova remnants emerge as a notable γ -ray source population, and older remnants interacting with interstellar matter finally show strong evidence of the presence of accelerated nuclei. Yet the maximum energy attained by shock accelerators is poorly constrained by observations. Cygnus X, a massive star-forming region established by the LAT as housing cosmic-ray sources, provides a test case to study the impact of wind-driven turbulence on the early propagation. Interstellar emission resulting from the large-scale propagation of cosmic rays in the Milky Way is revealed in unprecedented detail that challenges some of the simple assumptions used for the modeling. Moreover, the cosmic-ray induced γ -ray luminosities of galaxies-scale quasi-linearly with their massive-star formation rates: the overall normalization of that relation below the calorimetric limit suggests that for most systems, a substantial fraction of energy in cosmic rays escapes into the intergalactic medium. The nuclear production models and the distribution of target gas and radiation fields, not determined precisely enough yet, are key to exploiting the full potential of γ - ray data. Nevertheless, data being collected by Fermi and complementary multiwavelength/multi messenger observations are bringing ever closer to solving the cosmic-ray mystery

  15. Features of the galactic magnetic field regarding deflections of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wirtz, Marcus; Erdmann, Martin; Mueller, Gero; Urban, Martin [III. Physikalisches Institut A, RWTH Aachen University (Germany)

    2016-07-01

    Most recent models of the galactic magnetic field have been derived from Faraday rotation measurements and imply strong deflections even for ultra-high energy cosmic rays. We investigate the characteristics of the different field parametrizations and point out similarities and interesting features. Among them are extragalactic regions which are invisible for an Earth bound observation and the transition from diffuse to ballistic behaviour in the 1 EeV energy regime. Applying this knowledge to a directional analysis, there are indications for deflection patterns by the galactic magnetic field in cosmic ray arrival directions measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory.

  16. Acceleration and propagation of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lemoine, Martin

    2013-01-01

    The origin of the highest energy cosmic rays represents one of the most conspicuous enigmas of modern astrophysics, in spite of gigantic experimental efforts in the past fifty years, and of active theoretical research. The past decade has known exciting experimental results, most particularly the detection of a cut-off at the expected position for the long sought Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin suppression as well as evidence for large scale anisotropies. This paper summarizes and discusses recent achievements in this field.

  17. Acceleration and propagation of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lemoine, Martin

    2013-02-01

    The origin of the highest energy cosmic rays represents one of the most conspicuous enigmas of modern astrophysics, in spite of gigantic experimental efforts in the past fifty years, and of active theoretical research. The past decade has known exciting experimental results, most particularly the detection of a cut-off at the expected position for the long sought Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin suppression as well as evidence for large scale anisotropies. This paper summarizes and discusses recent achievements in this field.

  18. Role of fluctuations in the primary energy estimation of cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kempa, J.; Malecki, R.

    2008-01-01

    Energy spectrum and chemical composition of primary cosmic ray for energies higher than 1 PeV are obtained mainly from research on the intensity and properties of extensive air showers (EAS). Similar additional information is obtained from research on properties of gamma ray families. A common characteristic of these researches is the fact that we are working in the range of high fluctuation parameters serving us to obtain primary energy spectrum. In this research different probability distributions have been used as well as their convolutions with the power spectrum. The role of the influence of different parameters on measurements of the primary energy spectrum

  19. Cosmic Rays in Thunderstorms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buitink, Stijn; Scholten, Olaf; van den Berg, Ad; Ebert, Ute

    2013-04-01

    Cosmic Rays in Thunderstorms Cosmic rays are protons and heavier nuclei that constantly bombard the Earth's atmosphere with energies spanning a vast range from 109 to 1021 eV. At typical altitudes up to 10-20 km they initiate large particle cascades, called extensive air showers, that contain millions to billions of secondary particles depending on their initial energy. These particles include electrons, positrons, hadrons and muons, and are concentrated in a compact particle front that propagates at relativistic speed. In addition, the shower leaves behind a trail of lower energy electrons from ionization of air molecules. Under thunderstorm conditions these electrons contribute to the electrical and ionization processes in the cloud. When the local electric field is strong enough the secondary electrons can create relativistic electron run-away avalanches [1] or even non-relativistic avalanches. Cosmic rays could even trigger lightning inception. Conversely, strong electric fields also influence the development of the air shower [2]. Extensive air showers emit a short (tens of nanoseconds) radio pulse due to deflection of the shower particles in the Earth's magnetic field [3]. Antenna arrays, such as AERA, LOFAR and LOPES detect these pulses in a frequency window of roughly 10-100 MHz. These systems are also sensitive to the radiation from discharges associated to thunderstorms, and provide a means to study the interaction of cosmic ray air showers and the electrical processes in thunderstorms [4]. In this presentation we discuss the involved radiation mechanisms and present analyses of thunderstorm data from air shower arrays [1] A. Gurevich et al., Phys. Lett. A 165, 463 (1992) [2] S. Buitink et al., Astropart. Phys. 33, 1 (2010) [3] H. Falcke et al., Nature 435, 313 (2005) [4] S. Buitink et al., Astron. & Astrophys. 467, 385 (2007)

  20. Cosmic Ray Physics with the IceCube Observatory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kolanoski, H

    2013-01-01

    The IceCube Neutrino Observatory with its 1-km 3 in-ice detector and the 1-km 2 surface detector (IceTop) constitutes a three-dimensional cosmic ray detector well suited for general cosmic ray physics. Various measurements of cosmic ray properties, such as energy spectra, mass composition and anisotropies, have been obtained from analyses of air showers at the surface and/or atmospheric muons in the ice.

  1. EMMA: A new underground cosmic-ray experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Enqvist, T; Foehr, V; Joutsenvaara, J; Jaemsen, T; Keraenen, P; Kuusiniemi, P; Laitala, H; Lehtola, M; Mattila, A; Narkilahti, J; Peltoniemi, J; Remes, H; Reponen, M; Raeihae, T; Sarkamo, J; Shen, C; Vaittinen, M; Zhang, Z; Ding, L; Zhu, Q; Roos, M; Dzaparova, I; Karpov, S; Kurenya, A; Petkov, V; Yanin, A; Fynbo, H

    2006-01-01

    A cosmic-ray experiment of new type is under construction in the Pyhaesalmi mine in the underground laboratory of the University of Oulu, Finland. It aims to study the composition of cosmic rays at and above the knee region (energy above 1 PeV). The experiment, called EMMA, covers about 150 m 2 of detector area, and the setup is capable of measuring the multiplicity and the lateral distribution of underground muons, and the arrival direction of the air shower. The detector is placed at the depth of about 85 metres (corresponding about 240 mwe) which gives a threshold energy of muons of about 45 GeV. The rock overburden filters out all other particles of the air shower except the high-energy muons. These high-energy muons originate at high altitudes close to the first interaction of the primary cosmic ray and they carry more information about the primary than low-energy muons. The full-size detector is supposed to run by the end of 2007

  2. The History of Cosmic Ray Studies after Hess

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Grupen, Claus, E-mail: grupen@physik.uni-siegen.de

    2013-06-15

    The discovery of cosmic rays by Victor Hess was confirmed with balloon flights at higher altitudes by Kolhörster. Soon the interest turned into questions about the nature of cosmic rays: gamma rays or particles? Subsequent investigations have established cosmic rays as the birthplace of elementary particle physics. The 1936 Nobel prize was shared between Victor Hess and Carl Anderson. Anderson discovered the positron in a cloud chamber. The positron was predicted by Dirac several years earlier. Many new results came now from studies with cloud chambers and nuclear emulsions. Anderson and Neddermeyer saw the muon, which for some time was considered to be a candidate for the Yukawa particle responsible for nuclear binding. Lattes, Powell, Occhialini and Muirhead clarified the situation by the discovery of the charged pions in cosmic rays. Rochester and Butler found V's, which turned out to be short-lived neutral kaons decaying into a pair of charged pions. Λ's, Σ's and Ξ's were found in cosmic rays using nuclear emulsions. After that period, accelerators and storage rings took over. The unexpected renaissance of cosmic rays started with the search for solar neutrinos and the observation of the supernova 1987A and other accelerators in the sky. With the observation of neutrino oscillations one began to look beyond the standard model of elementary particles. After 100 years of cosmic ray research we are again at the beginning of a new era, and cosmic rays may contribute to solve the many open questions, like dark matter and dark energy, by providing energies well beyond those of earth-bound accelerators.

  3. Standard Cosmic Ray Energetics and Light Element Production

    CERN Document Server

    Fields, B D; Cassé, M; Vangioni-Flam, E; Fields, Brian D.; Olive, Keith A.; Casse, Michel; Vangioni-Flam, Elisabeth

    2001-01-01

    The recent observations of Be and B in metal poor stars has led to a reassessment of the origin of the light elements in the early Galaxy. At low it is metallicity ([O/H] < -1.75), it is necessary to introduce a production mechanism which is independent of the interstellar metallicity (primary). At higher metallicities, existing data might indicate that secondary production is dominant. In this paper, we focus on the secondary process, related to the standard Galactic cosmic rays, and we examine the cosmic ray energy requirements for both present and past epochs. We find the power input to maintain the present-day Galactic cosmic ray flux is about 1.5e41 erg/s = 5e50 erg/century. This implies that, if supernovae are the sites of cosmic ray acceleration, the fraction of explosion energy going to accelerated particles is about 30%, a value which we obtain consistently both from considering the present cosmic ray flux and confinement and from the present 9Be and 6Li abundances. Using the abundances of 9Be (an...

  4. Influence of hadronic interaction models and the cosmic ray spectrum on the high energy atmospheric muon and neutrino flux

    OpenAIRE

    Fedynitch, Anatoli; Tjus, Julia Becker; Desiati, Paolo

    2012-01-01

    The recent observations of muon charge ratio up to about 10 TeV and of atmospheric neutrinos up to energies of about 400 TeV has triggered a renewed interest into the high-energy interaction models and cosmic ray primary composition. A reviewed calculation of lepton spectra produced in cosmic ray induced extensive air showers is carried out with a primary cosmic ray spectrum that fits the latest direct measurements below the knee. In order to achieve this, we used a full Monte Carlo method to...

  5. Th/U/Pu/Cm dating of galactic cosmic rays with the extremely heavy cosmic ray composition observer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Westphal, Andrew J.; Weaver, Benjamin A.; Tarlé, Gregory

    The principal goal of ECCO, the Extremely-heavy Cosmic-ray Composition Observer, is the measurement of the age of heavy galactic cosmic-ray nuclei using the extremely rare actinides (Th, U, Pu, Cm) as clocks. ECCO is one of two cosmic-ray instruments comprising the Heavy Nuclei Explorer (HNX), which was recently selected as one of several missions for Phase A study under NASA's Small class Explorer (SMEX) program. ECCO is based on the flight heritage of Trek, an array of barium-phosphate glass tracketch detectors deployed on the Russian space station Mir from 1991-1995. Using Trek, we measured the abundances of elements with Z > 70 in the galactic cosmic rays (GCRs). Trek consisted of a 1 m 2 array of stacks of individually polished thin BP-1 glass detectors. ECCO will be a much larger instrument, but will achieve both excellent resolution and low cost through use of a novel detector configuration. Here we report the results of recent accelerator tests of the ECCO detectors that verify detector performance. We also show the expected charge and energy resolution of ECCO as a function of energy.

  6. Signatures of cosmic-ray interactions on the solar surface

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seckel, D.; Stanev, Todor; Gaisser, T. K.

    1991-01-01

    The fluxes of neutrinos, gamma rays, antiprotons, neutrons, and antineutrons that result from collisions of high-energy Galactic cosmic rays with the solar atmosphere are estimated. The results are sensitive to assumptions about cosmic-ray transport in the magnetic fields of the inner solar system. The high-energy photon flux should be observable by the Gamma Ray Observatory. The neutrino flux should produce less than one event per year in the next generation of neutrino telescopes. The antiproton flux is unobservable against the Galactic background. The neutron and antineutron fluxes are detectable only if neutrons produced in terrestrial cosmic-ray events may be discriminated against.

  7. Cosmic Rays from the Knee to the Ankle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haungs, Andreas

    Investigations of the energy spectrum as well as the mass composition of cosmic rays in the energy range of PeV to EeV are important for understanding both, the origin of the galactic and the extragalactic cosmic rays. Recently, three modern experimental installations (KASCADE-Grande, IceTop, Tunka-133), dedicated to investigate this primary energy range, have published new results on the all-particle energy spectrum. In this short review these results are presented and the similarities and differences discussed. In addition, the effects of using different hadronic interaction models for interpreting the measured air-shower data will be examined. Finally, a brief discussion on the question if the present results are in agreement or in contradiction with astrophysical models for the transition from galactic to extragalactic origin of cosmic rays completes this paper.

  8. Percolation Effects in Very-High-Energy Cosmic Rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dias de Deus, J.; Santo, M.C. Espirito; Pimenta, M.; Pajares, C.

    2006-01-01

    Cosmic ray data at high energies present a number of well-known puzzles. At very high energies (E∼10 20 eV) there are indications of a discrepancy between ground array experiments and fluorescence detectors. On the other hand, the dependence of the depth of the shower maximum X max with the primary energy shows a change in slope (E∼10 17 eV) which is usually explained assuming a composition change. Both effects could be accounted for in models predicting that above a certain energy showers would develop deeper in the atmosphere. In this Letter we argue that this can be done naturally by including percolation effects in the description of the shower development, which cause a change in the behavior of the inelasticity K above E≅10 17 eV

  9. High energy physics above 10 TeV: a review of recent cosmic ray results

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yodh, G.B.

    In cosmic rays the very high energy events and their interpretation are reviewed in a critical fashion so as to bring into focus the interesting aspects related to the behavior of high energy interactions

  10. Correlation of the highest-energy cosmic rays with nearby extragalactic objects

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pierre Auger Collaboration, [No Value; Abraham, J.; Abreu, P.; Aglietta, M.; Aguirre, C.; Allard, D.; Allekotte, I.; Allen, J.; Allison, P.; Alvarez, C.; Alvarez-Muñiz, J.; Ambrosio, M.; Anchordoqui, L.; Andringa, S.; Anzalone, A.; Aramo, C.; Argirò, S.; Arisaka, K.; Armengaud, E.; Arneodo, F.; Arqueros, F.; Asch, T.; Asorey, H.; Assis, P.; Atulugama, B. S.; Aublin, J.; Ave, M.; Avila, G.; Bäcker, T.; Badagnani, D.; Barbosa, A. F.; Barnhill, D.; Barroso, S. L. C.; Bauleo, P.; Beatty, J.; Beau, T.; Becker, B. R.; Becker, K. H.; Bellido, J. A.; BenZvi, S.; Berat, C.; Bergmann, T.; Bernardini, P.; Bertou, X.; Biermann, P. L.; Billoir, P.; Blanch-Bigas, O.; Blanco, F.; Blasi, P.; Bleve, C.; Blümer, H.; Bohácová, M.; Bonifazi, C.; Bonino, R.; Boratav, M.; Brack, J.; Brogueira, P.; Brown, W. C.; Buchholz, P.; Bueno, A.; Busca, N. G.; Caballero-Mora, K. S.; Cai, B.; Camin, D. V.; Caruso, R.; Carvalho, W.; Castellina, A.; Catalano, O.; Cataldi, G.; Cazón-Boado, L.; Cester, R.; Chauvin, J.; Chiavassa, A.; Chinellato, J. A.; Chou, A.; Chye, J.; Clark, P. D. J.; Clay, R. W.; Colombo, E.; Conceição, R.; Connolly, B.; Contreras, F.; Coppens, J.; Cordier, A.; Cotti, U.; Coutu, S.; Covault, C. E.; Creusot, A.; Cronin, J.; Dagoret-Campagne, S.; Daumiller, K.; Dawson, B. R.; de Almeida, R. M.; De Donato, C.; de Jong, S. J.; De La Vega, G.; de Mello Junior, W. J. M.; de Mello Neto, J. R. T.; De Mitri, I.; de Souza, V.; del Peral, L.; Deligny, O.; Della Selva, A.; Delle Fratte, C.; Dembinski, H.; Di Giulio, C.; Diaz, J. C.; Dobrigkeit, C.; D'Olivo, J. C.; Dornic, D.; Dorofeev, A.; dos Anjos, J. C.; Dova, M. T.; D'Urso, D.; DuVernois, M. A.; Engel, R.; Epele, L.; Erdmann, M.; Escobar, C. O.; Etchegoyen, A.; Facal San Luis, P.; Falcke, H.; Farrar, G.; Fauth, A. C.; Fazzini, N.; Fernández, A.; Ferrer, F.; Ferry, S.; Fick, B.; Filevich, A.; Filipcic, A.; Fleck, I.; Fonte, R.; Fracchiolla, C. E.; Fulgione, W.; García, B.; García Gámez, D.; Garcia-Pinto, D.; Garrido, X.; Geenen, H.; Gelmini, G.; Gemmeke, H.; Ghia, P. L.; Giller, M.; Glass, H.; Gold, M. S.; Golup, G.; Gomez Albarracin, F.; Gómez Berisso, M.; Gómez Herrero, R.; Gonçalves, P.; Gonçalves do Amaral, M.; Gonzalez, D.; Gonzalez, J. G.; González, M.; Góra, D.; Gorgi, A.; Gouffon, P.; Grassi, V.; Grillo, A.; Grunfeld, C.; Guardincerri, Y.; Guarino, F.; Guedes, G. P.; Gutiérrez, J.; Hague, J. D.; Hamilton, J. C.; Hansen, P.; Harari, D.; Harmsma, S.; Harton, J. L.; Haungs, A.; Hauschildt, T.; Healy, M. D.; Hebbeker, T.; Heck, D.; Hojvat, C.; Holmes, V. C.; Homola, P.; Hörandel, J.; Horneffer, A.; Horvat, M.; Hrabovsky, M.; Huege, T.; Iarlori, M.; Insolia, A.; Ionita, F.; Italiano, A.; Kaducak, M.; Kampert, K. H.; Keilhauer, B.; Kemp, E.; Kieckhafer, R. M.; Klages, H. O.; Kleifges, M.; Kleinfeller, J.; Knapik, R.; Knapp, J.; Koang, D.-H.; Kopmann, A.; Krieger, A.; Krömer, O.; Kümpel, D.; Kunka, N.; Kusenko, A.; La Rosa, G.; Lachaud, C.; Lago, B. L.; Lebrun, D.; Le Brun, P.; Lee, J.; Leigui de Oliveira, M. A.; Letessier-Selvon, A.; Leuthold, M.; Lhenry-Yvon, I.; López, R.; Lopez Agüera, A.; Lozano Bahilo, J.; Maccarone, M. C.; Macolino, C.; Maldera, S.; Malek, M.; Mancarella, G.; Manceñido, M. E.; Mandat, D.; Mantsch, P.; Mariazzi, A. G.; Maris, I. C.; Martello, D.; Martínez, J.; Martínez Bravo, O.; Mathes, H. J.; Matthews, J.; Matthews, J. A. J.; Matthiae, G.; Maurizio, D.; Mazur, P. O.; McCauley, T.; McEwen, M.; McNeil, R. R.; Medina, M. C.; Medina-Tanco, G.; Meli, A.; Melo, D.; Menichetti, E.; Menschikov, A.; Meurer, Chr.; Meyhandan, R.; Micheletti, M. I.; Miele, G.; Miller, W.; Mollerach, S.; Monasor, M.; Monnier Ragaigne, D.; Montanet, F.; Morales, B.; Morello, C.; Moreno, E.; Moreno, J. C.; Morris, C.; Mostafá, M.; Muller, M. A.; Mussa, R.; Navarra, G.; Navarro, J. L.; Navas, S.; Nellen, L.; Newman-Holmes, C.; Newton, D.; Nguyen Thi, T.; Nierstenhöfer, N.; Nitz, D.; Nosek, D.; Nozka, L.; Oehlschläger, J.; Ohnuki, T.; Olinto, A.; Olmos-Gilbaja, V. M.; Ortiz, M.; Ostapchenko, S.; Otero, L.; Pakk Selmi-Dei, D.; Palatka, M.; Pallotta, J.; Parente, G.; Parizot, E.; Parlati, S.; Pastor, S.; Patel, M.; Paul, T.; Pavlidou, V.; Payet, K.; Pech, M.; Pçkala, J.; Pelayo, R.; Pepe, I. M.; Perrone, L.; Petrera, S.; Petrinca, P.; Petrov, Y.; Ngoc, DiepPham; Ngoc, DongPham; Pham Thi, T. N.; Pichel, A.; Piegaia, R.; Pierog, T.; Pimenta, M.; Pinto, T.; Pirronello, V.; Pisanti, O.; Platino, M.; Pochon, J.; Porter, T. A.; Privitera, P.; Prouza, M.; Quel, E. J.; Rautenberg, J.; Reucroft, S.; Revenu, B.; Rezende, F. A. S.; Rídky, J.; Riggi, S.; Risse, M.; Rivière, C.; Rizi, V.; Roberts, M.; Robledo, C.; Rodriguez, G.; Rodríguez Frías, D.; Rodriguez Martino, J.; Rodriguez Rojo, J.; Rodriguez-Cabo, I.; Ros, G.; Rosado, J.; Roth, M.; Rouillé-d'Orfeuil, B.; Roulet, E.; Rovero, A. C.; Salamida, F.; Salazar, H.; Salina, G.; Sánchez, F.; Santander, M.; Santo, C. E.; Santos, E. M.; Sarazin, F.; Sarkar, S.; Sato, R.; Scherini, V.; Schieler, H.; Schmidt, F.; Schmidt, T.; Scholten, O.; Schovánek, P.; Schüssler, F.; Sciutto, S. J.; Scuderi, M.; Segreto, A.; Semikoz, D.; Settimo, M.; Shellard, R. C.; Sidelnik, I.; Siffert, B. B.; Sigl, G.; Smetniansky De Grande, N.; Smialkowski, A.; Smída, R.; Smith, A. G. K.; Smith, B. E.; Snow, G. R.; Sokolsky, P.; Sommers, P.; Sorokin, J.; Spinka, H.; Squartini, R.; Strazzeri, E.; Stutz, A.; Suarez, F.; Suomijärvi, T.; Supanitsky, A. D.; Sutherland, M. S.; Swain, J.; Szadkowski, Z.; Takahashi, J.; Tamashiro, A.; Tamburro, A.; Tascau, O.; Tcaciuc, R.; Thomas, D.; Ticona, R.; Tiffenberg, J.; Timmermans, C.; Tkaczyk, W.; Todero Peixoto, C. J.; Tomé, B.; Tonachini, A.; Torresi, D.; Travnicek, P.; Tripathi, A.; Tristram, G.; Tscherniakhovski, D.; Tueros, M.; Tunnicliffe, V.; Ulrich, R.; Unger, M.; Urban, M.; Valdés Galicia, J. F.; Valiño, I.; Valore, L.; van den Berg, A. M.; van Elewyck, V.; Vázquez, R. A.; Veberic, D.; Veiga, A.; Velarde, A.; Venters, T.; Verzi, V.; Videla, M.; Villaseñor, L.; Vorobiov, S.; Voyvodic, L.; Wahlberg, H.; Wainberg, O.; Waldenmaier, T.; Walker, P.; Warner, D.; Watson, A. A.; Westerhoff, S.; Wieczorek, G.; Wiencke, L.; Wilczynska, B.; Wilczynski, H.; Wileman, C.; Winnick, M. G.; Wu, H.; Wundheiler, B.; Xu, J.; Yamamoto, T.; Younk, P.; Zas, E.; Zavrtanik, D.; Zavrtanik, M.; Zech, A.; Zepeda, A.; Ziolkowski, M.

    2007-01-01

    Using data collected at the Pierre Auger Observatory during the past 3.7 years, we demonstrated a correlation between the arrival directions of cosmic rays with energy above 6 × 1019 electron volts and the positions of active galactic nuclei (AGN) lying within ~75 megaparsecs. We rejected the

  11. Cosmic ray anisotropies at high energies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martinic, N. J.; Alarcon, A.; Teran, F.

    1986-01-01

    The directional anisotropies of the energetic cosmic ray gas due to the relative motion between the observers frame and the one where the relativistic gas can be assumed isotropic is analyzed. The radiation fluxes formula in the former frame must follow as the Lorentz invariance of dp/E, where p, E are the 4-vector momentum-energy components; dp is the 3-volume element in the momentum space. The anisotropic flux shows in such a case an amplitude, in a rotating earth, smaller than the experimental measurements from say, EAS-arrays for primary particle energies larger than 1.E(14) eV. Further, it is shown that two consecutive Lorentz transformations among three inertial frames exhibit the violation of dp/E invariance between the first and the third systems of reference, due to the Wigner rotation. A discussion of this result in the context of the experimental anisotropic fluxes and its current interpretation is given.

  12. Radio reconstruction of the mass of ultra-high cosmic rays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dorosti, Qader [Institut fuer Kernphysik (IKP), KIT (Germany)

    2015-07-01

    Detection of ultra-high energy cosmic rays can reveal the processes of the most violent sources in the Universe, which yet has to be determined. Interaction of cosmic rays with the Earth's atmosphere results in cascades of secondary particles, i.e. air showers. Many of such particles are electrons and positrons. The induced electrons and positrons interact with the geomagnetic field and induce radio emissions. Detection of air showers along with the detection of induced radio emissions can furnish a precise measurement of the direction, energy and mass of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. The Auger Engineering Radio Array consists of 124 radio stations measuring radio emission from air showers, in order to reconstruct the energy, direction and mass of cosmic rays. In this contribution, we present a method which employs a reduced hyperbolic model to describe the shape of radio wave front. We have investigated that the parameters of the reduced hyperbolic model are sensitive to the mass of cosmic rays. The obtained results are presented in this talk.

  13. Cosmic rays and terrestrial life: A brief review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atri, Dimitra; Melott, Adrian L.

    2014-01-01

    “The investigation into the possible effects of cosmic rays on living organisms will also offer great interest.” - Victor F. Hess, Nobel Lecture, December 12, 1936 High-energy radiation bursts are commonplace in our Universe. From nearby solar flares to distant gamma ray bursts, a variety of physical processes accelerate charged particles to a wide range of energies, which subsequently reach the Earth. Such particles contribute to a number of physical processes occurring in the Earth system. A large fraction of the energy of charged particles gets deposited in the atmosphere, ionizing it, causing changes in its chemistry and affecting the global electric circuit. Remaining secondary particles contribute to the background dose of cosmic rays on the surface and parts of the subsurface region. Life has evolved over the past ∼3 billion years in presence of this background radiation, which itself has varied considerably during the period [1-3]. As demonstrated by the Miller-Urey experiment, lightning plays a very important role in the formation of complex organic molecules, which are the building blocks of more complex structures forming life. There is growing evidence of increase in the lightning rate with increasing flux of charged particles. Is there a connection between enhanced rate of cosmic rays and the origin of life? Cosmic ray secondaries are also known to damage DNA and cause mutations, leading to cancer and other diseases. It is now possible to compute radiation doses from secondary particles, in particular muons and neutrons. Have the variations in cosmic ray flux affected the evolution of life on earth? We describe the mechanisms of cosmic rays affecting terrestrial life and review the potential implications of the variation of high-energy astrophysical radiation on the history of life on earth.

  14. Balloon test project: Cosmic Ray Antimatter Calorimeter (CRAC)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christy, J. C.; Dhenain, G.; Goret, P.; Jorand, J.; Masse, P.; Mestreau, P.; Petrou, N.; Robin, A.

    1984-01-01

    Cosmic ray observations from balloon flights are discussed. The cosmic ray antimatter calorimeter (CRAC) experiment attempts to measure the flux of antimatter in the 200-600 Mev/m energy range and the isotopes of light elements between 600 and 1,000 Mev/m.

  15. Half a century of cosmic x-ray research

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Makishima, Kazuo; Takahashi, Tadayuki

    2012-01-01

    The year of 2012, which is the centennial of the cosmic-ray discovery, happens to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources. First carried by cosmic-ray physicists, the study of cosmic X-rays has made explosive developments over the last half a century, and has established the X-ray wavelength as an indispensable window onto the Universe. Among a variety of X-ray emitting celestial objects, we choose here neutron stars as a representative, and review the 50 years connecting the dawn era of the research and the state-of-the-art ASTRO-H satellite to be launched in 2014. In this article, 'X-rays' mean energetic photons with energies from 0.1 keV up to a few hundreds keV. (author)

  16. Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays and new particle physics

    CERN Document Server

    Kachelriess, M.

    2001-02-28

    The current status of the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray (UHE CR) enigma and several proposed solutions involving particle physics beyond the standard model are discussed. Emphasis is given to top--down models, and as a main example, supermassive dark matter as galactic source for UHE CR and the status of its experimental signatures (galactic anisotropy, chemical composition and clustering) is reviewed. Then different approaches to calculate fragmentation spectra of supermassive particles are discussed. Finally, it is argued that UHE neutrinos cannot be - neither directly or indirectly - responsible for the observed vertical air showers.

  17. THE IMPLICATIONS OF A HIGH COSMIC-RAY IONIZATION RATE IN DIFFUSE INTERSTELLAR CLOUDS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Indriolo, Nick; Fields, Brian D.; McCall, Benjamin J.

    2009-01-01

    Diffuse interstellar clouds show large abundances of H + 3 which can only be maintained by a high ionization rate of H 2 . Cosmic rays are the dominant ionization mechanism in this environment, so the large ionization rate implies a high cosmic-ray flux, and a large amount of energy residing in cosmic rays. In this paper, we find that the standard propagated cosmic-ray spectrum predicts an ionization rate much lower than that inferred from H + 3 . Low-energy (∼10 MeV) cosmic rays are the most efficient at ionizing hydrogen, but cannot be directly detected; consequently, an otherwise unobservable enhancement of the low-energy cosmic-ray flux offers a plausible explanation for the H + 3 results. Beyond ionization, cosmic rays also interact with the interstellar medium by spalling atomic nuclei and exciting atomic nuclear states. These processes produce the light elements Li, Be, and B, as well as gamma-ray lines. To test the consequences of an enhanced low-energy cosmic-ray flux, we adopt two physically motivated cosmic-ray spectra which by construction reproduce the ionization rate inferred in diffuse clouds, and investigate the implications of these spectra on dense cloud ionization rates, light-element abundances, gamma-ray fluxes, and energetics. One spectrum proposed here provides an explanation for the high ionization rate seen in diffuse clouds while still appearing to be broadly consistent with other observables, but the shape of this spectrum suggests that supernovae remnants may not be the predominant accelerators of low-energy cosmic rays.

  18. Radio detection of high-energy cosmic rays with the Auger Engineering Radio Array

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schröder, Frank G.; Pierre Auger Collaboration

    2016-07-01

    The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is an enhancement of the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina. Covering about 17km2, AERA is the world-largest antenna array for cosmic-ray observation. It consists of more than 150 antenna stations detecting the radio signal emitted by air showers, i.e., cascades of secondary particles caused by primary cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere. At the beginning, technical goals had been in focus: first of all, the successful demonstration that a large-scale antenna array consisting of autonomous stations is feasible. Moreover, techniques for calibration of the antennas and time calibration of the array have been developed, as well as special software for the data analysis. Meanwhile physics goals come into focus. At the Pierre Auger Observatory air showers are simultaneously detected by several detector systems, in particular water-Cherenkov detectors at the surface, underground muon detectors, and fluorescence telescopes, which enables cross-calibration of different detection techniques. For the direction and energy of air showers, the precision achieved by AERA is already competitive; for the type of primary particle, several methods are tested and optimized. By combining AERA with the particle detectors we aim for a better understanding of cosmic rays in the energy range from approximately 0.3 to 10 EeV, i.e., significantly higher energies than preceding radio arrays.

  19. Solar modulation of galactic cosmic rays: techniques and applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Perko, J.S.

    1984-01-01

    This thesis covers four topics in the theory of interplanetary cosmic-ray propagation: the first part involves the time-dependent, spherically-symmetric, solar modulation of galactic cosmic rays. A numerical technique was introduced for the solution of this problem. A model for the solar cycle variation in cosmic-ray intensity illustrated this method using enhanced particle scattering regions. The second section contains an attempt to explain recent observations which show that cosmic-ray electrons are returning to higher intensities, characteristic of solar minimum, faster than cosmic-ray protons of about the same energy, the reverse of the previous eleven-year cycle. The third section involves the solar modulation of galactic antiprotons. Using a steady-state, spherically-symmetric, numerical modulation code, a solution that reasonably fits the observed 1980 galactic proton spectrum at 1 AU implied that the modulation used for the data interpretation has been significantly underestimated. The final section contains a spherically-symmetric steady-state calculation of the effects of a strong termination shock in the heliosphere. In the end, high-energy particles cooling down in the upstream solar wind overwhelmed any accelerated low-energy particles

  20. Observations of cosmic gamma ray bursts with WATCH on EURECA

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brandt, Søren; Lund, N.; Castro-Tirado, A. J.

    1995-01-01

    19 Cosmic Gamma-Ray Bursts were detected by the WATCH wide field X-ray monitor during the 11 months flight of EURECA. The identification of the bursts were complicated by a high frequency of background of events caused by high energy cosmic ray interactions in the detector and by low energy, trap...

  1. A Shifting Shield Provides Protection Against Cosmic Rays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kohler, Susanna

    2017-12-01

    The Sun plays an important role in protecting us from cosmic rays, energetic particles that pelt us from outside our solar system. But can we predict when and how it will provide the most protection, and use this to minimize the damage to both pilotedand roboticspace missions?The Challenge of Cosmic RaysSpacecraft outside of Earths atmosphere and magnetic field are at risk of damage from cosmic rays. [ESA]Galactic cosmic rays are high-energy, charged particles that originate from astrophysical processes like supernovae or even distant active galactic nuclei outside of our solar system.One reason to care about the cosmic rays arriving near Earth is because these particles can provide a significant challenge for space missions traveling above Earths protective atmosphere and magnetic field. Since impacts from cosmic rays can damage human DNA, this risk poses a major barrier to plans for interplanetary travel by crewed spacecraft. And roboticmissions arent safe either: cosmic rays can flip bits, wreaking havoc on spacecraft electronics as well.The magnetic field carried by the solar wind provides a protective shield, deflecting galactic cosmic rays from our solar system. [Walt Feimer/NASA GSFCs Conceptual Image Lab]Shielded by the SunConveniently, we do have some broader protection against galactic cosmic rays: a built-in shield provided by the Sun. The interplanetary magnetic field, which is embedded in the solar wind, deflects low-energy cosmic rays from us at the outer reaches of our solar system, decreasing the flux of these cosmic rays that reach us at Earth.This shield, however, isnt stationary; instead, it moves and changes as the strength and direction of the solar wind moves and changes. This results in a much lower cosmic-ray flux at Earth when solar activity is high i.e., at the peak of the 11-year solar cycle than when solar activity is low. This visible change in local cosmic-ray flux with solar activity is known as solar modulation of the cosmic ray flux

  2. Model-dependent estimate on the connection between fast radio bursts and ultra high energy cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Xiang; Zhou, Bei; He, Hao-Ning; Fan, Yi-Zhong; Wei, Da-Ming

    2014-01-01

    The existence of fast radio bursts (FRBs), a new type of extragalatic transient, has recently been established, and quite a few models have been proposed. In this work, we discuss the possible connection between the FRB sources and ultra high energy (>10 18 eV) cosmic rays. We show that in the blitzar model and the model of merging binary neutron stars, which includes the huge energy release of each FRB central engine together with the rather high rate of FRBs, the accelerated EeV cosmic rays may contribute significantly to the observed ones. In other FRB models, including, for example, the merger of double white dwarfs and the energetic magnetar radio flares, no significant EeV cosmic ray is expected. We also suggest that the mergers of double neutron stars, even if they are irrelevant to FRBs, may play a nonignorable role in producing EeV cosmic ray protons if supramassive neutron stars are formed in a sufficient fraction of mergers and the merger rate is ≳ 10 3 yr –1 Gpc –3 . Such a possibility will be unambiguously tested in the era of gravitational wave astronomy.

  3. A study of the cosmic-ray neutron field near interfaces

    CERN Document Server

    Sheu, R J; Jiang, S H

    2002-01-01

    This study investigated the characteristics of the cosmic-ray neutron field near air/ground and air/water interfaces with an emphasis on the angular distribution. Two sets of high-efficiency neutron detecting systems were used. The first one, called the Bonner Cylinders, was used for measurements of the energy information. The other one, referred to as the eight-channel neutron detector (8CND), was used to characterize the angular information of the neutron field. The measured results were used to normalize and confirm one-dimensional transport calculations for cosmic-ray neutrons below 20 MeV in the air/ground and air/water media. Annual sea level cosmic-ray neutron doses were then determined based on the obtained characteristics of low-energy cosmic-ray neutrons near interfaces and estimated contribution from high-energy neutrons.

  4. ROLE OF LINE-OF-SIGHT COSMIC-RAY INTERACTIONS IN FORMING THE SPECTRA OF DISTANT BLAZARS IN TeV GAMMA RAYS AND HIGH-ENERGY NEUTRINOS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Essey, Warren; Kusenko, Alexander; Kalashev, Oleg; Beacom, John F.

    2011-01-01

    Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can produce both gamma rays and cosmic rays. The observed high-energy gamma-ray signals from distant blazars may be dominated by secondary gamma rays produced along the line of sight by the interactions of cosmic-ray protons with background photons. This explains the surprisingly low attenuation observed for distant blazars, because the production of secondary gamma rays occurs, on average, much closer to Earth than the distance to the source. Thus, the observed spectrum in the TeV range does not depend on the intrinsic gamma-ray spectrum, while it depends on the output of the source in cosmic rays. We apply this hypothesis to a number of sources and, in every case, we obtain an excellent fit, strengthening the interpretation of the observed spectra as being due to secondary gamma rays. We explore the ramifications of this interpretation for limits on the extragalactic background light and for the production of cosmic rays in AGNs. We also make predictions for the neutrino signals, which can help probe the acceleration of cosmic rays in AGNs.

  5. Measuring extensive air showers with Cherenkov light detectors of the Yakutsk array: the energy spectrum of cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ivanov, A A; Knurenko, S P; Sleptsov, I Ye

    2009-01-01

    The energy spectrum of cosmic rays in the range E∼10 15 eV to 6x10 19 eV is studied in this paper using air Cherenkov light detectors of the Yakutsk array. The total flux of photons produced by the relativistic electrons (including positrons as well, hereafter) of extensive air showers in the atmosphere is used as an energy estimator of the primary particle initiating a shower. The resultant differential flux of cosmic rays exhibits, in agreement with previous measurements, a knee and ankle feature at energies of 3x10 15 and ∼10 19 eV, respectively. A comparison of observational data with simulations is made in the knee and ankle regions in order to choose the models of galactic and extragalactic components of cosmic rays that describe well the energy spectrum measured.

  6. Measuring extensive air showers with Cherenkov light detectors of the Yakutsk array: the energy spectrum of cosmic rays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ivanov, A A; Knurenko, S P; Sleptsov, I Ye [Shafer Institute for Cosmophysical Research and Aeronomy, Yakutsk 677980 (Russian Federation)], E-mail: ivanov@ikfia.ysn.ru

    2009-06-15

    The energy spectrum of cosmic rays in the range E{approx}10{sup 15} eV to 6x10{sup 19} eV is studied in this paper using air Cherenkov light detectors of the Yakutsk array. The total flux of photons produced by the relativistic electrons (including positrons as well, hereafter) of extensive air showers in the atmosphere is used as an energy estimator of the primary particle initiating a shower. The resultant differential flux of cosmic rays exhibits, in agreement with previous measurements, a knee and ankle feature at energies of 3x10{sup 15} and {approx}10{sup 19} eV, respectively. A comparison of observational data with simulations is made in the knee and ankle regions in order to choose the models of galactic and extragalactic components of cosmic rays that describe well the energy spectrum measured.

  7. Study of the high energy Cosmic Rays large scale anisotropies with the ANTARES neutrino telescope

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Illuminati, Giulia

    2016-01-01

    We present the analysis method used to search for an anisotropy in the high energy Cosmic Rays arrival distribution using data collected by the ANTARES telescope. ANTARES is a neutrino detector, where the collected data are dominated by a large background of cosmic ray muons. Therefore, the background data are suitable for high-statistics studies of cosmic rays in the Northern sky. The main challenge for this analysis is accounting for those effects which can mimic an apparent anisotropy in the muon arrival direction: the detector exposure asymmetries, non-uniform time coverage, diurnal and seasonal variation of the atmospheric temperature. Once all these effects have been corrected, a study of the anisotropy profiles along the right ascension can be performed. (paper)

  8. Modulation of Cosmic Ray Precipitation Related to Climate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feynman, J.; Ruzmaikin, A.

    1998-01-01

    High energy cosmic rays may influence the formation of clouds, and thus can have an impact on weather and climate. Cosmic rays in the solar wind are incident on the magnetosphere boundary and are then transmitted through the magnetosphere and atmosphere to reach the upper troposphere.

  9. Muon Production in Relativistic Cosmic-Ray Interactions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Klein, Spencer

    2009-01-01

    Cosmic-rays with energies up to 3 x 10 20 eV have been observed. The nuclear composition of these cosmic rays is unknown but if the incident nuclei are protons then the corresponding center of mass energy is √s nn = 700 TeV. High energy muons can be used to probe the composition of these incident nuclei. The energy spectra of high-energy (> 1 TeV) cosmic ray induced muons have been measured with deep underground or under-ice detectors. These muons come from pion and kaon decays and from charm production in the atmosphere. Terrestrial experiments are most sensitive to far-forward muons so the production rates aresensitive to high-x partons in the incident nucleus and low-x partons in the nitrogen/oxygen targets. Muon measurements can complement the central-particle data collected at colliders. This paper will review muon production data and discuss some non-perturbative (soft) models that have been used to interpret the data. I will show measurements of TeV muon transverse momentum (p T ) spectra in cosmic-ray air showers from MACRO, and describe how the IceCube neutrino observatory and the proposed Km3Net detector will extend these measurements to a higher p T region where perturbative QCD should apply. With a 1 km 2 surface area, the full IceCube detector should observe hundreds of muons/year with p T in the pQCD regime.

  10. Muon Production in Relativistic Cosmic-Ray Interactions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Klein, Spencer R.

    2009-01-01

    Cosmic-rays with energies up to 3x10 20 eV have been observed. The nuclear composition of these cosmic rays is unknown but if the incident nuclei are protons then the corresponding center of mass energy is √(s nn )=700TeV. High energy muons can be used to probe the composition of these incident nuclei. The energy spectra of high-energy (>1TeV) cosmic ray induced muons have been measured with deep underground or under-ice detectors. These muons come from pion and kaon decays and from charm production in the atmosphere. Terrestrial experiments are most sensitive to far-forward muons so the production rates are sensitive to high-x partons in the incident nucleus and low-x partons in the nitrogen/oxygen targets. Muon measurements can complement the central-particle data collected at colliders. This paper will review muon production data and discuss some non-perturbative (soft) models that have been used to interpret the data. I will show measurements of TeV muon transverse momentum (p T ) spectra in cosmic-ray air showers from MACRO, and describe how the IceCube neutrino observatory and the proposed Km3Net detector will extend these measurements to a higher p T region where perturbative QCD should apply. With a 1 km 2 surface area, the full IceCube detector should observe hundreds of muons/year with p T in the pQCD regime.

  11. NEEDS for LHC experiment planning from results of very high energy cosmic ray Investigations (NEEDS-2

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Petrukhin A.A.

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available 12 years ago, at 12th ISVHECRI, a special NEEDS workshop was held to discuss future LHC data required for interpretation of cosmic ray experiments. Now, when the main task of LHC is solved – the Higgs boson is discovered – the question “What will be the next?” is very actual. In this paper the results of cosmic ray experiments at LHC energies are considered. Their possible explanation in the frame of a new model of production of quark-gluon matter blobs is discussed. The necessity to pass in LHC experiments from investigations of pp-interactions to investigations of nucleus-nucleus interactions is underlined since cosmic rays consist mainly of nuclei (≈ 60% which interact with nuclei of air. But namely in these nucleus-nucleus interactions many unusual results were obtained in cosmic ray investigations. Corresponding tasks for future LHC experiments are proposed.

  12. About cosmic gamma ray lines

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diehl, Roland

    2017-06-01

    Gamma ray lines from cosmic sources convey the action of nuclear reactions in cosmic sites and their impacts on astrophysical objects. Gamma rays at characteristic energies result from nuclear transitions following radioactive decays or high-energy collisions with excitation of nuclei. The gamma-ray line from the annihilation of positrons at 511 keV falls into the same energy window, although of different origin. We present here the concepts of cosmic gamma ray spectrometry and the corresponding instruments and missions, followed by a discussion of recent results and the challenges and open issues for the future. Among the lessons learned are the diffuse radioactive afterglow of massive-star nucleosynthesis in 26Al and 60Fe gamma rays, which is now being exploited towards the cycle of matter driven by massive stars and their supernovae; large interstellar cavities and superbubbles have been recognised to be of key importance here. Also, constraints on the complex processes making stars explode as either thermonuclear or core-collapse supernovae are being illuminated by gamma-ray lines, in this case from shortlived radioactivities from 56Ni and 44Ti decays. In particular, the three-dimensionality and asphericities that have recently been recognised as important are enlightened in different ways through such gamma-ray line spectroscopy. Finally, the distribution of positron annihilation gamma ray emission with its puzzling bulge-dominated intensity disctribution is measured through spatially-resolved spectra, which indicate that annihilation conditions may differ in different parts of our Galaxy. But it is now understood that a variety of sources may feed positrons into the interstellar medium, and their characteristics largely get lost during slowing down and propagation of positrons before annihilation; a recent microquasar flare was caught as an opportunity to see positrons annihilate at a source.

  13. Cosmic ray electrons and protons, and their antiparticles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boezio, Mirko

    2014-01-01

    Cosmic rays are a sample of solar, galactic, and extragalactic matter. Their origin, acceleration mechanisms, and subsequent propagation toward Earth have intrigued scientists since their discovery. These issues can be studied via analysis of the energy spectra and composition of cosmic rays. Protons are the most abundant component of the cosmic radiation, and many experiments have been dedicated to the accurate measurement of their spectra. Complementary information is provided by electrons, which comprise about 1% of the cosmic radiation. Because of their low mass, electrons experience severe energy losses through synchrotron emission in the galactic magnetic field and inverse Compton scattering of radiation fields. Electrons therefore provide information on the local galactic environment that is not accessible from the study of the cosmic ray nuclei. Antiparticles, namely antiprotons and positrons, are produced in the interaction between cosmic ray nuclei and the interstellar matter. They are therefore intimately linked to the propagation mechanisms of the parent nuclei. Novel sources of primary cosmic ray antiparticles of either astrophysical (e.g., positrons from pulsars) or exotic origin (e.g., annihilation of dark matter particles) may exist. The nature of dark matter is one of the most prominent open questions in science today. An observation of positrons from pulsars would open a new observation window on these sources. Several experiments equipped with state-of-the art detector systems have recently presented results on the energy spectra of electrons, protons, and their antiparticles with a significant improvement in statistics and better control of systematics The status of the field will be reviewed, with a focus on these recent scientific results. (author)

  14. An algorithm to resolve γ-rays from charged cosmic rays with DAMPE

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Zun-Lei; Duan, Kai-Kai; Shen, Zhao-Qiang; Lei, Shi-Jun; Dong, Tie-Kuang; Gargano, Fabio; Garrappa, Simone; Guo, Dong-Ya; Jiang, Wei; Li, Xiang; Liang, Yun-Feng; Mazziotta, Mario Nicola; Munoz Salinas, Maria Fernanda; Su, Meng; Vagelli, Valerio; Yuan, Qiang; Yue, Chuan; Zang, Jing-Jing; Zhang, Ya-Peng; Zhang, Yun-Long; Zimmer, Stephan

    2018-03-01

    The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE), also known as Wukong in China, which was launched on 2015 December 17, is a new high energy cosmic ray and γ-ray satellite-borne observatory. One of the main scientific goals of DAMPE is to observe GeV-TeV high energy γ-rays with accurate energy, angular and time resolution, to indirectly search for dark matter particles and for the study of high energy astrophysics. Due to the comparatively higher fluxes of charged cosmic rays with respect to γ-rays, it is challenging to identify γ-rays with sufficiently high efficiency, minimizing the amount of charged cosmic ray contamination. In this work we present a method to identify γ-rays in DAMPE data based on Monte Carlo simulations, using the powerful electromagnetic/hadronic shower discrimination provided by the calorimeter and the veto detection of charged particles provided by the plastic scintillation detector. Monte Carlo simulations show that after this selection the number of electrons and protons that contaminate the selected γ-ray events at ∼ 10GeV amounts to less than 1% of the selected sample. Finally, we use flight data to verify the effectiveness of the method by highlighting known γ-ray sources in the sky and by reconstructing preliminary light curves of the Geminga pulsar.

  15. Cosmic ray modulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agarwal Mishra, Rekha; Mishra, Rajesh Kumar

    2016-07-01

    Propagation of cosmic rays to and inside the heliosphere, encounter an outward moving solar wind with cyclic magnetic field fluctuation and turbulence, causing convection and diffusion in the heliosphere. Cosmic ray counts from the ground ground-based neutron monitors at different cut of rigidity show intensity changes, which are anti-correlated with sunspot numbers. They also lose energy as they propagate towards the Earth and experience various types of modulations due to different solar activity indices. In this work, we study the first three harmonics of cosmic ray intensity on geo-magnetically quiet days over the period 1965-2014 for Beijing, Moscow and Tokyo neutron monitoring stations located at different cut off rigidity. The amplitude of first harmonic remains high for low cutoff rigidity as compared to high cutoff rigidity on quiet days. The diurnal amplitude significantly decreases during solar activity minimum years. The diurnal time of maximum significantly shifts to an earlier time as compared to the corotational direction having different cutoff rigidities. The time of maximum for first harmonic significantly shifts towards later hours and for second harmonic it shifts towards earlier hours at low cutoff rigidity station as compared to the high cut off rigidity station on quiet days. The amplitude of second/third harmonics shows a good positive correlation with solar wind velocity, while the others (i.e. amplitude and phase) have no significant correlation on quiet days. The amplitude and direction of the anisotropy on quiet days does not show any significant dependence on high-speed solar wind streams for these neutron monitoring stations of different cutoff rigidity threshold. Keywords: cosmic ray, cut off rigidity, quiet days, harmonics, amplitude, phase.

  16. Cosmic Ray Interactions in Shielding Materials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aguayo Navarrete, Estanislao; Kouzes, Richard T.; Ankney, Austin S.; Orrell, John L.; Berguson, Timothy J.; Troy, Meredith D.

    2011-01-01

    This document provides a detailed study of materials used to shield against the hadronic particles from cosmic ray showers at Earth's surface. This work was motivated by the need for a shield that minimizes activation of the enriched germanium during transport for the MAJORANA collaboration. The materials suitable for cosmic-ray shield design are materials such as lead and iron that will stop the primary protons, and materials like polyethylene, borated polyethylene, concrete and water that will stop the induced neutrons. The interaction of the different cosmic-ray components at ground level (protons, neutrons, muons) with their wide energy range (from kilo-electron volts to giga-electron volts) is a complex calculation. Monte Carlo calculations have proven to be a suitable tool for the simulation of nucleon transport, including hadron interactions and radioactive isotope production. The industry standard Monte Carlo simulation tool, Geant4, was used for this study. The result of this study is the assertion that activation at Earth's surface is a result of the neutronic and protonic components of the cosmic-ray shower. The best material to shield against these cosmic-ray components is iron, which has the best combination of primary shielding and minimal secondary neutron production.

  17. Calculation of cosmic ray induced single event upsets: Program CRUP (Cosmic Ray Upset Program)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shapiro, P.

    1983-09-01

    This report documents PROGRAM CRUP, COSMIC RAY UPSET PROGRAM. The computer program calculates cosmic ray induced single-event error rates in microelectronic circuits exposed to several representative cosmic-ray environments.

  18. Diffuse fluxes of cosmic high-energy neutrinos

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stecker, F.W.

    1979-01-01

    Production spectra of high-energy neutrinos from galactic cosmic-ray interactions with interstellar gas and extragalactic ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray interactions with microwave blackbody photons are presented and discussed. These production processes involve the decay of charged pions and are thus related to the production of cosmic γ-rays from the decay of neutral pions. Estimates of the neutrino fluxes from various diffuse cosmic sources are then made, and the reasons for significant differences with previous estimates are discussed. Small predicted event rates for a DUMAND type detection system, combined with a possible significant flux of prompt neutrinos from the atmosphere above 50 TeV, may make the study of diffuse extraterrestrial neutrinos more difficult than previously thought

  19. Interpreting the cosmic ray composition

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    O' C Drury, L.; Ellisson, D.C; Meyer, J.-P

    2000-01-31

    The detailed pattern of elemental abundances in the Galactic Cosmic Rays is well determined at energies of a few GeV per nucleon. After correction for propagation effects the inferred source composition shows significant deviations from the standard pattern of Galactic elemental abundances. These deviations, surprisingly overabundances of the heavy elements relative to Hydrogen, are clearly a significant clue to the origin of the cosmic rays, but one which has proven very difficult to interpret. We have recently shown that the 'standard' model for the origin of the bulk of the Galactic cosmic rays, namely acceleration by the diffusive shock acceleration process at the strong shocks associated with supernova remnants, can quantitatively explain all features of the source composition if the acceleration occurs from a dusty interstellar medium. This success must be regarded as one of the stronger pieces of evidence in favour of the standard model.

  20. Interpreting the cosmic ray composition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    O'C Drury, L.; Ellisson, D.C; Meyer, J.-P.

    2000-01-01

    The detailed pattern of elemental abundances in the Galactic Cosmic Rays is well determined at energies of a few GeV per nucleon. After correction for propagation effects the inferred source composition shows significant deviations from the standard pattern of Galactic elemental abundances. These deviations, surprisingly overabundances of the heavy elements relative to Hydrogen, are clearly a significant clue to the origin of the cosmic rays, but one which has proven very difficult to interpret. We have recently shown that the 'standard' model for the origin of the bulk of the Galactic cosmic rays, namely acceleration by the diffusive shock acceleration process at the strong shocks associated with supernova remnants, can quantitatively explain all features of the source composition if the acceleration occurs from a dusty interstellar medium. This success must be regarded as one of the stronger pieces of evidence in favour of the standard model

  1. Nuclear Physics Meets the Sources of the Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boncioli, Denise; Fedynitch, Anatoli; Winter, Walter

    2017-07-07

    The determination of the injection composition of cosmic ray nuclei within astrophysical sources requires sufficiently accurate descriptions of the source physics and the propagation - apart from controlling astrophysical uncertainties. We therefore study the implications of nuclear data and models for cosmic ray astrophysics, which involves the photo-disintegration of nuclei up to iron in astrophysical environments. We demonstrate that the impact of nuclear model uncertainties is potentially larger in environments with non-thermal radiation fields than in the cosmic microwave background. We also study the impact of nuclear models on the nuclear cascade in a gamma-ray burst radiation field, simulated at a level of complexity comparable to the most precise cosmic ray propagation code. We conclude with an isotope chart describing which information is in principle necessary to describe nuclear interactions in cosmic ray sources and propagation.

  2. Acceleration of galactic cosmic rays in shock waves

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lagage, P.O.

    1981-06-01

    The old problem of the origin of cosmic rays has triggered off fresh interest owing to the discovery of a new model which enables a lot of energy to be transferred to a small number of particles on the one hand and the discovery of the coronal environment in which this transfer occurs, on the other. In this paper, interest is taken in the galactic cosmic rays and an endeavour is made to find out if the model can reveal the existence of cosmic rays over a wide energy range. The existence of an energy break, predicted by the model, was recognized fairly early but, in the literature, it varies from 30 GeV ro 10 6 GeV according to the authors. A study has been made of the two main causes of an energy break: the sphericity of the shock and the life time of the shock wave [fr

  3. Measurement of the Cosmic Ray primary spectrum with ARGO-YBJ experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Panico, B; Iuppa, R; Di Sciascio, G

    2013-01-01

    The study of cosmic ray physic of 10 12 – 10 15 primary cosmic energy is one of the main goals of ARGO-YBJ experiment. The detector, located at the Yangbajing Cosmic Ray Laboratory (Tibet, 4300 m a.s.l., 606 g/cm 2 ), is an EAS array consisting of a continuous carpet of RPCs. The low energy threshold of the detector allows to study an energy region characterized by the transition from the direct to the indirect measurements. In this talk we will report on the measurement of the cosmic ray energy spectrum at different zenith angles. The phenomenology of horizontal air shower (θ > 70°) will be described and discussed.

  4. Cosmic ray diffusion: report of the workshop in cosmic ray diffusion theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Birmingham, T.J.; Jones, F.C.

    1975-02-01

    A workshop in cosmic ray diffusion theory was held at Goddard Space Flight Center on May 16-17, 1974. Topics discussed and summarized are: (1) cosmic ray measurements as related to diffusion theory; (2) quasi-linear theory, nonlinear theory, and computer simulation of cosmic ray pitch-angle diffusion; and (3) magnetic field fluctuation measurements as related to diffusion theory. (auth)

  5. Characterising CCDs with cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fisher-Levine, M.; Nomerotski, A.

    2015-01-01

    The properties of cosmic ray muons make them a useful probe for measuring the properties of thick, fully depleted CCD sensors. The known energy deposition per unit length allows measurement of the gain of the sensor's amplifiers, whilst the straightness of the tracks allows for a crude assessment of the static lateral electric fields at the sensor's edges. The small volume in which the muons deposit their energy allows measurement of the contribution to the PSF from the diffusion of charge as it drifts across the sensor. In this work we present a validation of the cosmic ray gain measurement technique by comparing with radioisotope gain measurments, and calculate the charge diffusion coefficient for prototype LSST sensors

  6. Neutrinos and ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray nuclei from blazars

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rodrigues, Xavier; Fedynitch, Anatoli; Gao, Shan; Boncioli, Denise; Winter, Walter

    2017-11-01

    We discuss the production of ultra-high-energy cosmic ray (UHECR) nuclei and neutrinos from blazars. We compute the nuclear cascade in the jet for both BL Lac objects and flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), and in the ambient radiation zones for FSRQs as well. By modeling representative spectral energy distributions along the blazar sequence, two distinct regimes are identified, which we call ''nuclear survival'' - typically found in low-luminosity BL Lacs, and ''nuclear cascade'' - typically found in high-luminosity FSRQs. We quantify how the neutrino and cosmic-ray (CR) emission efficiencies evolve over the blazar sequence, and demonstrate that neutrinos and CRs come from very different object classes. For example, high-frequency peaked BL Lacs (HBLs) tend to produce CRs, and HL-FSRQs are the more efficient neutrino emitters. This conclusion does not depend on the CR escape mechanism, for which we discuss two alternatives (diffusive and advective escape). Finally, the neutrino spectrum from blazars is shown to significantly depend on the injection composition into the jet, especially in the nuclear cascade case: Injection compositions heavier than protons lead to reduced neutrino production at the peak, which moves at the same time to lower energies. Thus, these sources will exhibit better compatibility with the observed IceCube and UHECR data.

  7. Neutrinos and ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray nuclei from blazars

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rodrigues, Xavier; Fedynitch, Anatoli; Gao, Shan; Boncioli, Denise; Winter, Walter

    2017-11-15

    We discuss the production of ultra-high-energy cosmic ray (UHECR) nuclei and neutrinos from blazars. We compute the nuclear cascade in the jet for both BL Lac objects and flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), and in the ambient radiation zones for FSRQs as well. By modeling representative spectral energy distributions along the blazar sequence, two distinct regimes are identified, which we call ''nuclear survival'' - typically found in low-luminosity BL Lacs, and ''nuclear cascade'' - typically found in high-luminosity FSRQs. We quantify how the neutrino and cosmic-ray (CR) emission efficiencies evolve over the blazar sequence, and demonstrate that neutrinos and CRs come from very different object classes. For example, high-frequency peaked BL Lacs (HBLs) tend to produce CRs, and HL-FSRQs are the more efficient neutrino emitters. This conclusion does not depend on the CR escape mechanism, for which we discuss two alternatives (diffusive and advective escape). Finally, the neutrino spectrum from blazars is shown to significantly depend on the injection composition into the jet, especially in the nuclear cascade case: Injection compositions heavier than protons lead to reduced neutrino production at the peak, which moves at the same time to lower energies. Thus, these sources will exhibit better compatibility with the observed IceCube and UHECR data.

  8. Cosmic-ray neutron simulations and measurements in Taiwan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen, Wei-Lin; Jiang, Shiang-Huei; Sheu, Rong-Jiun

    2014-01-01

    This study used simulations of galactic cosmic ray in the atmosphere to investigate the neutron background environment in Taiwan, emphasising its altitude dependence and spectrum variation near interfaces. The calculated results were analysed and compared with two measurements. The first measurement was a mobile neutron survey from sea level up to 3275 m in altitude conducted using a car-mounted high-sensitivity neutron detector. The second was a previous measured result focusing on the changes in neutron spectra near air/ground and air/water interfaces. The attenuation length of cosmic-ray neutrons in the lower atmosphere was estimated to be 163 g cm -2 in Taiwan. Cosmic-ray neutron spectra vary with altitude and especially near interfaces. The determined spectra near the air/ground and air/water interfaces agree well with measurements for neutrons below 10 MeV. However, the high-energy portion of spectra was observed to be much higher than our previous estimation. Because high-energy neutrons contribute substantially to a dose evaluation, revising the annual sea-level effective dose from cosmic-ray neutrons at ground level in Taiwan to 35 μSv, which corresponds to a neutron flux of 5.30 x 10 -3 n cm -2 s -1 , was suggested. The cosmic-ray neutron background in Taiwan was studied using the FLUKA simulations and field measurements. A new measurement was performed using a car-mounted high-efficiency neutron detector, re-coding real-time neutron counting rates from sea level up to 3275 m. The attenuation of cosmic-ray neutrons in the lower atmosphere exhibited an effective attenuation length of 163 g cm -2 . The calculated neutron counting rates over predicted the measurements by ∼32 %, which leaded to a correction factor for the FLUKA-calculated cosmic-ray neutrons in the lower atmosphere in Taiwan. In addition, a previous measurement regarding neutron spectrum variation near the air/ground and air/water interfaces was re-evaluated. The results showed that the

  9. Cosmic Ray Physics with the KASCADE-Grande Observatory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arteaga-Velázquez, J. C.; Apel, W. D.; Bekk, K.; Bertaina, M.; Blümer, J.; Bozdog, H.; Brancus, I. M.; Cantoni, E.; Chiavassa, A.; Cossavella, F.; Daumiller, K.; de Souza, V.; Di Pierro, F.; Doll, P.; Engel, R.; Fuhrmann, D.; Gherghel-Lascu, A.; Gils, H. J.; Glasstetter, R.; Grupen, C.; Haungs, A.; Heck, D.; Hörandel, J. R.; Huege, T.; Kampert, K.-H.; Kang, D.; Klages, H. O.; Link, K.; Łuczak, P.; Mathes, H. J.; Mayer, H. J.; Milke, J.; Mitrica, B.; Morello, C.; Oehlschläger, J.; Ostapchenko, S.; Pierog, T.; Rebel, H.; Roth, M.; Schieler, H.; Schoo, S.; Schröder, F. G.; Sima, O.; Toma, G.; Trinchero, G. C.; Ulrich, H.; Weindl, A.; Wochele, J.; Zabierowski, J.

    The existence of a knee at a few PeV in the all-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum has been well established by several experiments but its physical origin has eluded researches for a long time. It is believed that keys to disentangle the mystery could be found in the spectrum and the composition of cosmic rays between 1 PeV and 1 EeV. A first detailed look into the elemental chemical abundances of cosmic rays in this energy regime was provided by both the KASCADE and the KASCADE-Grande experiments. Their measurements opened the door to a wealth of new data on the subject, which led to the discovery of new structures in the all-particle energy spectrum and the confirmation of knee-like features in the spectra of individual mass groups, as well as the observation of an unexpected ankle-like structure at around 100 PeV in the flux of the light component of cosmic rays. In this contribution, early findings with the KASCADE-Grande experiment will be reviewed and then a short update on the analyses currently performed with the data of the observatory will be presented.

  10. Cosmic-ray sum rules

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Frandsen, Mads T.; Masina, Isabella; Sannino, Francesco

    2011-01-01

    We introduce new sum rules allowing to determine universal properties of the unknown component of the cosmic rays; we show how they can be used to predict the positron fraction at energies not yet explored by current experiments, and to constrain specific models.

  11. The Energetic Trans-Iron Cosmic-ray Experiment (ENTICE)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Binns, W. R.; Adams. J. H.; Barghouty, A. F.; Christian, E. R.; Cummings, A. C.; Hams, T.; Israel, M. H.; Labrador, A. W.; Leske, R. A.; Link, J. T.; hide

    2009-01-01

    The ENTICE experiment is one of two instruments that comprise the "Orbiting Astrophysical Spectrometer in Space (OASIS)", which is presently undergoing a NASA "Astrophysics Strategic Mission Concept Study". ENTICE is designed to make high precision measurements of the abundances of individual elements from neon through the actinides and, in addition, will search for possible superheavy nuclei in the galactic cosmic rays. The ENTICE instrument utilizes silicon detectors, aerogel and acrylic Cherenkov counters, and a scintillating optical fiber hodoscope to measure the charge and energy of these ultra-heavy nuclei for energies greater than 0.5 GeV/nucleon. It is a large instrument consisting of four modules with a total effective geometrical factor of approx.20 sq m sr. Measurements made in space for a period of three years with ENTICE will enable us to determine if cosmic rays include a component of recently synthesized transuranic elements (Pu-94 and Cm-96), to measure the age of that component, and to test the model of the OB association origin of galactic cosmic rays. Additionally, these observations will enable us to study how diffusive shock acceleration of cosmic rays operates differently on interstellar grains and gas. Keywords: cosmic rays Galaxy:abundances

  12. RECORD-SETTING COSMIC-RAY INTENSITIES IN 2009 AND 2010

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mewaldt, R. A.; Davis, A. J.; Leske, R. A.; Stone, E. C.; Cummings, A. C.; Labrador, A. W.; Lave, K. A.; Binns, W. R.; Israel, M. H.; Wiedenbeck, M. E.; Christian, E. R.; De Nolfo, G. A.; Von Rosenvinge, T. T.

    2010-01-01

    We report measurements of record-setting intensities of cosmic-ray nuclei from C to Fe, made with the Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer carried on the Advanced Composition Explorer in orbit about the inner Sun-Earth Lagrangian point. In the energy interval from ∼70 to ∼450 MeV nucleon -1 , near the peak in the near-Earth cosmic-ray spectrum, the measured intensities of major species from C to Fe were each 20%-26% greater in late 2009 than in the 1997-1998 minimum and previous solar minima of the space age (1957-1997). The elevated intensities reported here and also at neutron monitor energies were undoubtedly due to several unusual aspects of the solar cycle 23/24 minimum, including record-low interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) intensities, an extended period of reduced IMF turbulence, reduced solar-wind dynamic pressure, and extremely low solar activity during an extended solar minimum. The estimated parallel diffusion coefficient for cosmic-ray transport based on measured solar-wind properties was 44% greater in 2009 than in the 1997-1998 solar-minimum period. In addition, the weaker IMF should result in higher cosmic-ray drift velocities. Cosmic-ray intensity variations at 1 AU are found to lag IMF variations by 2-3 solar rotations, indicating that significant solar modulation occurs inside ∼20 AU, consistent with earlier galactic cosmic-ray radial-gradient measurements. In 2010, the intensities suddenly decreased to 1997 levels following increases in solar activity and in the inclination of the heliospheric current sheet. We describe the conditions that gave cosmic rays greater access to the inner solar system and discuss some of their implications.

  13. Transition from galactic to extra-galactic cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aloisio, Roberto

    2006-01-01

    In this paper we review the main features of the observed Cosmic Rays spectrum in the energy range 10 17 eV to 10 20 eV. We present a theoretical model that explains the main observed features of the spectrum, namely the second Knee and Dip, and implies a transition from Galactic to Extra-Galactic cosmic rays at energy E ≅ 10 18 eV, with a proton dominated Extra-Galactic spectrum

  14. On the possibility of highest energy cosmic rays bursts and their correlation with gamma rays bursts e.g. March 5th, 1979 event

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Drukier, K.

    1982-01-01

    The avalanche production of magnetic monopoles is possible in neutron stars. Big part of the magnetic field energy can be used to accelerate a pulse of 10 30 monopoles to the energy E > approximately 10 17 eV. Thus the neutron stars may be ''point'' sources of bursts of highest energy Cosmic Rays. The emission of brehmsstrahlung photons by these highly relativistic monopoles would be seen as X and gamma bursts. This ''exotic'' model for March 5th, 1979 event, predicts that it has been followed by burst of highest energy Cosmic Rays coming from the direction of LMC supernovae remanent N49

  15. Cosmic ray acceleration by shock waves in a diffusion medium. Research of high energies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lagage, P.O.

    1982-06-01

    The problem of galactic cosmic-ray acceleration is presented with the study of a new acceleration mechanism by supernova shock waves in a diffusive medium. The question is: do supernova shocks have enough time to accelerate cosmic rays beyond 10 4 -10 5 GeV. A firm upper limit to the energy that can be acquired by particles is established and it is considered that the mean free path of the particle has its lowest possible value and the most favorable model of supernova evolution. The diffusion coefficients which are relevant for the determination of the high energy cut off are investigated. The effect of the spatial dependence of the diffusion coefficient on the rate of acceleration of particles is examined. A more realistic cut off energy is calculated. We find E max = 2 10 4 GeV [fr

  16. Propagation of cosmic rays in the Earth's atmosphere

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Putze, Antje [LPSC-CNRS-IN2P3, 53, avenue des Martyrs, 38021 Grenoble cedex (France)

    2006-06-15

    Cosmic rays are composed of charged particles, which arrive after a long travel through the Galaxy on Earth. Supernova explosions are considered to be galactic sources, which accelerate these particles up to energies around 10{sup 18} eV. Beyond this energy, one supposes that the extragalactic sources, like active galaxy nuclei (AGN), gamma ray bursts or pulsars, are the origin of the ultra high energy cosmic rays. The spectral index of the elemental energy distributions of cosmic rays reflects the dynamic of its propagation, particularly the conjugation of the effects connected to the cosmic ray source spectrum and those connected to its propagation (acceleration, absorption and escape). The evolution of the spectral index with the cosmic-ray particle energy constitutes a sensitive test of the components, which determine this evolution. The precise index measurement of individual elemental spectra of the cosmic rays by AMS up to TeV and by the experiment CREAM beyond it, from TeV to PeV, will permit to proceed in this problematic. One of the difficulties on this measurement is to take well into account the systematic errors. During the data analysis we have to take into account in particular the interaction (diffusion and fragmentation) of the ions while their travel through the Earth's atmosphere. The study of the interaction and the fragmentation of these ions in the atmosphere is hence indispensable and described in this work. The study is based on a matrix calculation, which had been successfully implemented and tested and which has permitted to analyse the effects, caused by the experimental uncertainties on the cross sections, on the spectral index measurement. (author)

  17. Cosmic ray propagation with CRPropa 3

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Batista, R Alves; Evoli, C; Sigl, G; Van Vliet, A; Erdmann, M; Kuempel, D; Mueller, G; Walz, D; Kampert, K-H; Winchen, T

    2015-01-01

    Solving the question of the origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) requires the development of detailed simulation tools in order to interpret the experimental data and draw conclusions on the UHECR universe. CRPropa is a public Monte Carlo code for the galactic and extragalactic propagation of cosmic ray nuclei above ∼ 10 17 eV, as well as their photon and neutrino secondaries. In this contribution the new algorithms and features of CRPropa 3, the next major release, are presented. CRPropa 3 introduces time-dependent scenarios to include cosmic evolution in the presence of cosmic ray deflections in magnetic fields. The usage of high resolution magnetic fields is facilitated by shared memory parallelism, modulated fields and fields with heterogeneous resolution. Galactic propagation is enabled through the implementation of galactic magnetic field models, as well as an efficient forward propagation technique through transformation matrices. To make use of the large Python ecosystem in astrophysics CRPropa 3 can be steered and extended in Python. (paper)

  18. Capturing the most energetic cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mantsch, P.

    1999-01-01

    The methods of energy measurement applied to the most energetic cosmic rays are described. The rays are so rare that two gigantic systems of detectors are proposed to detect at least some of them (the Pierre Auger Project ). (Z.J.)

  19. Direct cosmic ray muons and atmospheric neutrinos

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ryazhskaya, O.G.; Volkova, L.V.; Zatsepin, G.T.

    2005-01-01

    A possible contribution of very short living particles (particles with life-time much shorter than that of charmed particles), for example, resonances, into cosmic ray muon and atmospheric neutrino fluxes (direct muons and neutrinos) is estimated. This contribution could become of the same order of magnitude as that from pions and kaons (conventional) already at energies of hundreds TeV and tens TeV for muons and muon neutrinos coming to the sea level in the vertical direction correspondingly. Of course, the estimation has quite a qualitative character and even it is quite arbitrary but it is necessary to keep this contribution in mind when studying EAS, cosmic ray muon component or trying to interpret data of experiments on cosmic neutrino searching at high energies

  20. The Effect of a Non-Isotropic Flux of Very High Energy Cosmic Rays on the values of Mean Shower Maxima

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Davoudifar, Pantea; Tabari, Keihanak Rowshan

    2015-01-01

    In our previous works we described a statistical method to interpret the results of extensive air shower simulations. For an isotropically distributed flux of cosmic rays, we used this method to deduce diagrams of mean values of shower maxima versus energy decades. To have a more realistic result, we considered the effect of a non-isotropic flux of cosmic rays at different energy ranges. This effect was considered as a weight factor deduced from a set of observed data. We discussed about the effect of this weight factor on our final resulted diagrams of mean shower maxima and for different interaction models compared the resulted distributions of very high energy cosmic ray's mass composition

  1. The galactic magnetic field and propagation of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Prouza, Michael; Šmída, Radomír

    2003-01-01

    Roč. 410, - (2003), s. 1-10 ISSN 0004-6361 R&D Projects: GA AV ČR IAA1010928; GA MŠk LN00A006; GA MŠk LA 134 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z1010920 Keywords : cosmic rays * magnetic fields * Galaxy Subject RIV: BF - Elementary Particles and High Energy Physics Impact factor: 3.843, year: 2003

  2. COSMIC-RAY AND X-RAY HEATING OF INTERSTELLAR CLOUDS AND PROTOPLANETARY DISKS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Glassgold, Alfred E.; Galli, Daniele; Padovani, Marco

    2012-01-01

    Cosmic-ray and X-ray heating are derived from the electron energy-loss calculations of Dalgarno, Yan, and Liu for hydrogen-helium gas mixtures. These authors treated the heating from elastic scattering and collisional de-excitation of rotationally excited hydrogen molecules. Here we consider the heating that can arise from all ionization and excitation processes, with particular emphasis on the reactions of cosmic-ray and X-ray generated ions with the heavy neutral species, which we refer to as chemical heating. In molecular regions, chemical heating dominates and can account for 50% of the energy expended in the creation of an ion pair. The heating per ion pair ranges in the limit of negligible electron fraction from ∼4.3 eV for diffuse atomic gas to ∼13 eV for the moderately dense regions of molecular clouds and to ∼18 eV for the very dense regions of protoplanetary disks. An important general conclusion of this study is that cosmic-ray and X-ray heating depends on the physical properties of the medium, i.e., on the molecular and electron fractions, the total density of hydrogen nuclei, and, to a lesser extent, on the temperature. It is also noted that chemical heating, the dominant process for cosmic-ray and X-ray heating, plays a role in UV irradiated molecular gas.

  3. Cosmic rays and the search for a Lorentz Invariance Violation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bietenholz, Wolfgang, E-mail: wolbi@nucleares.unam.mx

    2011-08-15

    This is an introductory review about the ongoing search for a signal of Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) in cosmic rays. We first summarise basic aspects of cosmic rays, focusing on rays of ultrahigh energy (UHECRs). We discuss the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuz'min (GZK) energy cutoff for cosmic protons, which is predicted due to photopion production in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This is a process of modest energy in the proton rest frame. It can be investigated to a high precision in the laboratory, if Lorentz transformations apply even at factors {gamma}{approx}O(10{sup 11}). For heavier nuclei, the energy attenuation is even faster due to photo-disintegration, again if this process is Lorentz invariant. Hence the viability of Lorentz symmetry up to tremendous {gamma}-factors-far beyond accelerator tests-is a central issue. Next, we comment on conceptual aspects of Lorentz Invariance and the possibility of its spontaneous breaking. This could lead to slightly particle dependent 'Maximal Attainable Velocities'. We discuss their effect in decays, Cerenkov radiation, the GZK cutoff and neutrino oscillation in cosmic rays. We also review the search for LIV in cosmic {gamma}-rays. For multi-TeV {gamma}-rays, we encounter another possible puzzle related to the transparency of the CMB, similar to the GZK cutoff, due to electron/positron creation and subsequent inverse Compton scattering. The photons emitted in a Gamma Ray Burst occur at lower energies, but their very long path provides access to information not that far from the Planck scale. We discuss conceivable nonlinear photon dispersions based on non-commutative geometry or effective approaches. No LIV has been observed so far. However, even extremely tiny LIV effects could change the predictions for cosmic ray physics drastically. An Appendix is devoted to the recent results by the Pierre Auger Collaboration, in particular the hypothesis that nearby Active Galactic Nuclei-or objects next to

  4. Cosmic rays and the search for a Lorentz Invariance Violation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bietenholz, Wolfgang

    2008-11-01

    This is an introductory review about the on-going search for a signal of Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) in cosmic rays. We first summarise basic aspects of cosmic rays, focusing on rays of ultra high energy (UHECRs). We discuss the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuz'min (GZK) energy cutoff for cosmic protons, which is predicted due to photopion production in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This is a process of modest energy in the proton rest frame. It can be investigated to a high precision in the laboratory, if Lorentz transformations apply even at factors γ ∝ O(10 11 ). For heavier nuclei the energy attenuation is even faster due to photo-disintegration, again if this process is Lorentz invariant. Hence the viability of Lorentz symmetry up to tremendous γ-factors - far beyond accelerator tests - is a central issue. Next we comment on conceptual aspects of Lorentz Invariance and the possibility of its spontaneous breaking. This could lead to slightly particle dependent ''Maximal Attainable Velocities''. We discuss their effect in decays, Cerenkov radiation, the GZK cutoff and neutrino oscillation in cosmic rays. We also review the search for LIV in cosmic γ-rays. For multi TeV γ-rays we possibly encounter another puzzle related to the transparency of the CMB, similar to the GZK cutoff, due to electron/positron creation and subsequent inverse Compton scattering. The photons emitted in a Gamma Ray Burst occur at lower energies, but their very long path provides access to information not far from the Planck scale. We discuss conceivable non-linear photon dispersions based on non-commutative geometry or effective approaches. No LIV has been observed so far. However, even extremely tiny LIV effects could change the predictions for cosmic ray physics drastically. An Appendix is devoted to the recent hypothesis by the Pierre Auger Collaboration, which identifies nearby Active Galactic Nuclei - or objects next to them - as probable UHECR sources. (orig.)

  5. Cosmic rays and the search for a Lorentz Invariance Violation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bietenholz, Wolfgang [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Zeuthen (Germany). John von Neumann-Inst. fuer Computing NIC

    2008-11-15

    This is an introductory review about the on-going search for a signal of Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) in cosmic rays. We first summarise basic aspects of cosmic rays, focusing on rays of ultra high energy (UHECRs). We discuss the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuz'min (GZK) energy cutoff for cosmic protons, which is predicted due to photopion production in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This is a process of modest energy in the proton rest frame. It can be investigated to a high precision in the laboratory, if Lorentz transformations apply even at factors {gamma} {proportional_to} O(10{sup 11}). For heavier nuclei the energy attenuation is even faster due to photo-disintegration, again if this process is Lorentz invariant. Hence the viability of Lorentz symmetry up to tremendous {gamma}-factors - far beyond accelerator tests - is a central issue. Next we comment on conceptual aspects of Lorentz Invariance and the possibility of its spontaneous breaking. This could lead to slightly particle dependent ''Maximal Attainable Velocities''. We discuss their effect in decays, Cerenkov radiation, the GZK cutoff and neutrino oscillation in cosmic rays. We also review the search for LIV in cosmic {gamma}-rays. For multi TeV {gamma}-rays we possibly encounter another puzzle related to the transparency of the CMB, similar to the GZK cutoff, due to electron/positron creation and subsequent inverse Compton scattering. The photons emitted in a Gamma Ray Burst occur at lower energies, but their very long path provides access to information not far from the Planck scale. We discuss conceivable non-linear photon dispersions based on non-commutative geometry or effective approaches. No LIV has been observed so far. However, even extremely tiny LIV effects could change the predictions for cosmic ray physics drastically. An Appendix is devoted to the recent hypothesis by the Pierre Auger Collaboration, which identifies nearby Active Galactic Nuclei - or objects

  6. The energy spectrum of cosmic-ray electrons measured with H.E.S.S

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Egberts, Kathrin

    2009-01-01

    The spectrum of cosmic-ray electrons has so far been measured using balloon and satellite-based instruments. At TeV energies, however, the sensitivity of such instruments is very limited due to the low flux of electrons at very high energies and small detection areas of balloon/satellite based experiments. The very large collection area of ground-based imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes gives them a substantial advantage over balloon/ satellite based instruments when detecting very-high-energy electrons (> 300 GeV). By analysing data taken by the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), this work extends the known electron spectrum up to 4 TeV - a range that is not accessible to direct measurements. However, in contrast to direct measurements, imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes such as H.E.S.S. detect air showers that cosmic-ray electrons initiate in the atmosphere rather than the primary particle. Thus, the main challenge is to differentiate between air showers initiated by electrons and those initiated by the hadronic background. A new analysis technique was developed that determines the background with the support of the machine-learning algorithm Random Forest. It is shown that this analysis technique can also be applied in other areas such as the analysis of diffuse γ rays from the Galactic plane. (orig.)

  7. The energy spectrum of cosmic-ray electrons measured with H.E.S.S.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Egberts, Kathrin

    2009-03-30

    The spectrum of cosmic-ray electrons has so far been measured using balloon and satellite-based instruments. At TeV energies, however, the sensitivity of such instruments is very limited due to the low flux of electrons at very high energies and small detection areas of balloon/satellite based experiments. The very large collection area of ground-based imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes gives them a substantial advantage over balloon/ satellite based instruments when detecting very-high-energy electrons (> 300 GeV). By analysing data taken by the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), this work extends the known electron spectrum up to 4 TeV - a range that is not accessible to direct measurements. However, in contrast to direct measurements, imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes such as H.E.S.S. detect air showers that cosmic-ray electrons initiate in the atmosphere rather than the primary particle. Thus, the main challenge is to differentiate between air showers initiated by electrons and those initiated by the hadronic background. A new analysis technique was developed that determines the background with the support of the machine-learning algorithm Random Forest. It is shown that this analysis technique can also be applied in other areas such as the analysis of diffuse {gamma} rays from the Galactic plane. (orig.)

  8. Cosmic ray acceleration by large scale galactic shocks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cesarsky, C.J.; Lagage, P.O.

    1987-01-01

    The mechanism of diffusive shock acceleration may account for the existence of galactic cosmic rays detailed application to stellar wind shocks and especially to supernova shocks have been developed. Existing models can usually deal with the energetics or the spectral slope, but the observed energy range of cosmic rays is not explained. Therefore it seems worthwhile to examine the effect that large scale, long-lived galactic shocks may have on galactic cosmic rays, in the frame of the diffusive shock acceleration mechanism. Large scale fast shocks can only be expected to exist in the galactic halo. We consider three situations where they may arise: expansion of a supernova shock in the halo, galactic wind, galactic infall; and discuss the possible existence of these shocks and their role in accelerating cosmic rays

  9. Transition-radiation detectors for cosmic-ray research

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mueller, D.; Chicago Univ., Ill.

    1975-01-01

    Transition-radiation detectors for cosmic-ray work are described which consist of plastic foam of multiple plastic foil radiators, followed by proportional chambers. A summary of the properties of such detectors is given, and the detection and discrimination efficiencies for energetic particles are discussed. Several possible applications of such devices for studies of cosmic-ray particles in the energy region γ=E/mc 2 >10 3 are advertised

  10. The anisotropy of cosmic ray particles in the energy range 1011-1019 eV

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xu Chunxian

    1985-01-01

    A study of the anisotropy of primary cosmic ray is presented. The expression of the anisotropy is derived in a model of statistical discrete sources in an infinite galaxy. Using these derived formulas, the amplitudes of the first harmonic anisotropies caused by eleven supernovea nearby the Earth are estimated individually and the trend of the resultant anisotropy is investigated. It is found that the expected results can account for the power law of Esup(0.5) of the anisotropy above the energy 5 x 10 15 eV. The Compton-getting effect can cause an additional anisotropy which is independent of energy and added to the resultant anisotropy of these discrete sources. It is apparent that the anisotropies available in the low energy range 10 11 - 10 14 eV are caused by the Compton-Getting effect. Taking the differential spectrum index γ = 2.67 measured in the same energy bound we get the streaming velocity of 35 km/s with respect to the cosmic ray background

  11. Cosmic ray spectrum, composition, and anisotropy measured with IceCube

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tamburro, Alessio

    2014-01-01

    Analysis of cosmic ray surface data collected with the IceTop array of Cherenkov detectors at the South Pole provides an accurate measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum and its features in the “knee” region up to energies of about 1 EeV. IceTop is part of the IceCube Observatory that includes a deep-ice cubic kilometer detector that registers signals of penetrating muons and other particles. Surface and in-ice signals detected in coincidence provide clear insights into the nuclear composition of cosmic rays. IceCube already measured an increase of the average primary mass as a function of energy. We present preliminary results on both IceTop-only and coincident events analysis. Furthermore, we review the recent measurement of the cosmic ray anisotropy with IceCube

  12. Cosmic ray spectrum, composition, and anisotropy measured with IceCube

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tamburro, Alessio

    2014-04-01

    Analysis of cosmic ray surface data collected with the IceTop array of Cherenkov detectors at the South Pole provides an accurate measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum and its features in the "knee" region up to energies of about 1 EeV. IceTop is part of the IceCube Observatory that includes a deep-ice cubic kilometer detector that registers signals of penetrating muons and other particles. Surface and in-ice signals detected in coincidence provide clear insights into the nuclear composition of cosmic rays. IceCube already measured an increase of the average primary mass as a function of energy. We present preliminary results on both IceTop-only and coincident events analysis. Furthermore, we review the recent measurement of the cosmic ray anisotropy with IceCube.

  13. The Cosmic Ray Tracking (CRT) detector system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bernloehr, K.; Gamp, S.; Hermann, G.; Hofmann, W.; Kihm, T.; Knoeppler, J.; Leffers, G.; Matheis, V.; Panter, M.; Trunk, U.; Ulrich, M.; Wolf, T.; Zink, R.; Heintze, J.

    1996-01-01

    The Cosmic Ray Tracking (CRT) project represents a study on the use of tracking detectors of the time projection chamber type to detect secondary cosmic ray particles in extensive air showers. In reconstructing the arrival direction of the primary cosmic ray particles, the CRT detectors take advantage of the angular correlation of secondary particles with the cosmic rays leading to these air showers. In this paper, the detector hardware including the custom-designed electronics system is described in detail. A CRT detector module provides an active area of 2.5 m 2 and allows to measure track directions with a precision of 0.4 circle . It consists of two circular drift chambers of 1.8 m diameter with six sense wires each, and a 10 cm thick iron plate between the two chambers. Each detector has a local electronics box with a readout, trigger, and monitoring system. The detectors can distinguish penetrating muons from other types of charged secondaries. A large detector array could be used to search for γ-ray point sources at energies above several TeV and for studies of the cosmic-ray composition. Ten detectors are in operation at the site of the HEGRA air shower array. (orig.)

  14. Cosmic rays and stochastic magnetic reconnection in the heliotail

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. Desiati

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Galactic cosmic rays are believed to be generated by diffusive shock acceleration processes in Supernova Remnants, and the arrival direction is likely determined by the distribution of their sources throughout the Galaxy, in particular by the nearest and youngest ones. Transport to Earth through the interstellar medium is expected to affect the cosmic ray properties as well. However, the observed anisotropy of TeV cosmic rays and its energy dependence cannot be explained with diffusion models of particle propagation in the Galaxy. Within a distance of a few parsec, diffusion regime is not valid and particles with energy below about 100 TeV must be influenced by the heliosphere and its elongated tail. The observation of a highly significant localized excess region of cosmic rays from the apparent direction of the downstream interstellar flow at 1–10 TeV energies might provide the first experimental evidence that the heliotail can affect the transport of energetic particles. In particular, TeV cosmic rays propagating through the heliotail interact with the 100–300 AU wide magnetic field polarity domains generated by the 11 yr cycles. Since the strength of non-linear convective processes is expected to be larger than viscous damping, the plasma in the heliotail is turbulent. Where magnetic field domains converge on each other due to solar wind gradient, stochastic magnetic reconnection likely occurs. Such processes may be efficient enough to re-accelerate a fraction of TeV particles as long as scattering processes are not strong. Therefore, the fractional excess of TeV cosmic rays from the narrow region toward the heliotail direction traces sightlines with the lowest smearing scattering effects, that can also explain the observation of a harder than average energy spectrum.

  15. Cosmic-ray acceleration at stellar wind terminal shocks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Webb, G.M.; Forman, M.A.; Axford, W.I.

    1985-01-01

    Steady-state, spherically symmetric, analytic solutions of the cosmic-ray transport equations, applicable to the problem of acceleration of cosmic rays at the terminal shock to a stellar wind, are studied. The spectra, gradients, and flow patterns of particle modulated and accelerated by the stellar wind and shock are investigated by means of monoenergetic-source solutions at finite radius, as well as solutions with monoenergetic and power-law Galactic spectra. The solutions obtained apply in the test particle limit in which the cosmic rays do not modify the background flow. The solutions show a characteristic power-law momentum spectrum for accelerated particles and a more complex spectrum of particles that are decelerated in the stellar wind. The power-law spectral index depends on the compression ratio of the shock and on the modulation parameters characterizing propagation conditions in the upstream and downstream regions of the shock. Solutions of the transport equations for the total density N (integrated over all energies), pressure P/sub c/, and energy flux F/sub c/ of Galactic cosmic rays interacting with a stellar wind and shock are also studied. The density N(r) increases with radius r, and for strong shocks with large enough modulation parameters, there may be a significant enhancement of the pressure of weakly relativistic particles near the shock compared to the cosmic-ray background pressure P/sub infinity/. The emergent energy flux at infinity is of the order of 4π R 2 V 1 P/sub infinity/ (V 1 is wind velocity upstream of the shock, R is shock radius)

  16. Systematic Studies of Cosmic-Ray Anisotropy and Energy Spectrum with IceCube and IceTop

    Science.gov (United States)

    McNally, Frank

    Anisotropy in the cosmic-ray arrival direction distribution has been well documented over a large energy range, but its origin remains largely a mystery. In the TeV to PeV energy range, the galactic magnetic field thoroughly scatters cosmic rays, but anisotropy at the part-per-mille level and smaller persists, potentially carrying information about nearby cosmic-ray accelerators and the galactic magnetic field. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory was the first detector to observe anisotropy at these energies in the Southern sky. This work uses 318 billion cosmic-ray induced muon events, collected between May 2009 and May 2015 from both the in-ice component of IceCube as well as the surface component, IceTop. The observed global anisotropy features large regions of relative excess and deficit, with amplitudes on the order of 10-3. While a decomposition of the arrival direction distribution into spherical harmonics shows that most of the power is contained in the low-multipole (ℓ ≤ 4) moments, higher-multipole components are found to be statistically significant down to an angular scale of less than 10°, approaching the angular resolution of the detector. Above 100TeV, a change in the topology of the arrival direction distribution is observed, and the anisotropy is characterized by a wide relative deficit whose amplitude increases with primary energy up to at least 5PeV, the highest energies currently accessible to IceCube with sufficient event statistics. No time dependence of the large- and small-scale structures is observed in the six-year period covered by this analysis within statistical and systematic uncertainties. Analysis of the energy spectrum and composition in the PeV energy range as a function of sky position is performed with IceTop data over a five-year period using a likelihood-based reconstruction. Both the energy spectrum and the composition distribution are found to be consistent with a single source population over declination bands. This work

  17. Experimental techniques for the detection of the high energy gamma rays of cosmic origin

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dumitrescu, Gh.; Angelescu, T.; Radu, A.A.

    2002-01-01

    The observation of high energy gamma rays of cosmic origin in the early 90 by Volcano Ranch experiment opened a new direction of study in astrophysics. The very high energy and the very low flux of these gamma rays, posed numerous detection problems which in turn were the object of a very intense research activity. The present article tries to review the detection techniques for the high energy gamma rays of cosmic origin. In the 'Introduction' we summarize the specific problems involved in the detection of this type of radiation. 'Chapter 1' presents the classic technique based on the use of scintillation detectors. 'Chapter 2' includes the imaging atmospheric Cherenkov technique (IACT) and the sampling wavefront technique. 'Chapter 3' is dedicated to the detection of the atmospheric nitrogen. 'Chapter 4' describes issues related to the calibration of the detectors, the cross checking of the experimental data, the use of the Monte Carlo simulations and the use of the density observed at a distance of 600 m S(600), in order to estimate the primary energy. The characteristics of some future developments of the above presented techniques are included in the last chapter. (authors)

  18. A Multi-Variate Fit to the Chemical Composition of the Cosmic-Ray Spectrum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eisch, Jonathan

    Since the discovery of cosmic rays over a century ago, evidence of their origins has remained elusive. Deflected by galactic magnetic fields, the only direct evidence of their origin and propagation remain encoded in their energy distribution and chemical composition. Current models of galactic cosmic rays predict variations of the energy distribution of individual elements in an energy region around 3x1015 eV known as the knee. This work presents a method to measure the energy distribution of individual elemental groups in the knee region and its application to a year of data from the IceCube detector. The method uses cosmic rays detected by both IceTop, the surface-array component, and the deep-ice component of IceCube during the 2009-2010 operation of the IC-59 detector. IceTop is used to measure the energy and the relative likelihood of the mass composition using the signal from the cosmic-ray induced extensive air shower reaching the surface. IceCube, 1.5 km below the surface, measures the energy of the high-energy bundle of muons created in the very first interactions after the cosmic ray enters the atmosphere. These event distributions are fit by a constrained model derived from detailed simulations of cosmic rays representing five chemical elements. The results of this analysis are evaluated in terms of the theoretical uncertainties in cosmic-ray interactions and seasonal variations in the atmosphere. The improvements in high-energy cosmic ray hadronic-interaction models informed by this analysis, combined with increased data from subsequent operation of the IceCube detector, could provide crucial limits on the origin of cosmic rays and their propagation through the galaxy. In the course of developing this method, a number of analysis and statistical techniques were developed to deal with the difficulties inherent in this type of measurement. These include a composition-sensitive air shower reconstruction technique, a method to model simulated event

  19. The Fermi Large Area Telescope as a cosmic-ray detector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sgrò, Carmelo

    2013-01-01

    The Fermi Large Area Telescope is an international observatory conceived to study high energy gamma-rays from the universe. It is designed to identify and reconstruct electromagnetic showers and it can collect cosmic-ray electrons and positrons thanks to its triggering and filtering capabilities. The Fermi LAT collaboration has published several results on charged cosmic rays. We measured the inclusive spectrum of electrons and positrons from 7 GeV to 1 TeV and searched for anisotropies in the electron incoming direction. We have recently published a measurement of cosmic-ray positron-only and electron-only spectra for energies between 20 GeV and 200 GeV exploiting the Earth's magnetic field as a charge separator. In this work we describe the techniques and capabilities of the LAT as a cosmic-ray detector and review the recent results and their interpretations. Prospects for future studies and observations will also be discussed

  20. Long-lived staus from cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ahlers, M.; Illana, J.I.; Masip, M.

    2007-05-01

    The collision of a high energy cosmic ray with a nucleon in the upper atmosphere could produce long-lived heavy particles. Such particles would be very penetrating, since the energy loss in matter scales as the inverse mass, and could reach a neutrino telescope like IceCube from large zenith angles. Here we study this possibility and focus on the long-lived stau of SUSY models with a gravitino LSP. The signal would be a pair of muon-like parallel tracks separated by 50 meters along the detector. We evaluate the background of muon pairs and show that any events from zenith angles above 80. could be explained by the production of these heavy particles by cosmic rays. (orig.)

  1. Long-lived staus from cosmic rays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ahlers, M. [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany); Illana, J.I.; Masip, M. [Granada Univ. (Spain). CAFPE y Dept. de Fisica Teorica y del Cosmos; Meloni, D. [Univ. degli Studi di Roma La Spienza (Italy). Dipt. di Fisica; INFN, Roma (Italy)

    2007-05-15

    The collision of a high energy cosmic ray with a nucleon in the upper atmosphere could produce long-lived heavy particles. Such particles would be very penetrating, since the energy loss in matter scales as the inverse mass, and could reach a neutrino telescope like IceCube from large zenith angles. Here we study this possibility and focus on the long-lived stau of SUSY models with a gravitino LSP. The signal would be a pair of muon-like parallel tracks separated by 50 meters along the detector. We evaluate the background of muon pairs and show that any events from zenith angles above 80. could be explained by the production of these heavy particles by cosmic rays. (orig.)

  2. Measurement of the cosmic ray muon charge ratio with the OPERA detector

    CERN Document Server

    Mauri, N

    2010-01-01

    The OPERA detector at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory (LNGS) was used to measure the cosmic ray muon charge ratio Rμ = Nμ+/Nμ− in the TeV energy region. We analyzed 403069 cosmic ray muons corresponding to 113.4 days of livetime during the 2008 CNGS run. We computed separately the muon charge ratio for single and for multiple muon events in order to select different energy regions of the primary cosmic ray spectrum and to test the Rμ dependence on the primary composition. Rμ is also shown as a function of the Òvertical surface energyÓ Eμ cos !. A Þt to a simpliÞed model of muon pro- duction in atmosphere allowed the determination of the pion and kaon charge ratios weighted by the cosmic ray energy spectrum.

  3. Galactic Cosmic-Ray Energy Spectra and Composition during the 2009-2010 Solar Minimum Period

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lave, K. A.; Wiedenbeck, Mark E.; Binns, W. R.; Christian, E. R.; Cummings, A. C.; Davis, A. J.; deNolfo, G. A.; Israel, M. H..; Leske, R. A.; Mewaldt, R. A.; hide

    2013-01-01

    We report new measurements of the elemental energy spectra and composition of galactic cosmic rays during the 2009-2010 solar minimum period using observations from the Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS) onboard the Advanced Composition Explorer. This period of time exhibited record-setting cosmic-ray intensities and very low levels of solar activity. Results are given for particles with nuclear charge 5 solar minimum and 2001-2003 solar maximum are also given here. For most species, the reported intensities changed by less than approx. 7%, and the relative abundances changed by less than approx. 4%. Compared with the 1997-1998 solar minimum relative abundances, the 2009-2010 abundances differ by less than 2sigma, with a trend of fewer secondary species observed in the more recent time period. The new 2009-2010 data are also compared with results of a simple "leaky-box" galactic transport model combined with a spherically symmetric solar modulation model. We demonstrate that this model is able to give reasonable fits to the energy spectra and the secondary-to-primary ratios B/C and (Sc+Ti+V)/Fe. These results are also shown to be comparable to a GALPROP numerical model that includes the effects of diffusive reacceleration in the interstellar medium.

  4. Non-universal spectra of ultra-high energy cosmic ray primaries and secondaries in a structured universe

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sigl, Guenter

    2007-01-01

    Analytical calculations of extra-galactic cosmic ray spectra above ∼ 10 17 eV are often performed assuming continuous source distributions, giving rise to spectra that depend little on the propagation mode, be it rectilinear or diffusive. We perform trajectory simulations for proton primaries in the probably more realistic case of discrete sources with a density of ∼ 10 -5 Mpc -3 . We find two considerable non-universal effects that depend on source distributions and magnetic fields: First, the primary extra-galactic cosmic ray flux can become strongly suppressed below a few 10 18 eV due to partial confinement in magnetic fields surrounding sources. Second, the secondary photon to primary cosmic ray flux ratio between ≅ 3 x 10 18 eV and ≅ 10 20 eV decreases with decreasing source density and increasing magnetization. As a consequence, in acceleration scenarios for the origin of highest energy cosmic rays the fraction of secondary photons may be difficult to detect even for experiments such as Pierre Auger. The cosmogenic neutrino flux does not significantly depend on source density and magnetization. (author)

  5. Influence of hadronic interaction models and the cosmic ray spectrum on the high-energy atmospheric muon and neutrino flux

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Desiati Paolo

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available The recent observations of muon charge ratio up to about 10 TeV and of atmospheric neutrinos up to energies of about 400 TeV has triggered a renewed interest into the high-energy interaction models and cosmic ray primary composition. A reviewed calculation of lepton spectra produced in cosmic ray induced extensive air showers is carried out with a primary cosmic ray spectrum that fits the latest direct measurements below the knee. In order to achieve this, we used a full Monte Carlo method to derive the inclusive differential spectra (yields of muons, muon neutrinos and electron neutrinos at the surface for energies between 80 GeV and hundreds of PeV. Using these results the differential flux and the flavor ratios of leptons were calculated. The air shower simulator CORSIKA 6.990 was used for showering and propagation of the secondary particles through the atmosphere, employing the established high energy hadronic interaction models SIBYLL 2.1, QGSJet-01 and QGSJet-II-03. We show that the performance of the interaction models allows makes it possible to predict the spectra within experimental uncertainties, while SIBYLL generally yields a higher flux at the surface than the QGSJet models. The calculation of the flavor and charge ratios has lead to inconsistent results, mainly influenced by the different representations of the K/π ratio within the models. The influence of the knee of cosmic rays is reflected in the secondary spectra at energies between 100 and 200 TeV. Furthermore, we could quantify systematic uncertainties of atmospheric muon- and neutrino fluxes, associated to the models of the primary cosmic ray spectrum and the interaction models. For most recent parametrizations of the cosmic ray primary spectrum, atmospheric muons can be determined with an uncertainty smaller than +15/-13% of the average flux. Uncertainties of the muon and electron neutrino fluxes can be calculated within an average error of +32/-22% and +25

  6. Air shower array designed for cosmic ray variation measurements and high energy gamma ray astronomy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Morello, C; Navarra, G [Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Turin (Italy). Lab. di Cosmo-Geofisica

    1981-08-15

    We describe an array for performing measurements of counting rates and arrival directions of extensive air showers at primary energy E/sub 0/ approx. equal to 3 x 10/sup 9/ eV. The aim of the research is to study the time variations and the anisotropies of cosmic rays and the observable gamma ray sources in the high energy region. The installation, composed of four large area scintillation counters and completely controlled by a microcomputer system, operates at mountain altitude (3500 m a.s.l.). The preanalysis of data, stability tests and periodic calibrations are performed by on-line programs. The method for obtaining the required stability and the corrections on temperature and gain variations are also described.

  7. Bubbles, superbubbles and their impact on cosmic ray transport

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Weinreuter, Matthias; Gebauer, Iris; Boer, Wim de; Neumann, Alexander [KIT, Karlsruhe (Germany)

    2016-07-01

    The Fermi-LAT data on diffuse gamma rays show variations in the gamma ray intensity, which are linked to either variations in the gas density or variations in the cosmic ray density. Such small scale variations are not modeled in current state-of-the-art models for galactic cosmic ray propagation. Inhomogeneities in the interstellar material can be formed by cavities like the so-called Local Bubble, an underdense region surrounding our Sun, which was created by several supernova explosions in the past. We show that the Local Bubble can have a strong impact on the cosmic ray energy spectra and density. In particular, it enhances cosmic ray scattering in the surrounding molecular cloud complexes and can significantly distort the cosmic ray arrival directions. We briefly discuss the consequences for pulsar searches in energetic positrons and electrons. By making simple assumptions on the level of inhomogeneity in the interstellar medium we investigate if the observed variations in the diffuse gamma ray emission can indeed be explained by cavities similar to the Local Bubble.

  8. 11. European cosmic ray symposium held at Balatonfuered, Hungary, August 21-27, 1988

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1988-08-01

    The biannual Symposium includes all aspects of cosmic ray research. The scientific programme was organized under three main headings: Cosmic rays in the heliosphere, Cosmic rays in the interstellar and extragalactic space, Properties of high-energy interactions as studied by cosmic rays. Selected short communications out of 114 contributed papers were indexed separately for the INIS database. (R.P.)

  9. Detection of ultra-high energy cosmic ray showers with a single-pixel fluorescence telescope

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Fujii, T.; Malacari, M.; Bertaina, M.; Casolino, E.; Dawson, B.; Horváth, P.; Hrabovský, M.; Jiang, J.; Mandát, Dušan; Matalon, A.; Matthews, J.N.; Motloch, P.; Palatka, Miroslav; Pech, Miroslav; Privitera, P.; Schovánek, Petr; Takizawa, Y.; Thomas, S.B.; Trávníček, Petr; Yamazaki, K.

    2016-01-01

    Roč. 74, Feb (2016), s. 64-72 ISSN 0927-6505 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) LG13007 Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : ultra-high energy cosmic rays * fluorescence detector * extensive air shower Subject RIV: BF - Elementary Particles and High Energy Physics Impact factor: 3.257, year: 2016

  10. THE HIGHEST-ENERGY COSMIC RAYS CANNOT BE DOMINANTLY PROTONS FROM STEADY SOURCES

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fang, Ke [Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-2421 (United States); Kotera, Kumiko [Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 6 et CNRS, UMR 7095, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, 98 bis bd Arago, F-75014 Paris (France)

    2016-11-20

    The bulk of observed ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays could be light or heavier elements and originate from an either steady or transient population of sources. This leaves us with four general categories of sources. Energetic requirements set a lower limit on single-source luminosities, while the distribution of particle arrival directions in the sky sets a lower limit on the source number density. The latter constraint depends on the angular smearing in the skymap due to the magnetic deflections of the charged particles during their propagation from the source to the Earth. We contrast these limits with the luminosity functions from surveys of existing luminous steady objects in the nearby universe and strongly constrain one of the four categories of source models, namely, steady proton sources. The possibility that cosmic rays with energy >8 × 10{sup 19} eV are dominantly pure protons coming from steady sources is excluded at 95% confidence level, under the safe assumption that protons experience less than 30° magnetic deflection on flight.

  11. Photon losses in cosmic ray acceleration in active galactic nuclei

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Colgate, S.A.

    1984-01-01

    The usual assumption of the acceleration of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays, greater than or equal to 10 18 eV in quasars, Seyfert galaxies, and other active galactic nuclei is challenged on the basis of the photon interactions with the accelerated nucleons. This is similar to the effect of the black body radiation on particles > 10 20 eV for times of the age of the universe except that the photon spectrum is harder and the energy density greater by approx. = 10 13 . Hence, a single traversal, radial or circumferential, of radiation whose energy density is no greater than the emitted flux will damp an ultrahigh energy cosmic ray 10 20 eV by greater than 10 4 times its energy. Hence, it is unlikely that any reasonable configuration of acceleration can avoid disastrous photon energy loss. A different site for ultrahigh energy cosmic ray acceleration must be found

  12. Cosmic-ray-veto detector system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miller, D.W.; Menlove, H.O.

    1992-12-01

    To reduce the cosmic-ray-induced neutron background, we are testing a cosmic-ray veto option with a neutron detector system that uses plastic scintillator slabs mounted on the outside of a 3 He-tube detector. The scintillator slabs eliminate unwanted cosmic-ray events, enabling the detector to assay low-level plutonium samples, for which a low-background coincident signature is critical. This report describes the design and testing of the prototype cosmic-ray-veto detector system

  13. High Energy Galactic Cosmic Rays Observed by RUNJOB Experiment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hareyama, Makoto [Advanced Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Waseda University, 3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-8555 (Japan)

    2006-03-21

    Galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) from proton to iron with the energy of 10{sup 13} - 10{sup 15} eV were observed by RUssia-Nippon JOint Balloon (RUNJOB) experiments. Each energy spectrum of the primary nuclear components except for helium is in agreement with the results obtained by other observations in the same energy region as the RUNJOB observation within statistical errors, while the intensity of the helium component is nearly half that obtained by the JACEE and the SOKOL observations. The spectrum slopes seem to be almost parallel or become gradually harder as mass becomes heavier. The power indices of the spectra are nearly -2.75 in the energy range of 20-500 TeV/nucleous. These our results support the acceleration mechanism and the propagation process in Galaxy of GCRs depend on its rigidity.

  14. Astrophysical Sources of Cosmic Rays and Related Measurements with the Pierre Auger Observatory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Abraham, : J.; Abreu, P.; Aglietta, M.; Aguirre, C.; Ahn, E.J.; Allard, D.; Allekotte, I.; Allen, J.; Alvarez-Muniz, J.; Ambrosio, M.; Anchordoqui, L.

    2009-06-01

    These are presentations to be presented at the 31st International Cosmic Ray Conference, in Lodz, Poland during July 2009. It consists of the following presentations: (1) Correlation of the highest energy cosmic rays with nearby extragalactic objects in Pierre Auger Observatory data; (2) Discriminating potential astrophysical sources of the highest energy cosmic rays with the Pierre Auger Observatory; (3) Intrinsic anisotropy of the UHECR from the Pierre Auger Observatory; (4) Ultra-high energy photon studies with the Pierre Auger Observatory; (5) Limits on the flux of diffuse ultra high energy neutrinos set using the Pierre Auger Observatory; (6) Search for sidereal modulation of the arrival directions of events recorded at the Pierre Auger Observatory; (7) Cosmic Ray Solar Modulation Studies in the Pierre Auger Observatory; (8) Investigation of the Displacement Angle of the Highest Energy Cosmic Rays Caused by the Galactic Magnetic Field; (9) Search for coincidences with astrophysical transients in Pierre Auger Observatory data; and (10) An alternative method for determining the energy of hybrid events at the Pierre Auger Observatory.

  15. PRECISE COSMIC RAYS MEASUREMENTS WITH PAMELA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Bruno

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The PAMELA experiment was launched on board the Resurs-DK1 satellite on June 15th 2006. The apparatus was designed to conduct precision studies of charged cosmic radiation over a wide energy range, from tens of MeV up to several hundred GeV, with unprecedented statistics. In five years of continuous data taking in space, PAMELA accurately measured the energy spectra of cosmic ray antiprotons and positrons, as well as protons, electrons and light nuclei, sometimes providing data in unexplored energetic regions. These important results have shed new light in several astrophysical fields like: an indirect search for Dark Matter, a search for cosmological antimatter (anti-Helium, and the validation of acceleration, transport and secondary production models of cosmic rays in the Galaxy. Some of the most important items of Solar and Magnetospheric physics were also investigated. Here we present the most recent results obtained by the PAMELA experiment.

  16. From high energy gamma sources to cosmic rays, one century after their discovery. Summary of the SciNeGHE2012 workshop

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Longo, Francesco

    2013-01-01

    The interplay between studies and measurements concerning high energy gamma ray sources and cosmic rays was the main focus of the 2012 edition of the Science with the New Generation of High Energy Gamma-ray Experiments (SciNeGHE) workshop. The workshop started with a special session devoted to the history of the cosmic radiation research in the centenary of its discovery, with a special attention also to the history of very high energy gamma-ray astronomy. The main results and the current status from space-borne and ground-based gamma and cosmic ray experiments were presented, together with the state of the art theoretical scenarios. The future of the field was studied through the presentation of many new experiment concepts, as well as through the analysis of new observational techniques and R and D programs

  17. Flipped cryptons and ultrahigh energy cosmic rays

    CERN Document Server

    Ellis, Jonathan Richard; Nanopoulos, D V

    2004-01-01

    Cryptons are metastable bound states of fractionally-charged particles that arise generically in the hidden sectors of models derived from heterotic string. We study their properties and decay modes in a specific flipped SU(5) model with long-lived four-particle spin-zero bound states called tetrons. We show that the neutral tetrons are metastable, and exhibit the tenth order nonrenormalizable superpotential operators responsible for their dominant decays. By analogy with QCD, we expect charged tetrons to be somewhat heavier, and to decay relatively rapidly via lower-order interactions that we also exhibit. The expected masses and lifetimes of the neutral tetrons make them good candidates for cold dark matter, and a potential source of the ultrahigh energy cosmic rays which have been observed, whereas the charged tetrons would have decayed in the early Universe.

  18. Ultrahigh-energy particles from cosmic strings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bhattacharjee, P.

    1991-02-01

    The idea of production of ultrahigh-energy particles in the present universe due to annihilation or collapse of topological defects is discussed. Topological defects, formed in symmetry-breaking phase transitions in the early universe, can survive till today owing to their topological stability. However, under certain circumstances, topological defects may be physically destroyed. When topological defects are destroyed, the energy contained in the defects can be released in the form of massive gauge- and Higgs bosons of the underlying spontaneously broken gauge theory. Subsequent decay of these massive particles can give rise to energetic particles ranging up to an energy on the order of the mass of the original particles released from the defects. This may give us a ''natural'' mechanism of production of extremely energetic cosmic ray particles in the universe today, without the need for any acceleration mechanism. To illustrate this idea, I describe in detail the calculation of the expected ultrahigh-energy proton spectrum due to a specific process which involves collapse or multiple self-intersections of a class of closed cosmic string loops formed in a phase transition at a grand unification energy scale. I discuss the possibility that some of the highest-energy cosmic ray particles are of this origin. By comparing with the observational results on the ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays, we derive an upper limit to the average fraction of the total energy in all ''primary'' cosmic string loops that may be released in the form of particles due to collapse or multiple self-intersections of these loops. No nuclei such as α's or Fe's are in the spectrum. 43 refs., 3 figs

  19. Active Galactic Nuclei: Sources for ultra high energy cosmic rays?

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Biermann, Peter L. [MPI for Radioastronomy, Bonn (Germany); Dept. of Phys. and Astron., Univ. of Bonn (Germany); Dept. of Phys. and Astr., Univ. of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL (United States); Dept. of Phys., Univ. of Alabama at Huntsville, AL (United States); Inst. Nucl. Phys. FZ, Karlsruhe Inst. of Techn. (KIT) (Germany); Becker, Julia K. [Institution foer Fysik, Goeteborgs Univ. (Sweden); Dept. of Phys., Univ. Dortmund, Dortmund (Germany); Caramete, Laurentiu [MPI for Radioastronomy, Bonn (Germany); Institute for Space Studies, Bucharest (Romania); Curutiu, Alex [MPI for Radioastronomy, Bonn (Germany); Engel, Ralph [Inst. Nucl. Phys. FZ, Karlsruhe Inst. of Techn. (KIT) (Germany); Falcke, Heino [Dept. of Astrophys., IMAP, Radboud Univ., Nijmegen (Netherlands); ASTRON, Dwingeloo (Netherlands); Gergely, Laszlo A. [Dept. Appl. Sci., London South Bank University (United Kingdom); Dept. of Theoret. and Exp. Phys., Univ. of Szeged, Szeged (Hungary); Isar, P. Gina [Inst. Nucl. Phys. FZ, Karlsruhe Inst. of Techn. (KIT) (Germany); Institute for Space Studies, Bucharest (Romania); Maris, Ioana C. [Inst. Nucl. Phys. FZ, Karlsruhe Inst. of Techn. (KIT) (Germany); Meli, Athina [Physik. Inst. Univ. Erlangen-Nuernberg (Germany); Kampert, Karl-Heinz [Phys. Dept., Univ. Wuppertal (Germany); Stanev, Todor [Bartol Research Inst., Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States); Tascau, Oana [Phys. Dept., Univ. Wuppertal (Germany); Zier, Christian [MPI for Radioastronomy, Bonn (Germany); Raman Res. Inst., Bangalore (India)

    2009-05-15

    The origin of ultra high energy cosmic rays promises to lead us to a deeper understanding of the structure of matter. This is possible through the study of particle collisions at center-of-mass energies in interactions far larger than anything possible with the Large Hadron Collider, albeit at the substantial cost of no control over the sources and interaction sites. For the extreme energies we have to identify and understand the sources first, before trying to use them as physics laboratories. Here we describe the current stage of this exploration. The most promising contenders as sources are radio galaxies and gamma ray bursts. The sky distribution of observed events yields a hint favoring radio galaxies. Key in this quest are the intergalactic and galactic magnetic fields, whose strength and structure are not yet fully understood. Current data and statistics do not yet allow a final judgement. We outline how we may progress in the near future.

  20. Active Galactic Nuclei: Sources for ultra high energy cosmic rays?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Biermann, Peter L.; Becker, Julia K.; Caramete, Laurentiu; Curutiu, Alex; Engel, Ralph; Falcke, Heino; Gergely, Laszlo A.; Isar, P. Gina; Maris, Ioana C.; Meli, Athina; Kampert, Karl-Heinz; Stanev, Todor; Tascau, Oana; Zier, Christian

    2009-01-01

    The origin of ultra high energy cosmic rays promises to lead us to a deeper understanding of the structure of matter. This is possible through the study of particle collisions at center-of-mass energies in interactions far larger than anything possible with the Large Hadron Collider, albeit at the substantial cost of no control over the sources and interaction sites. For the extreme energies we have to identify and understand the sources first, before trying to use them as physics laboratories. Here we describe the current stage of this exploration. The most promising contenders as sources are radio galaxies and gamma ray bursts. The sky distribution of observed events yields a hint favoring radio galaxies. Key in this quest are the intergalactic and galactic magnetic fields, whose strength and structure are not yet fully understood. Current data and statistics do not yet allow a final judgement. We outline how we may progress in the near future.

  1. ACORDE a cosmic ray detector for ALICE

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fernandez, A.; Gamez, E.; Herrera, G.; Lopez, R.; Leon-Monzon, I.; Martinez, M.I.; Pagliarone, C.; Paic, G.; Roman, S.; Tejeda, G.; Vargas, M.A.; Vergara, S.; Villasenor, L.; Zepeda, A.

    2007-01-01

    ACORDE is one of the ALICE detectors, presently under construction at CERN. It consists of an array of plastic scintillator counters placed on the three upper faces of the ALICE magnet. It will act as a cosmic ray trigger, and, together with other ALICE sub-detectors, will provide precise information on cosmic rays with primary energies around 10 15 -10 17 eV. Here we describe the design of ACORDE along with the present status and integration into ALICE

  2. Energy spectra and charge composition of galactic cosmic rays measured in ATIC-2 experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zatsepin, V.I.; Bat'kov, K.E.; Bashindzhagyan, G.L.

    2004-01-01

    The ATIC (Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter) balloon experiment is intended for measuring the energy spectra of the galactic cosmic rays with the individual resolution by the charge from protons to iron within the energy range from 50 GeV up to 100 TeV. The silicon detector matrix, making it possible to solve on the inverse current by means of the detector charge high segmentation, was applied for the first time in the high-energy cosmic rays for the charge measurement. The ATIC completed two successful flights in the Antarctica since 28.12.2000 up to 13.01.2001 (the ATIC-1 test flight) and since 29.12.2002 up to 18.01.2003 (the ATIC-2 scientific flight). The current state of the analysis of the spectra, measured in the ATIC-2 scientific flight, are presented in this work and the obtained results are compared with the model forecasts results [ru

  3. Background to Dark Matter Searches from Galactic Cosmic Rays

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2015-01-01

    Just as searches for BSM physics at the LHC necessitate a careful audit of SM backgrounds, the search for signals of dark matter in cosmic rays must contend with production of secondaries like e+ and pbar through cosmic ray propagation in the Galaxy. The theoretical framework for calculating this has however not been directly calibrated at the high energies being explored by AMS-02 and there may be surprises in store. In particular a nearby source where cosmic rays are being accelerated stochastically can naturally generate a e+ fraction rising with energy as is observed. The test of this is the expected correlated rise in other secondary/primary ratios e.g. B/C and pbar/p. Such a nearby cosmic accelerator should also be detectable through the concomitant flux of neutrinos and its discovery would be (nearly!) as exciting as that of dark matter.

  4. Gravi-Burst: Super-GZK Cosmic Rays from Localized Gravity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Davoudiasl, Hooman

    2000-01-01

    The flux of cosmic rays beyond the GZK cutoff (∼ 10 20 eV) may be explained through their production by ultra high energy cosmic neutrinos, annihilating on the relic neutrino background, in the vicinity of our galaxy. This process is mediated through the production of a Z boson at resonance, and is generally known as the Z-Burst mechanism. We show that a similar mechanism can also contribute to the super-GZK spectrum at even higher, ultra-GZK energies, where the particles produced at resonance are the Kaluza-Klein gravitons of weak scale mass and coupling from the Randall-Sundrum (RS) hierarchy model of localized gravity model. We call this mechanism Gravi-Burst. We discuss the parameter space of relevance to Gravi-Bursts, and comment on the possibility of its contribution to the present and future super-GZK cosmic ray data and place bounds on the RS model parameters. Under certain assumptions about the energy spectrum of the primary neutrinos we find that cosmic ray data could be potentially as powerful as the LHC in probing the RS model

  5. A self-consistent model for the Galactic cosmic ray, antiproton and positron spectra

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2015-01-01

    In this talk I will present the escape model of Galactic cosmic rays. This model explains the measured cosmic ray spectra of individual groups of nuclei from TeV to EeV energies. It predicts an early transition to extragalactic cosmic rays, in agreement with recent Auger data. The escape model also explains the soft neutrino spectrum 1/E^2.5 found by IceCube in concordance with Fermi gamma-ray data. I will show that within the same model one can explain the excess of positrons and antiprotons above 20 GeV found by PAMELA and AMS-02, the discrepancy in the slopes of the spectra of cosmic ray protons and heavier nuclei in the TeV-PeV energy range and the plateau in cosmic ray dipole anisotropy in the 2-50 TeV energy range by adding the effects of a 2 million year old nearby supernova.

  6. Towards a Unified Source-Propagation Model of Cosmic Rays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, M.; Molla, M.

    2010-07-01

    It is well known that the cosmic ray energy spectrum is multifractal with the analysis of cosmic ray fluxes as a function of energy revealing a first “knee” slightly below 1016 eV, a second knee slightly below 1018 eV and an “ankle” close to 1019 eV. The behaviour of the highest energy cosmic rays around and above the ankle is still a mystery and precludes the development of a unified source-propagation model of cosmic rays from their source origin to Earth. A variety of acceleration and propagation mechanisms have been proposed to explain different parts of the spectrum the most famous of course being Fermi acceleration in magnetised turbulent plasmas (Fermi 1949). Many others have been proposd for energies at and below the first knee (Peters & Cimento (1961); Lagage & Cesarsky (1983); Drury et al. (1984); Wdowczyk & Wolfendale (1984); Ptuskin et al. (1993); Dova et al. (0000); Horandel et al. (2002); Axford (1991)) as well as at higher energies between the first knee and the ankle (Nagano & Watson (2000); Bhattacharjee & Sigl (2000); Malkov & Drury (2001)). The recent fit of most of the cosmic ray spectrum up to the ankle using non-extensive statistical mechanics (NESM) (Tsallis et al. (2003)) provides what may be the strongest evidence for a source-propagation system deviating significantly from Boltmann statistics. As Tsallis has shown (Tsallis et al. (2003)), the knees appear as crossovers between two fractal-like thermal regimes. In this work, we have developed a generalisation of the second order NESM model (Tsallis et al. (2003)) to higher orders and we have fit the complete spectrum including the ankle with third order NESM. We find that, towards the GDZ limit, a new mechanism comes into play. Surprisingly it also presents as a modulation akin to that in our own local neighbourhood of cosmic rays emitted by the sun. We propose that this is due to modulation at the source and is possibly due to processes in the shell of the originating supernova. We

  7. The role of cosmic rays in the atmospheric processes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stozhkov, Y I [Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991, Leninsky Prospect, 53, Moscow (Russian Federation)

    2003-05-01

    The energy flux of galactic cosmic rays falling on the earth's atmosphere is small in comparison with solar electromagnetic irradiation (by 10{sup 8} times). But at altitudes of h {approx} 3 to 35 km in the atmosphere, cosmic rays are the only ionization source (from the ground level up to h {approx} 3 km, natural radioactivity is an additional source of ionization). Solar activity modulates cosmic ray flux. The cosmic rays produce atmospheric ions that define the electrical properties of the atmosphere. The electric charges play a very important role in the processes of cloud and thundercloud formation in the operation of the global electric circuit. The changes in electric properties of the atmosphere influence weather and climate. Thus, we have the following chain of the solar terrestrial relationship: solar activity - cosmic ray modulation - changes in the global electric properties of the atmosphere - changes in weather and climate. The following questions are discussed in this paper: light ion production in the atmosphere, role of electric charges in the formation of clouds and thunderclouds, experimental evidences of the relationships between cosmic ray flux and atmospheric current and lightning.

  8. The role of cosmic rays in the atmospheric processes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stozhkov, Y I

    2003-01-01

    The energy flux of galactic cosmic rays falling on the earth's atmosphere is small in comparison with solar electromagnetic irradiation (by 10 8 times). But at altitudes of h ∼ 3 to 35 km in the atmosphere, cosmic rays are the only ionization source (from the ground level up to h ∼ 3 km, natural radioactivity is an additional source of ionization). Solar activity modulates cosmic ray flux. The cosmic rays produce atmospheric ions that define the electrical properties of the atmosphere. The electric charges play a very important role in the processes of cloud and thundercloud formation in the operation of the global electric circuit. The changes in electric properties of the atmosphere influence weather and climate. Thus, we have the following chain of the solar terrestrial relationship: solar activity - cosmic ray modulation - changes in the global electric properties of the atmosphere - changes in weather and climate. The following questions are discussed in this paper: light ion production in the atmosphere, role of electric charges in the formation of clouds and thunderclouds, experimental evidences of the relationships between cosmic ray flux and atmospheric current and lightning

  9. Elemental composition of cosmic ray

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yanagida, Shohei

    1987-01-01

    The report first summarizes some data that have been obtained so far from observation of isotopes and elements in cosmic rays in the low energy region. Then, objectives of studies planned to be carried out with Astromag are outlined and the number of incident particles expected to be measured by baloon observation is estimated. Heavy elements with atomic numbers of greater than 30 are considered to be formed through neutron absorption reactions by the s- or r-process. Observations show that products of the r-process is abundant in cosmic ray sources. The escape length depends on energy. In relation to this, it has been reported that the ratios Ar-Fe and Ca-Fe increase above 200 GeV-n while such a tendency is not observed for K, Sc, Ti or V. Thus, no satisfactory models are available at present which can fully explain the changes in the escape length. The ratio 3 He- 4 He in the range of 5 - 10 GeV-n is inconsistent with the general theory that interprets the escape length of heavy elements. Some models, including the supermetallicity model and Wolf Rayet theory, have been proposed to explain unusual ratios of isotopes in cosmic rays, but more measurements are required to verify them. It is expected that Astromag can serve to make observations that can clarify these points. (Nogami, K.)

  10. Highest energy cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nikolskij, S.

    1984-01-01

    Primary particles of cosmic radiation with highest energies cannot in view of their low intensity be recorded directly but for this purpose the phenomenon is used that these particles interact with nuclei in the atmosphere and give rise to what are known as extensive air showers. It was found that 40% of primary particles with an energy of 10 15 to 10 16 eV consist of protons, 12 to 15% of helium nuclei, 15% of iron nuclei, the rest of nuclei of other elements. Radiation intensity with an energy of 10 18 to 10 19 eV depends on the direction of incoming particles. Maximum intensity is in the direction of the centre of the nearest clustre of galaxies, minimal in the direction of the central area of our galaxy. (Ha)

  11. Cosmic Ray induced Neutron and Gamma-Ray bursts in a Lead Pile

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chapline, G; Hagmann, C; Kerr, P; Snyderman, N J; Wurtz, R

    2007-01-01

    The neutron background is created primarily by cosmic rays interactions. Of particular interest for SNM detection is an understanding of burst events that resemble fission chains. We have been studying the interaction of cosmic rays with a lead pile that is efficient at creating neutron bursts from cosmic ray interactions. The neutron burst size depends on the configuration of the lead. We have found that the largest bursts appear to have been created by primaries of energy over 100 GeV that have had a diffractive interaction with the atmosphere. The large events trigger muon coincidence paddles with very high efficiency, and the resulting interactions with the lead pile can create over 10, 000 neutrons in a burst

  12. Measurement of the energy spectrum of cosmic rays with the 26 station configuration of the IceTop detector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kislat, Fabian

    2011-01-01

    IceTop is an instrument at the geographic South Pole designed to detect cosmic ray air showers, particle cascades in the atmosphere initiated by high-energy cosmic rays. It is the surface component of the IceCube neutrino telescope. Since its completion in December 2010, IceTop consists of 81 detector stations covering an area of one square kilometer on the ice surface above IceCube. Each IceTop station consists of two ice-filled tanks in which the Cherenkov light emitted by charged air shower particles is measured. In this dissertation, an analysis of data taken in 2007 with 26 IceTop stations operational at that time is presented. First, properties of air showers like core position, direction and shower size were reconstructed from the measured signals. The core position can be determined to an accuracy of up to 6m and a direction resolution of up to 0.3 is achieved. The shower size is a measure of the energy of the primary particle and a resolution of up to 10% is achieved at high energies. In the next step the relation between primary energy and shower size, as well as resolution and efficiency are determined from Monte Carlo simulations of air showers and the IceTop detector. Here, an assumption was made about the chemical composition of cosmic rays. The informations obtained in these simulations are then used to unfold the spectrum of measured shower sizes in order to obtain the all-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum. This is done independently for particles from three different zenith angle intervals. The result of the unfolding depends on the assumed primary composition. Due to the isotropy of cosmic rays, results obtained in different zenith angle intervals must agree. While with the chosen analysis technique a simultaneous determination of primary particle mass and energy is limited due to systematic uncertainties, it has already been shown that the requirement of isotropy can be used to constrain the range of possible assumptions on the chemical

  13. Measurement of the energy spectrum of cosmic rays with the 26 station configuration of the IceTop detector

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kislat, Fabian

    2011-09-27

    IceTop is an instrument at the geographic South Pole designed to detect cosmic ray air showers, particle cascades in the atmosphere initiated by high-energy cosmic rays. It is the surface component of the IceCube neutrino telescope. Since its completion in December 2010, IceTop consists of 81 detector stations covering an area of one square kilometer on the ice surface above IceCube. Each IceTop station consists of two ice-filled tanks in which the Cherenkov light emitted by charged air shower particles is measured. In this dissertation, an analysis of data taken in 2007 with 26 IceTop stations operational at that time is presented. First, properties of air showers like core position, direction and shower size were reconstructed from the measured signals. The core position can be determined to an accuracy of up to 6m and a direction resolution of up to 0.3 is achieved. The shower size is a measure of the energy of the primary particle and a resolution of up to 10% is achieved at high energies. In the next step the relation between primary energy and shower size, as well as resolution and efficiency are determined from Monte Carlo simulations of air showers and the IceTop detector. Here, an assumption was made about the chemical composition of cosmic rays. The informations obtained in these simulations are then used to unfold the spectrum of measured shower sizes in order to obtain the all-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum. This is done independently for particles from three different zenith angle intervals. The result of the unfolding depends on the assumed primary composition. Due to the isotropy of cosmic rays, results obtained in different zenith angle intervals must agree. While with the chosen analysis technique a simultaneous determination of primary particle mass and energy is limited due to systematic uncertainties, it has already been shown that the requirement of isotropy can be used to constrain the range of possible assumptions on the chemical

  14. Cosmic ray antimatter: Is it primary or secondary?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stecker, F. W.; Protheroe, R. J.; Kazanas, D.

    1981-01-01

    The relative merits and difficulties of the primary and secondary origin hypotheses for the observed cosmic ray antiprotons, including the low energy measurement of Buffington, were examined. It is concluded that the cosmic ray antiproton data may be strong evidence for antimatter galaxies and baryon symmetric cosmology. The present antiproton data are consistent with a primary extragalactic component having antiproton/proton approximately equal to .0032 + or - 0.7.

  15. Directional clustering in highest energy cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goldberg, Haim; Weiler, Thomas J.

    2001-01-01

    An unexpected degree of small-scale clustering is observed in highest-energy cosmic ray events. Some directional clustering can be expected due to purely statistical fluctuations for sources distributed randomly in the sky. This creates a background for events originating in clustered sources. We derive analytic formulas to estimate the probability of random cluster configurations, and use these formulas to study the strong potential of the HiRes, Auger, Telescope Array and EUSO-OWL-AirWatch facilities for deciding whether any observed clustering is most likely due to nonrandom sources. For a detailed comparison to data, our analytical approach cannot compete with Monte Carlo simulations, including experimental systematics. However, our derived formulas do offer two advantages: (i) easy assessment of the significance of any observed clustering, and most importantly, (ii) an explicit dependence of cluster probabilities on the chosen angular bin size

  16. Diffusion of cosmic rays at EeV energies in inhomogeneous extragalactic magnetic fields

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Batista, Rafael Alves; Sigl, Günter, E-mail: rafael.alves.batista@desy.de, E-mail: guenter.sigl@desy.de [II. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Hamburg Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761, Hamburg (Germany)

    2014-11-01

    Ultra-high energy cosmic rays can propagate diffusively in cosmic magnetic fields. When their propagation time is comparable to the age of the universe, a suppression in the flux relative to the case in the absence of magnetic fields will occur. In this work we find an approximate parametrization for this suppression for energies below ∼ Z EeV using several magnetic field distributions obtained from cosmological simulations of the magnetized cosmic web. We assume that the magnetic fields have a Kolmogorov power spectrum with the field strengths distributed according to these simulations. We show that, if magnetic fields are coupled to the matter distribution, low field strengths will fill most of the volume, making the suppression milder compared to the case of a constant magnetic field with strength equal to the mean value of this distribution. We also derive upper limits for this suppression to occur for some models of extragalactic magnetic fields, as a function of the coherence length of these fields.

  17. Gamma radiation associated to stellar formation in the galaxy (cosmic ray astronomy)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Casse, Michel.

    1980-05-01

    The gamma ray sky revealed by the COS-B satellite is very peculiar: a few 'gamma ray stars' lying along the galactic plane emerge from a bright milky way. A possible interpretation of this sky is to invoke the existence of regions in which stars, cosmic rays and interstellar matter are very concentrated. A genetic link is established between clouds, stars and cosmic rays: the partial fragmentation of a cloud give birth to stars, the most massive stars accelerate cosmic rays through their supersonic stellar winds, cosmic ray interact in turn with the cloud material to copiously produce high energy gamma rays: a gamma ray source is born

  18. Cosmic-ray acceleration and the radio evolution of Cassiopeia A

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chevalier, R.A.; Robertson, J.W.; Scott, J.S.

    1976-01-01

    A more detailed analysis of the Scott and Chevalier model for production of galactic cosmic rays in supernova remnants is presented. Particles are accelerated by second-order Fermi acceleration with turbulent vortices (produced by the motions of the supernova ejecta through the remnant) acting as moving scattering centers. The time-dependent equation of continuity in particle energy space is solved numerically. The results of the calculations are in substantial agreement with all time-dependent observations of the radio emission from Cas A. This mechanism implies an dependent solution yields a cosmic ray spectrum with the same slope as galactic cosmic rays. The results of our calculations and new work on γ-rays by, e.g., Stecker and by Lingenfelter and Higdon and cosmic ray composition by, e.g., Hainebach, Norman, and Schramm support our hypothesis that galactic cosmic rays are produced in supernova remnants by the mechanism proposed by Scott and Chevalier

  19. Ultra high energy gamma-ray astronomy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wdowczyk, J.

    1986-01-01

    The experimental data on ultra high energy γ-rays are reviewed and a comparison of the properties of photon and proton initiated shower is made. The consequences of the existence of the strong ultra high energy γ-ray sources for other observations is analysed and possible mechanisms for the production of ultra high energy γ-rays in the sources are discussed. It is demonstrated that if the γ-rays are produced via cosmic ray interactions the sources have to produce very high fluxes of cosmic ray particles. In fact it is possible that a small number of such sources can supply the whole Galactic cosmic ray flux

  20. The MIDAS telescope for microwave detection of ultra-high energy cosmic rays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Alvarez-Muñiz, J. [Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Departamento de Física de Partículas, Campus Sur, Universidad, E-15782 Santiago de Compostela (Spain); Amaral Soares, E. [Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Física, Cidade Universitaria, Caixa Postal 68528, 21945-970 Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Berlin, A.; Bogdan, M. [University of Chicago, Enrico Fermi Institute and Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, 5640 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago, IL 60637 (United States); Boháčová, M. [University of Chicago, Enrico Fermi Institute and Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, 5640 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago, IL 60637 (United States); Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Na Slovance 2, CZ-182 21 Praha 8 (Czech Republic); Bonifazi, C. [Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Física, Cidade Universitaria, Caixa Postal 68528, 21945-970 Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Carvalho, W.R. [Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Departamento de Física de Partículas, Campus Sur, Universidad, E-15782 Santiago de Compostela (Spain); Mello Neto, J.R.T. de [Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Física, Cidade Universitaria, Caixa Postal 68528, 21945-970 Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Facal San Luis, P., E-mail: facal@kicp.uchicago.edu [University of Chicago, Enrico Fermi Institute and Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, 5640 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago, IL 60637 (United States); Genat, J.F.; Hollon, N.; Mills, E.; Monasor, M.; Privitera, P. [University of Chicago, Enrico Fermi Institute and Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, 5640 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago, IL 60637 (United States); and others

    2013-08-11

    We present the design, implementation and data taking performance of the MIcrowave Detection of Air Showers (MIDAS) experiment, a large field of view imaging telescope designed to detect microwave radiation from extensive air showers induced by ultra-high energy cosmic rays. This novel technique may bring a tenfold increase in detector duty cycle when compared to the standard fluorescence technique based on detection of ultraviolet photons. The MIDAS telescope consists of a 4.5 m diameter dish with a 53-pixel receiver camera, instrumented with feed horns operating in the commercial extended C-Band (3.4–4.2 GHz). A self-trigger capability is implemented in the digital electronics. The main objectives of this first prototype of the MIDAS telescope – to validate the telescope design, and to demonstrate a large detector duty cycle – were successfully accomplished in a dedicated data taking run at the University of Chicago campus prior to installation at the Pierre Auger Observatory. -- Highlights: • The MIDAS objective is to detect ultra high energy cosmic rays using microwaves. • GHz radiation could provide a powerful alternative to current detection methods. • The MIDAS prototype explores the potential of the microwave technique.

  1. The MIDAS telescope for microwave detection of ultra-high energy cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alvarez-Muñiz, J.; Amaral Soares, E.; Berlin, A.; Bogdan, M.; Boháčová, M.; Bonifazi, C.; Carvalho, W.R.; Mello Neto, J.R.T. de; Facal San Luis, P.; Genat, J.F.; Hollon, N.; Mills, E.; Monasor, M.; Privitera, P.

    2013-01-01

    We present the design, implementation and data taking performance of the MIcrowave Detection of Air Showers (MIDAS) experiment, a large field of view imaging telescope designed to detect microwave radiation from extensive air showers induced by ultra-high energy cosmic rays. This novel technique may bring a tenfold increase in detector duty cycle when compared to the standard fluorescence technique based on detection of ultraviolet photons. The MIDAS telescope consists of a 4.5 m diameter dish with a 53-pixel receiver camera, instrumented with feed horns operating in the commercial extended C-Band (3.4–4.2 GHz). A self-trigger capability is implemented in the digital electronics. The main objectives of this first prototype of the MIDAS telescope – to validate the telescope design, and to demonstrate a large detector duty cycle – were successfully accomplished in a dedicated data taking run at the University of Chicago campus prior to installation at the Pierre Auger Observatory. -- Highlights: • The MIDAS objective is to detect ultra high energy cosmic rays using microwaves. • GHz radiation could provide a powerful alternative to current detection methods. • The MIDAS prototype explores the potential of the microwave technique

  2. Measurements of the isotopic composition of galactic cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Herrstroem, N.Y.

    1985-01-01

    The galactic cosmic-ray boron and carbon isotopic composition has been measured. The boron measurement is the first ever made in nuclear emulsion. The carbon measurement has substantially improved the statistical assuracy in the determination of the 13 C abundance as compared to an earlier measurement using the same technique. Mass-spectra of cosmic-ray carbon and oxygen in different zenith angle intervals have been compared with calculated spectra. The method makes it possible to study experimentally the atmospheric influence on the primary cosmic-ray isotopic composition. Photometric measurements on fragments from oxygen-induced interactions in nuclear emulsion have been made. Accurate charge assignments have been made on all heavy fragments which has made it possible to study the interaction exclusively event-by-event. Measurements on the isotopic composition of primary cosmic-ray neom have been made. The data are from the Danish-French instrument on the HEAO-3 satellite. The rigidity dependent filtering of the cosmic rays by the Earth's magnetic field has been used. The energy dependence of the 22 Ne/ 20 Ne-ratio and its astrophysical implications are discussed. (Author)

  3. Milagro Contributions to XXVI International Cosmic Ray Conference

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hoffman, C.M.; Haines, T.J.; Sinnis, G.; Miller, R.S.; Thompson, N.T.

    1999-08-01

    Milagrito, a prototype for the Milagro detector, operated for 15 months in 1997--8 and collected 8.9 x 10{sup 9} events. It was the first extensive air shower (EAS) array sensitive to showers initiated by primaries with energy below 1 TeV. The shadows of the sun and moon observed with cosmic rays can be used to study systematic pointing shifts and measure the angular resolution of EAS arrays. Below a few TeV, the paths of cosmic rays coming toward the earth are bent by the helio- and geo-magnetic fields. This is expected to distort and displace the shadows of the sun and the moon. The moon shadow, offset from the nominal (unreflected) position, has been observed with high statistical significance in Milagrito. This can be used to establish energy calibrations, as well as to search for the anti-matter content of the VHE cosmic ray flux. The shadow of the sun has also been observed with high significance.

  4. Magnetic diffusion effects on the ultra-high energy cosmic ray spectrum and composition

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mollerach, Silvia; Roulet, Esteban, E-mail: mollerach@cab.cnea.gov.ar, E-mail: roulet@cab.cnea.gov.ar [CONICET, Centro Atómico Bariloche, Av. Bustillo 9500 (8400) (Argentina)

    2013-10-01

    We discuss the effects of diffusion of high energy cosmic rays in turbulent extra-galactic magnetic fields. We find an approximate expression for the low energy suppression of the spectrum of the different mass components (with charge Z) in the case in which this suppression happens at energies below ∼ Z EeV, so that energy losses are dominated by the adiabatic ones. The low energy suppression appears when cosmic rays from the closest sources take a time comparable to the age of the Universe to reach the Earth. This occurs for energies E < Z EeV (B/nG)√(l{sub c}/Mpc)(d{sub s}/70Mpc) in terms of the magnetic field RMS strength B, its coherence length l{sub c} and the typical separation between sources d{sub s}. We apply this to scenarios in which the sources produce a mixed composition and have a relatively low maximum rigidity (E{sub max} ∼ (2–10)Z EeV), finding that diffusion has a significant effect on the resulting spectrum, the average mass and on its spread, in particular reducing this last one. For reasonable values of B and l{sub c} these effects can help to reproduce the composition trends observed by the Auger Collaboration for source spectra compatible with Fermi acceleration.

  5. The transition from galactic to extragalactic cosmic rays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stanev, Todor [Bartol Research Institute, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 (United States)

    2007-06-15

    We discuss the region of transition between galactic and extragalactic cosmic rays. The exact shapes and compositions of these two components contain information about important parameters of powerful astrophysical sources and the conditions in extragalactic space. Several types of experimental data, including the exact shape of the ultrahigh energy cosmic rays, their chemical composition and their anisotropy, and the fluxes of cosmogenic neutrinos have to be included in the solution of this problem.

  6. Cosmic-ray modulation: an ab initio approach

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Engelbrecht, N.E.; Burger, R.A., E-mail: 12580996@nwu.ac.za [Center for Space Research, North-West University, Potchefstroom (South Africa)

    2014-07-01

    A better understanding of cosmic-ray modulation in the heliosphere can only be gained through a proper understanding of the effects of turbulence on the diffusion and drift of cosmic rays. We present an ab initio model for cosmic-ray modulation, incorporating for the first time the results yielded by a two-component turbulence transport model. This model is solved for periods of minimum solar activity, utilizing boundary values chosen so that model results are in fair to good agreement with spacecraft observations of turbulence quantities, not only in the solar ecliptic plane but also along the out-of-ecliptic trajectory of the Ulysses spacecraft. These results are employed as inputs for modelled slab and 2D turbulence energy spectra. The latter spectrum is chosen based on physical considerations, with a drop-off at the very lowest wavenumbers commencing at the 2D outerscale. There currently exist no models or observations for this quantity, and it is the only free parameter in this study. The modelled turbulence spectra are used as inputs for parallel mean free path expressions based on those derived from quasi-linear theory and perpendicular mean free paths from extended nonlinear guiding center theory. Furthermore, the effects of turbulence on cosmic-ray drifts are modelled in a self-consistent way, employing a recently developed model for drift along the wavy current sheet. The resulting diffusion coefficients and drift expressions are applied to the study of galactic cosmic-ray protons and antiprotons using a three dimensional, steady-state cosmic-ray modulation code, and sample solutions in fair agreement with multiple spacecraft observations are presented. (author)

  7. Cosmic-ray modulation: an ab initio approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Engelbrecht, N.E.; Burger, R.A.

    2014-01-01

    A better understanding of cosmic-ray modulation in the heliosphere can only be gained through a proper understanding of the effects of turbulence on the diffusion and drift of cosmic rays. We present an ab initio model for cosmic-ray modulation, incorporating for the first time the results yielded by a two-component turbulence transport model. This model is solved for periods of minimum solar activity, utilizing boundary values chosen so that model results are in fair to good agreement with spacecraft observations of turbulence quantities, not only in the solar ecliptic plane but also along the out-of-ecliptic trajectory of the Ulysses spacecraft. These results are employed as inputs for modelled slab and 2D turbulence energy spectra. The latter spectrum is chosen based on physical considerations, with a drop-off at the very lowest wavenumbers commencing at the 2D outerscale. There currently exist no models or observations for this quantity, and it is the only free parameter in this study. The modelled turbulence spectra are used as inputs for parallel mean free path expressions based on those derived from quasi-linear theory and perpendicular mean free paths from extended nonlinear guiding center theory. Furthermore, the effects of turbulence on cosmic-ray drifts are modelled in a self-consistent way, employing a recently developed model for drift along the wavy current sheet. The resulting diffusion coefficients and drift expressions are applied to the study of galactic cosmic-ray protons and antiprotons using a three dimensional, steady-state cosmic-ray modulation code, and sample solutions in fair agreement with multiple spacecraft observations are presented. (author)

  8. Signs of cosmic rays in gravitational wave detectors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tavares, Denis Borgarelli

    2010-01-01

    One of the phenomena predicted by Einstein in the derivation of general relativity is the existence of small perturbations of the metric that he named gravitational waves. As they travel through space oscillates the space-time according to its polarization. This is the only major prediction of general relativity not yet proven completely. The small signal generated by the passage of a gravitational wave compared to the noise in the system of detection makes their direct detection one challenge of modern science. In this paper we study the noise generated by cosmic rays in the gravitational antenna Mario Schenberg, located in the city of Sao Paulo. Single muons and hadrons flux measurements held in the northern hemisphere were used to calculate the expected flux of these particles in the city of Sao Paulo. The calculation of the energy deposited in the detector of gravitational waves from cosmic rays was performed by Monte Carlo simulations using Geant4. The transport of muons and protons, with several energy and some different angles of incidence, across the building and the resonant sphere was simulated. We developed a thermo-acoustic model, called multi-point, suitable for calculating the energy deposited in the normal modes from the energy deposited on the sphere by elementary particles. With these results we calculate the expected rate of cosmic ray signals in the main detection mode of gravitational waves, nl = 12, of the Mario Schenberg detector, for temperatures T noise between 10 -5 and 10 -7 K. The results showed for the designed for 4.2 K sensitivity of the Mario Schenberg detector that the rate of signals due to cosmic rays is very small, being around 5 events per day. However, when it will reach the quantum limit will be needed a more detailed analysis of the antenna signal output, since the expected number of cosmic ray noise increases considerably, reaching about 250 signals per day. (author)

  9. Measurement of the cosmic ray muon charge ratio with the OPERA detector

    OpenAIRE

    Mauri, N; Siol, M

    2010-01-01

    The OPERA detector at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory (LNGS) was used to measure the cosmic ray muon charge ratio Rμ = Nμ+/Nμ− in the TeV energy region. We analyzed 403069 cosmic ray muons corresponding to 113.4 days of livetime during the 2008 CNGS run. We computed separately the muon charge ratio for single and for multiple muon events in order to select different energy regions of the primary cosmic ray spectrum and to test the Rμ dependence on the primary composition. Rμ is also sho...

  10. Mass composition studies of Ultra High Energy cosmic rays through the measurement of the Muon Production Depths at the Pierre Auger Observatory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Collica, Laura [Univ. of Milan (Italy); Paris Diderot Univ. (France)

    2014-01-01

    The Pierre Auger Observatory (Auger) in Argentina studies Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) physics. The flux of cosmic rays at these energies (above 1018 eV) is very low (less than 100 particle/km2-year) and UHECR properties must be inferred from the measurements of the secondary particles that the cosmic ray primary produces in the atmosphere. These particles cascades are called Extensive Air Showers (EAS) and can be studied at ground by deploying detectors covering large areas. The EAS physics is complex, and the properties of secondary particles depend strongly on the first interaction, which takes place at an energy beyond the ones reached at accelerators. As a consequence, the analysis of UHECRs is subject to large uncertainties and hence many of their properties, in particular their composition, are still unclear. Two complementary techniques are used at Auger to detect EAS initiated by UHE- CRs: a 3000 km2 surface detector (SD) array of water Cherenkov tanks which samples particles at ground level and fluorescence detectors (FD) which collect the ultraviolet light emitted by the de-excitation of nitrogen nuclei in the atmosphere, and can operate only in clear, moonless nights. Auger is the largest cosmic rays detector ever built and it provides high-quality data together with unprecedented statistics. The main goal of this thesis is the measurement of UHECR mass composition using data from the SD of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Measuring the cosmic ray composition at the highest energies is of fundamental importance from the astrophysical point of view, since it could discriminate between different scenarios of origin and propagation of cosmic rays. Moreover, mass composition studies are of utmost importance for particle physics. As a matter of fact, knowing the composition helps in exploring the hadronic interactions at ultra-high energies, inaccessible to present accelerator experiments.

  11. Cosmic rays and radiations from the cosmos; Rayons cosmiques et rayonnement du cosmos

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Parizot, E

    2005-12-01

    This document gathers a lot of recent information concerning cosmic radiations, it is divided into 4 parts. Part I: energy, mass and angular spectra of cosmic rays. Part II: general phenomenology of cosmic rays, this part deals with the standard model, the maximal energy of protons inside supernova remnants, nucleosynthesis of light elements, and super-bubbles. Part III: radiations from the cosmos, this part deals with high energy gamma rays, non-thermal radiation of super-bubbles, positron transport, and the Compton trail of gamma-ray bursts. Part IV: the Pierre Auger observatory (OPA), this part deals with the detection of gamma ray bursts at OPA, the measurement of anisotropy, and top-down models. (A.C.)

  12. Status of the UMC cosmic ray experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nitz, D.

    1989-01-01

    The UMC Ultra High Energy cosmic ray experiment is a collaboration among the University of Utah, the University of Michigan, and the University of Chicago. It is located at the site of the Fly's Eye II experiment at Dugway, Utah, at latitude 40.2 0 and an atmospheric depth of 850 gm/cm 2 . Extensive air shower (EAS) surface arrays, a large area muon counter array, tracking Cerenkov telescopes, and the Fly's Eye detector constitute the elements of a versatile cosmic ray observatory for > or approx. 10 14 eV extensive air showers. (orig.)

  13. Cosmic Ray Mass Measurements with LOFAR

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Buitink Stijn

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In the dense core of LOFAR individual air showers are detected by hundreds of dipole antennas simultaneously. We reconstruct Xmax by using a hybrid technique that combines a two-dimensional fit of the radio profile to CoREAS simulations and a one-dimensional fit of the particle density distribution. For high-quality detections, the statistical uncertainty on Xmax is smaller than 20 g/cm2. We present results of cosmic-ray mass analysis in the energy regime of 1017 - 1017.5 eV. This range is of particular interest as it may harbor the transition from a Galactic to an extragalactic origin of cosmic rays.

  14. A composition dependent energy scale and the determination of the cosmic ray primary mass in the ankle region

    Science.gov (United States)

    Supanitsky, A. D.; Etchegoyen, A.; Melo, D.; Sanchez, F.

    2015-08-01

    At present there are still several open questions about the origin of the ultra high energy cosmic rays. However, great progress in this area has been made in recent years due to the data collected by the present generation of ground based detectors like the Pierre Auger Observatory and Telescope Array. In particular, it is believed that the study of the composition of the cosmic rays as a function of energy can play a fundamental role for the understanding of the origin of the cosmic rays. The observatories belonging to this generation are composed of arrays of surface detectors and fluorescence telescopes. The duty cycle of the fluorescence telescopes is ∼10% in contrast with the ∼100% of the surface detectors. Therefore, the energy calibration of the events observed by the surface detectors is performed by using a calibration curve obtained from a set of high quality events observed in coincidence by both types of detectors. The advantage of this method is that the reconstructed energy of the events observed by the surface detectors becomes almost independent of simulations of the showers because just a small part of the reconstructed energy (the missing energy), obtained from the fluorescence telescopes, comes from simulations. However, the calibration curve obtained in this way depends on the composition of the cosmic rays, which can introduce biases in composition analyses when parameters with a strong dependence on primary energy are considered. In this work we develop an analytical method to study these effects. We consider AMIGA (Auger Muons and Infill for the Ground Array), the low energy extension of the Pierre Auger Observatory corresponding to the surface detectors, to illustrate the use of the method. In particular, we study the biases introduced by an energy calibration dependent on composition on the determination of the mean value of the number of muons, at a given distance to the showers axis, which is one of the parameters most sensitive to

  15. Cosmic rays and the interstellar medium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wolfendale, A.W.

    1986-01-01

    It is inevitable that there is a close connection between cosmic rays and the ISM insofar as the propagation of cosmic rays is conditioned by the magnetic field in the ISM and the cosmic rays interact with the gas (and photon fluxes) in this medium. This paper deals with both topics. Propagation effects manifest themselves as an anisotropy in arrival directions and a review is given of anisotropy measurements and their interpretation. The status of studies of cosmic ray interactions is examined whit particular reference to the information about the ISM itself which comes from observations of the flux of secondary γ-rays produced by cosmic ray interactions with gas, the situation regarding molecular as in the Inner Galaxy being of particular concern

  16. The Cosmic Ray spectrum in the energy region between 1012 and 1016 eV measured by ARGO–YBJ

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Montini Paolo

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The ARGO-YBJ experiment has been in full and stable data taking at the Yangbajing cosmic ray observatory (Tibet, P.R. China, 4300 m a.s.l. for more than five years. The detector has been designed in order to explore the Cosmic Ray (CR spectrum in an energy range from few TeV up to several PeV. The high segmentation of the detector allows a detailed measurement of the lateral particle distribution which can be exploited on order to identify showers produced by primaries of different mass. The results of the measurement of the all-particle and proton plus helium energy spectra in the energy region between 1012 and 1016 eV are discussed.

  17. Cosmic rays and new accelerator experiments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Muraki, Y.

    The cross-section of sigma(anti-D,D) increases with energy. The heavy vector boson production cross-section deviates from the naive law 1/M 3 F(s/M 2 ) at very high energy. Comparison with dsigma/dP(T)/(had) and Drell-Yan cross-section dsigma/(dM/2)/(d-y) at very high energy will provide evidence about the existence of the colour quantum number. Centauro will soon be checked by a cosmic-ray experiment. The detail dynamics of such a hadron rich event will be extensively studied at anti-pp colliders. The investigation of the Feynman scaling at the anti-pp collider for hadrons brings a very important knowledge on astrophysics. The 2μ, 3μ, 4μ and multi muon bundle at the anti-pp colliders is extremely interesting. A cosmic ray muon bundle event suggests the successive decay of a anti-BB pair. The total cross-section for (anti-BB) is estimated as 500μb at 150 TeV

  18. LEAP: A balloon-borne search for low-energy cosmic ray antiprotons

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moats, Anne Rosalie Myers

    The LEAP (Low Energy Antiproton) experiment is a search for cosmic ray antiprotons in the 120 MeV to 1.2 GeV kinetic energy range. The motivation for this project was the result announced by Buffington et al. (1981) that indicated an anomalously high antiproton flux below 300 MeV; this result has compelled theorists to propose sources of primary antiprotons above the small secondary antiproton flux produced by high energy cosmic ray collisions with nuclei in the interstellar medium. LEAP consisted of the NMSU magnet spectrometer, a time-of-flight system designed at NASA-Goddard, two scintillation detectors, and a Cherenkov counter. Analysis of flight data performed by the high energy astrophysics group at Goddard Space Flight Center revealed no antiproton candidates found in the 120 MeV to 360 MeV range; 3 possible antiproton candidate events were found in the 500 MeV to 1.2 GeV range in an analysis done here at the University of Arizona. However, since it will be necessary to sharpen the calibration on all of the LEAP systems in order to positively identify these events as antiprotons, only an upper limit has been determined at present. Thus, combining the analyses performed at the University of Arizona and NASA-Goddard, 90 percent confidence upper limits of 3.5 x 10-5 in the 120 MeV to 360 MeV range and 2.3 x 10-4 in the 500 MeV to 1.2 GeV range for the antiproton/proton ratio is indicated by the LEAP results. LEAP disagrees sharply with the results of the Buffington group, indicating a low antiproton flux at these energies. Thus, a purely secondary antiproton flux may be adequate at low energies.

  19. Dosimetry of environmental radiations (cosmic ray)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamasaki, Keizo

    1978-01-01

    Cosmic ray is dominant as environmental radiation, though the experimental determination made on cosmic ray doses is few in Japan. The free air ionization intensity at sea level due to cosmic ray has been estimated in the Bay of Wakasa, Japan, at middle geomagnetic latitude (25 deg. N), in October 1977. The ionization chambers used were two air and one argon types. Where the responses to cosmic and terrestrial gamma rays were equal, the ionization intensity due to cosmic ray was obtained by subtracting the ionization intensity due to terrestrial gamma ray from the total ionization intensity. As the terrestrial gamma ray, (1) U-238 series, Th-232 series, and K-40 in seawater, (2) K-40 in the material of a wooden ship, and (3) Rn-222 and its daughter products in the atmosphere were considered. The result of free air ionization due to cosmic ray with the argon chamber was slightly smaller than those with the other two air chambers; however, both were in good agreement within standard errors. (JPN.)

  20. Impact of Cosmic-Ray Transport on Galactic Winds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farber, R.; Ruszkowski, M.; Yang, H.-Y. K.; Zweibel, E. G.

    2018-04-01

    The role of cosmic rays generated by supernovae and young stars has very recently begun to receive significant attention in studies of galaxy formation and evolution due to the realization that cosmic rays can efficiently accelerate galactic winds. Microscopic cosmic-ray transport processes are fundamental for determining the efficiency of cosmic-ray wind driving. Previous studies modeled cosmic-ray transport either via a constant diffusion coefficient or via streaming proportional to the Alfvén speed. However, in predominantly cold, neutral gas, cosmic rays can propagate faster than in the ionized medium, and the effective transport can be substantially larger; i.e., cosmic rays can decouple from the gas. We perform three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamical simulations of patches of galactic disks including the effects of cosmic rays. Our simulations include the decoupling of cosmic rays in the cold, neutral interstellar medium. We find that, compared to the ordinary diffusive cosmic-ray transport case, accounting for the decoupling leads to significantly different wind properties, such as the gas density and temperature, significantly broader spatial distribution of cosmic rays, and higher wind speed. These results have implications for X-ray, γ-ray, and radio emission, and for the magnetization and pollution of the circumgalactic medium by cosmic rays.

  1. Probing the origin of cosmic-rays with extremely high energy neutrinos using the IceCube Observatory

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Aartsen, M.G.; Abbasi, R.; Ackermann, M.

    2013-01-01

    originate from cosmogenic neutrinos produced in the interactions of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays with ambient photons while propagating through intergalactic space. Exploiting IceCube’s large exposure for extremely high energy neutrinos and the lack of observed events above 100 PeV, we can rule out...

  2. Multi-TeV gamma ray and cosmic ray astrophysics with TAIGA

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tluczykont, Martin [Hamburg Univ. (Germany). Institut fuer Experimentalphysik; Collaboration: TAIGA Kollaboration

    2016-07-01

    The very high energy gamma-ray regime is the key to several questions in high energy astrophysics, the most prominent being the search for the origin of cosmic rays. Observations of gamma rays up to several 100 TeV are particularly important to spectrally resolve the cutoff regime of the long-sought Pevatrons, the accelerators of PeV cosmic rays. TAIGA is an international collaboration that has, in the past 3 years, installed the air Cherenkov timing array HiSCORE on an area of 0.25 square-km, and are currently installing a first 4m diameter imaging air Cherenkov telescope (IACT), to be operated in parallel with the timing array. Our aim is to combine the timing and imaging techniques on a large scale in order to optimize the air Cherenkov detection technique for energies above 10 TeV and up to several 100 TeV. Simulations show a clear potential of the planned hybrid event reconstruction, especially in the energy regime from 10 TeV to 100 TeV. The TAIGA experiment will be complemented by scintillator based particle detectors for a measurement of the muon content of the air shower at higher energies. The status of our experiment and the planned 1 square-km stage of TAIGA are discussed.

  3. New look on the origin of cosmic rays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Istomin Ya.N.

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available From the analysis of the flux of high energy particles, E > 3 · 1018 eV, it is shown that the distribution of the power density of extragalactic rays over energy is of the power law, q̅(E ∝ E−2.7, with the same index of 2.7 that has the distribution of Galactic cosmic rays before the so called ‘knee', E 3 · 1015 eV, from the Galaxy because of the dependence of the coefficient of diffusion of cosmic rays on energy, D∝E0.7. The obtained index of the density distribution of particles over energy, N(E∝E−2.7−0.7/2=E−3.05, for E > 3 · 1015 eV agrees well with the observed one, N(E∝E−3.1. The estimated time of the termination of the jet in the Galaxy is 4.2 · 104 years ago.

  4. Upper limits on the total cosmic-ray luminosity of individual sources

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Anjos, R.C.; De Souza, V. [Instituto de Física de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo (Brazil); Supanitsky, A.D., E-mail: rita@ifsc.usp.br, E-mail: vitor@ifsc.usp.br, E-mail: supanitsky@iafe.uba.ar [Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio (IAFE), CONICET-UBA, Buenos Aires (Argentina)

    2014-07-01

    In this paper, upper limits on the total luminosity of ultra-high-energy cosmic-rays (UHECR) E > 10{sup 18} eV) are determined for five individual sources. The upper limit on the integral flux of GeV--TeV gamma-rays is used to extract the upper limit on the total UHECR luminosity of individual sources. The correlation between upper limit on the integral GeV--TeV gamma-ray flux and upper limit on the UHECR luminosity is established through the cascading process that takes place during propagation of the cosmic rays in the background radiation fields, as explained in reference [1]. Twenty-eight sources measured by FERMI-LAT, VERITAS and MAGIC observatories have been studied. The measured upper limit on the GeV--TeV gamma-ray flux is restrictive enough to allow the calculation of an upper limit on the total UHECR cosmic-ray luminosity of five sources. The upper limit on the UHECR cosmic-ray luminosity of these sources is shown for several assumptions on the emission mechanism. For all studied sources an upper limit on the ultra-high-energy proton luminosity is also set.

  5. Upper limits on the total cosmic-ray luminosity of individual sources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anjos, R.C.; De Souza, V.; Supanitsky, A.D.

    2014-01-01

    In this paper, upper limits on the total luminosity of ultra-high-energy cosmic-rays (UHECR) E > 10 18 eV) are determined for five individual sources. The upper limit on the integral flux of GeV--TeV gamma-rays is used to extract the upper limit on the total UHECR luminosity of individual sources. The correlation between upper limit on the integral GeV--TeV gamma-ray flux and upper limit on the UHECR luminosity is established through the cascading process that takes place during propagation of the cosmic rays in the background radiation fields, as explained in reference [1]. Twenty-eight sources measured by FERMI-LAT, VERITAS and MAGIC observatories have been studied. The measured upper limit on the GeV--TeV gamma-ray flux is restrictive enough to allow the calculation of an upper limit on the total UHECR cosmic-ray luminosity of five sources. The upper limit on the UHECR cosmic-ray luminosity of these sources is shown for several assumptions on the emission mechanism. For all studied sources an upper limit on the ultra-high-energy proton luminosity is also set

  6. The origins of cosmic rays and quantum effects on gravity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tomozawa, Y.

    1985-01-01

    The energy spectrum of primary cosmic rays is explained by particles emitted during a thermal expansion of explosive objects inside and near the galaxy, remnants of which may be supernova and/or active talaxies, or even stars or galaxies that disappeared from our sight after the explosion. A power law energy spectrum for cosmic rays, E to the (-alpha -1, is obtained from an expansion rate T is proportional to R to the alpha. Using the solution of the Einstein equation, we obtain a spectrum which agrees very well with experimental data. The implication of an inflationary early universe on the cosmic ray spectrum is also discussed. It is also suggested that the conflict between this model and the singularity theorem in classical general relativity may be eliminated by quantum effects.

  7. Theory of geomagnetic effects of cosmic rays: its past and presence

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gall, R [Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City. Inst. de Geofisica

    1981-03-01

    The interest expressed by Lemaitre and Vallarta in the nature of universal corpuscular radiation, remnant of the exploded primogenitive atom, culminated in 1932, in the development of their theory of the geomagnetic effects of cosmic rays, a tool since its publication, basic to cosmic radiation research and to the advancement of cosmic ray astronomy. Between 1940 and 1960 challenging experimental data from proliferating cosmic radiation stations and of direct detection techniques provided geomagnetic field models for greater theoretical precision. The discoveries since the advent of the space age of the Earth's cavity and geomagnetic tail, and of the nonrelativistic solar cosmic rays have resulted in a new branch of the theory dealing with magnetosphere effects in the propagation of low energy cosmic radiations. The theory's importance and application to cosmic bodies other than the Earth is discussed.

  8. High-energy cosmic ray nuclei from tidal disruption events: Origin, survival, and implications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, B. Theodore; Murase, Kohta; Oikonomou, Foteini; Li, Zhuo

    2017-09-01

    Tidal disruption events (TDEs) by supermassive or intermediate mass black holes have been suggested as candidate sources of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and high-energy neutrinos. Motivated by the recent measurements from the Pierre Auger Observatory, which indicates a metal-rich cosmic-ray composition at ultrahigh energies, we investigate the fate of UHECR nuclei loaded in TDE jets. First, we consider the production and survival of UHECR nuclei at internal shocks, external forward and reverse shocks, and nonrelativistic winds. Based on the observations of Swift J 1644 +57 , we show that the UHECRs can survive for external reverse and forward shocks, and disk winds. On the other hand, UHECR nuclei are significantly disintegrated in internal shocks, although they could survive for low-luminosity TDE jets. Assuming that UHECR nuclei can survive, we consider implications of different composition models of TDEs. We find that the tidal disruption of main sequence stars or carbon-oxygen white dwarfs does not successfully reproduce UHECR observations, namely the observed composition or spectrum. The observed mean depth of the shower maximum and its deviation could be explained by oxygen-neon-magnesium white dwarfs, although they may be too rare to be the sources of UHECRs.

  9. LEAP [Low-Energy Antiproton]: A balloon-borne search for low-energy cosmic-ray antiprotons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moats, A.R.M.

    1989-01-01

    The LEAP (Low-Energy Antiproton) experiment is a search for cosmic-ray antiprotons in the 120 MeV to 1.2 GeV kinetic energy range. The motivation for this project was the result announced by Buffington et. al. (1981) that indicated an anomalously high antiproton flux below 300 MeV; this result has compelled theorists to propose sources of primary antiprotons above the small secondary antiproton flux produced by high energy cosmic-ray collisions with nuclei in the interstellar medium. LEAP consisted of the NMSU magnetic spectrometer, a time-of-flight system designed at Goddard Space Flight Center, two scintillation detectors, and a Cherenkov counter designed and built at the University of Arizona. Analysis of flight data performed by the high-energy astrophysics group at Goddard Space Flight Center revealed no antiproton candidates found in the 120 MeV to 360 MeV range; 3 possible antiproton candidate events were found in the 500 MeV to 1.2 GeV range in an analysis done here at the University of Arizona. However, since it will be necessary to sharpen the calibration on all of the LEAP systems in order to positively identify these events as antiprotons, only an upper limit has been determined at present. Thus, combining the analyses performed at the University of Arizona and Goddard Space Flight Center, 90% confidence upper limits of 3.5 x 10 -5 in the 120 MeV to 360 MeV range and 2.3 x 10 -4 in the 500 MeV to 1.2 GeV range for the antiproton/proton ratio is indicated by the LEAP results. LEAP disagrees sharply with the results of the Buffington group, indicating a low antiproton flux at these energies

  10. Origin of the ankle in the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray spectrum, and of the extragalactic protons below it

    Science.gov (United States)

    Unger, Michael; Farrar, Glennys R.; Anchordoqui, Luis A.

    2015-12-01

    The sharp change in slope of the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray (UHECR) spectrum around 1 018.6 eV (the ankle), combined with evidence of a light but extragalactic component near and below the ankle and intermediate composition above, has proved exceedingly challenging to understand theoretically, without fine-tuning. We propose a mechanism whereby photo-disintegration of ultrahigh energy nuclei in the region surrounding a UHECR accelerator accounts for the observed spectrum and inferred composition at Earth. For suitable source conditions, the model reproduces the spectrum and the composition over the entire extragalactic cosmic ray energy range, i.e. above 1 017.5 eV . Predictions for the spectrum and flavors of neutrinos resulting from this process are also presented.

  11. Gamma-ray astronomy and cosmic-ray origin theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ginzburg, V.L.

    1973-01-01

    A theory of the origin of cosmic radiation is discussed in light of the advances made in gamma-ray astronomy. Arguments against metagalactic models for the origin of cosmic rays are emphasized. (U.S.)

  12. Correlation of the highest-energy cosmic rays with the positions of nearby active galactic nuclei

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Abraham, J.; Abreu, P.; Aglietta, M.; Aguirre, C.; Allard, D.; Allekotte, I.; Allen, J.; Allison, P.; Alvarez-Muniz, J.; Ambrosio, M.; Anchordoqui, L.; Andringa, S.; Anzalone, A.; Aramo, C.; Argiro, S.; Arisaka, K.; Armengaud, E.; Arneodo, F.; Arqueros, F.; Asch, T.; Asorey, H.; Assis, P.; Atulugama, B. S.; Aublin, J.; Ave, M.; Avila, G.; Baecker, T.; Badagnani, D.; Barbosa, A. F.; Barnhill, D.; Barroso, S. L. C.; Bauleo, P.; Beatty, J. J.; Beau, T.; Becker, B. R.; Becker, K. H.; Bellido, J. A.; BenZvi, S.; Berat, C.; Bergmann, T.; Bernardini, P.; Bertou, X.; Biermann, P. L.; Billoir, P.; Blanch-Bigas, O.; Blanco, F.; Blasi, P.; Bleve, C.; Bluemer, H.; Bohacova, M.; Bonifazi, C.; Bonino, R.; Brack, J.; Brogueira, P.; Brown, W. C.; Buchholz, P.; Bueno, A.; Burton, R. E.; Busca, N. G.; Caballero-Mora, K. S.; Cai, B.; Camin, D. V.; Caramete, L.; Caruso, R.; Carvalho, W.; Castellina, A.; Catalano, O.; Cataldi, G.; Cazon, L.; Cester, R.; Chauvin, J.; Chiavassa, A.; Chinellato, J. A.; Chou, A.; Chye, J.; Clay, R. W.; Colombo, E.; Conceicao, R.; Connolly, B.; Contreras, F.; Coppens, J.; Cordier, A.; Cotti, U.; Coutu, S.; Covault, C. E.; Creusot, A.; Criss, A.; Cronin, J.; Curutiu, A.; Dagoret-Campagne, S.; Daumiller, K.; Dawson, B. R.; de Almeida, R. M.; De Donato, C.; Bg, S. J. de Jong; De La Vega, G.; de Mello, W. J. M.; de Mello Neto, J. R. T.; De Mitri, I.; de Souza, V.; del Peral, L.; Deligny, O.; Della Selva, A.; Delle Fratte, C.; Dembinski, H.; Di Giulio, C.; Diaz, J. C.; Diep, P. N.; Dobrigkeit, C.; D'Olivo, J. C.; Dong, P. N.; Dornic, D.; Dorofeev, A.; dos Anjos, J. C.; Dova, M. T.; D'Urso, D.; Dutan, I.; DuVernois, M. A.; Engel, R.; Epele, L.; Escobar, C. O.; Etchegoyen, A.; Luis, P. Facal San; Falcke, H.; Farrar, G.; Fauth, A. C.; Fazzini, N.; Ferrer, F.; Ferry, S.; Fick, B.; Filevich, A.; Filipcic, A.; Fleck, I.; Fracchiolla, C. E.; Fulgione, W.; Garcia, B.; Gaimez, D. Garcia; Garcia-Pinto, D.; Garrido, X.; Geenen, H.; Gelmini, G.; Gemmeke, H.; Ghia, P. L.; Giller, M.; Glass, H.; Gold, M. S.; Golup, G.; Albarracin, F. Gomez; Berisso, M. Gomez; Herrero, R. Gomez; Goncalves, P.; do Amaral, M. Goncalves; Gonzalez, D.; Gonzalezc, J. G.; Gonzalez, M.; Gora, D.; Gorgi, A.; Gouffon, P.; Grassi, V.; Grillo, A. F.; Grunfeld, C.; Guardincerri, Y.; Guarino, F.; Guedes, G. P.; Gutierrez, J.; Hague, J. D.; Hamilton, J. C.; Hansen, P.; Harari, D.; Harmsma, S.; Harton, J. L.; Haungs, A.; Hauschildt, T.; Healy, M. D.; Hebbeker, T.; Hebrero, G.; Heck, D.; Hojvat, C.; Holmes, V. C.; Homola, P.; Hoerandel, J.; Horneffer, A.; Horvat, M.; Hrabovsky, M.; Huege, T.; Hussain, M.; Larlori, M.; Insolia, A.; Ionita, F.; Italiano, A.; Kaducak, M.; Kampert, K. H.; Karova, T.; Kegl, B.; Keilhauer, B.; Kemp, E.; Kieckhafer, R. M.; Klages, H. O.; Kleifges, M.; Kleinfeller, J.; Knapik, R.; Knapp, J.; Koanga, V. -H.; Krieger, A.; Kroemer, O.; Kuempel, D.; Kunka, N.; Kusenko, A.; La Rosa, G.; Lachaud, C.; Lago, B. L.; Lebrun, D.; LeBrun, P.; Lee, J.; de Oliveira, M. A. Leigui; Lopez, R.; Letessier-Selvon, A.; Leuthold, M.; Lhenry-Yvon, I.; Aguera, A. Lopez; Bahilo, J. Lozano; Garcia, R. Luna; Maccarone, M. C.; Macolino, C.; Maldera, S.; Mancarella, G.; Mancenido, M. E.; Mandatat, D.; Mantsch, P.; Mariazzi, A. G.; Maris, I. C.; Falcon, H. R. Marquez; Martello, D.; Martinez, J.; Bravo, O. Martinez; Mathes, H. J.; Matthews, J.; Matthews, J. A. J.; Matthiae, G.; Maurizio, D.; Mazur, P. O.; McCauley, T.; McEwen, M.; McNeil, R. R.; Medina, M. C.; Medina-Tanco, G.; Meli, A.; Melo, D.; Menichetti, E.; Menschikov, A.; Meurer, Chr.; Meyhandan, R.; Micheletti, M. I.; Miele, G.; Miller, W.; Mollerach, S.; Monasor, M.; Ragaigne, D. Monnier; Montanet, F.; Morales, B.; Morello, C.; Moreno, J. C.; Morris, C.; Mostafa, M.; Muller, M. A.; Mussa, R.; Navarra, G.; Navarro, J. L.; Navas, S.; Necesal, P.; Nellen, L.; Newman-Holmes, C.; Newton, D.; Nhung, P. T.; Nierstenhoefer, N.; Nitz, D.; Nosek, D.; Nozka, L.; Oehlschlaeger, J.; Ohnuki, T.; Olinto, A.; Olmos-Gilbaja, V. M.; Ortiz, M.; Ortolani, F.; Ostapchenko, S.; Otero, L.; Pacheco, N.; Selmi-Dei, D. Pakk; Palatka, M.; Pallotta, J.; Parente, G.; Parizot, E.; Parlati, S.; Pastor, S.; Patel, M.; Paul, T.; Pavlidou, V.; Payet, K.; Pech, M.; Pekala, J.; Pelayo, R.; Pepe, I. M.; Perrone, L.; Petrera, S.; Petrinca, P.; Petrov, Y.; Pichel, A.; Piegaia, R.; Pierog, T.; Pimenta, M.; Pinto, T.; Pirronello, V.; Pisanti, O.; Platino, M.; Pochon, J.; Privitera, P.; Prouza, M.; Quel, E. J.; Rautenberg, J.; Redondo, A.; Reucroft, S.; Revenu, B.; Rezende, F. A. S.; Ridky, J.; Riggi, S.; Risse, M.; Riviere, C.; Rizi, V.; Roberts, M.; Robledo, C.; Rodriguez, G.; Martino, J. Rodriguez; Rojo, J. Rodriguez; Rodriguez-Cabo, I.; Rodriguez-Frias, M. D.; Ros, G.; Rosado, J.; Roth, M.; Rouille-d'Orfeuil, B.; Roulet, E.; Roverok, A. C.; Salamida, F.; Salazar, H.; Salina, G.; Sanchez, F.; Santander, M.; Santo, C. E.; Santos, E. M.; Sarazin, F.; Sarkar, S.; Sato, R.; Scherini, V.; Schieler, H.; Schmidt, A.; Schmidt, F.; Schmidt, T.; Scholten, O.; Schovanek, P.; Schuessler, F.; Sciutto, S. J.; Scuderi, M.; Segreto, A.; Semikoz, D.; Settimo, M.; Shellard, R. C.; Sidelnik, I.; Siffert, B. B.; Sigl, G.; De Grande, N. Smetniansky; Smialkowski, A.; Smida, R.; Smith, A. G. K.; Smith, B. E.; Snow, G. R.; Sokolsky, P.; Sommers, P.; Sorokin, J.; Spinka, H.; Squartini, R.; Strazzeri, E.; Stutz, A.; Suarez, F.; Suomijarvi, T.; Supanitsky, A. D.; Sutherland, M. S.; Swain, J.; Szadkowski, Z.; Takahashi, J.; Tamashiro, A.; Tamburro, A.; Tascau, O.; Tcaciuc, R.; Thao, N. T.; Thomas, D.; Ticona, R.; Tiffenberg, J.; Timmermans, C.; Tkaczyk, W.; Peixoto, C. J. Todero; Tome, B.; Tonachini, A.; Torres, I.; Travnicek, P.; Tripathi, A.; Tristram, G.; Tscherniakhovski, D.; Tueros, M.; Ulrich, R.; Unger, M.; Urban, M.; Galicia, J. F. Valdes; Valino, I.; Valore, L.; van den Berg, A. M.; van Elewyck, V.; Vazquez, R. A.; Veberic, D.; Veiga, A.; Velarde, A.; Venters, T.; Verzi, V.; Videla, M.; Villasenor, L.; Vorobiov, S.; Voyvodic, L.; Wahlberg, H.; Wainberg, O.; Warner, D.; Watson, A. A.; Westerhoff, S.; Wieczorek, G.; Wiencke, L.; Wilczynska, B.; Wilczynski, H.; Wileman, C.; Winnick, M. G.; Wu, H.; Wundheiler, B.; Yamamoto, T.; Younk, P.; Zas, E.; Zavrtanik, D.; Zavrtanik, M.; Zech, A.; Zepeda, A.; Ziolkowski, M.

    Data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory provide evidence for anisotropy in the arrival directions of the cosmic rays with the highest-energies, which are correlated with the positions of relatively nearby active galactic nuclei (AGN) [Pierre Auger Collaboration, Science 318 (2007) 938]. The

  13. Multi-parametric Effect of Solar Activity on Cosmic Rays V. K. Mishra ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Key words. Sun—solar parameters—cosmic ray modulation—running ... Neutron monitors are most sensitive to cosmic rays in the energy range. 0.5–20 GeV ... been considered as a primary indicator to define the level of solar activity, which.

  14. Underground cosmic-ray experiment EMMA

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kuusiniemi, P.; Bezrukov, L.; Enqvist, T.

    2013-01-01

    EMMA (Experiment with MultiMuon Array) is a new approach to study the composition of cosmic rays at the knee region (1 – 10 PeV). The array will measure the multiplicity and lateral distribution of the high-energy muon component of an air shower and its arrival direction on an event-by-event basis...

  15. Transport coefficients of low-energy cosmic rays in interplanetary space

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Palmer, I.

    1982-01-01

    The propagation of energetic particles along and across the interplantary magnetic field is governed by the large-scale field geometry and by scattering in small-scale turbulent fields. Values of the scattering mean free path parallel to the field, γ/sub parallel/ (R), are reviewed in prompt solar bursts and nonimpulsive (corotating) events. Analysis of intensity and anisotropy profiles in combination is a powerful tool for elucidating γ/sub parallel/ (R). A consensus is found: at 1 AU, γ/sub parallel/ = 0.08--0.3 AU over a wide range of rigidity, R = 5 x 10 -4 to 5 GV. Efforts to explain the discrepancy between empirical values of γ/sub parallel/ and scattering theory are discussed. Quantitative measures of γ/sub parallel/ in rare scatter-free events, where magnetic power spectra. Cross-field diffusion due to random walk of field lines is revisited. Recent values deduced from magnetic power spectra in interplanetary space, magnetic diffusion at the sun, Jovian electron propagation, and cosmic ray events are evaluated. Again, a consensus is sought, and a reasonable mean is K/sub perpendicular//sup r//β = 10 21 cm 2 s -1 . Previous arguments against a significant K/sub perpendicular//sup r/ are reassessed, including the problem of the persistance of intensity fluctuations in cosmic ray events. Combining the consensus for K/sub perpendicular//sup r//β with that for γ/sub parallel/<0.1 at 1 AU, and thus neglect of K/sub perpendicular//sup r/ in the modeling of solar cosmic ray events appears justified (although account needs to be taken of coronal propagation). The outlook for the future includes better empirical values of γ/sub parallel/ down to E/sub p/approx.10 keV and E/sub e/approx. 1 keV, comparison with scattering theories at these energies, and comparison between empirical and theoretical γ/sub parallel/ in other regions such as the magnetosheath and upstream solar wind

  16. A New Measurement of the Cosmic X-ray Background

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moretti, A.

    2009-01-01

    I present a new analytical description of the cosmic X-ray background (CXRB) spectrum in the 1.5-200 keV energy band, obtained by combining the new measurement performed by the Swift X-ray telescope (XRT) with the recently published Swift burst alert telescope (BAT) measurement. A study of the cosmic variance in the XRT band (1.5-7 keV) is also presented. I find that the expected cosmic variance (expected from LogN-LogS) scales as Ω -0.3 (where Ω is the surveyed area) in very good agreement with XRT data.

  17. Energy spectrum and angular distribution of prompt cosmic-ray muons

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Castagnoli, C; Picchi, P [Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Turin (Italy). Lab. di Cosmo-Geofisica; Turin Univ. (Italy). Ist. di Fisica Generale); Castellina, A; D' Ettorre Piazzoli, B; Mannocchi, G; Vernetto, S [Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Turin (Italy). Lab. di Cosmo-Geofisica

    1984-07-01

    The energy spectrum and angular distribution of atmospheric prompt muons are calculated by using an integral solution for production of charmed particles, their decay and muon transport in the atmosphere. Current experimental information from accelerator and theoretical ideas about charm cross-section and semi-leptonic decay are used to give a reference prompt muon spectrum to compare with that from conventional sources (..pi.. and K decay). The obtained differential spectrum has an energy dependence which approaches that of the primary cosmic rays. The integral intensity of prompt muons is equal to the conventional one at about 250 TeV. The angular distribution is found to be practically flat in the range (0/80)/sup 0/ irrespective of the muon energy. On the basis of this analysis we estimate that accurate measurements of muon energy spectrum and angular distribution at energies greater than 10 TeV should allow one to obtain useful information regarding charm hadroproduction cross-section in the 100 TeV region.

  18. Results on the energy dependence of cosmic-ray charge composition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balasubrahmanyan, V. K.; Ormes, J. F.

    1973-01-01

    Results of measurements by a balloon-borne ionization spectrometer of the energy dependence of high-energy cosmic-ray charge composition. The results presented are greatly improved over those obtained earlier by Ormes et al. (1971) by the use of a multidimensional charge analysis with more efficient background rejection, and a more accurate energy determination. Complex couplings between the charge, energy, and trajectory information were taken into account and are discussed. The spectra of individual elements up to oxygen and of groups of nuclei up through iron were measured up to almost 100 GeV per nucleon. The energy spectrum of the secondary nuclei, B + N, is found to be steeper than that of the primary nuclei, C + O, in agreement with Smith et al. (1973). The most dramatic finding is that the spectrum of the iron nuclei is flatter than that of the carbon and oxygen nuclei by 0.57 plus or minus 0.14 of a power.

  19. Primary cosmic ray flux

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stanev, Todor

    2001-05-01

    We discuss the primary cosmic ray flux from the point of view of particle interactions and production of atmospheric neutrinos. The overall normalization of the cosmic ray flux and its time variations and site dependence are major ingredients of the atmospheric neutrino predictions and the basis for the derivation of the neutrino oscillation parameters.

  20. Cosmic ray studies with the Soudan 2 detector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ruddick, Keith

    1994-01-01

    We will describe attempts to measure the elemental composition of the primary cosmic rays using muons observed deep underground in coincidence with detectors on the surface of the earth. A proportional tube array has been used to measure shower size at the surface and we have recently constructed a Cerenkov array which will give a more direct measurement of primary cosmic ray energy. We will also present results from an all-sky survey obtained from the trajectories of underground muons ohserved over a four year period. ((orig.))

  1. Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays from radio galaxies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eichmann, B.; Rachen, J. P.; Merten, L.; van Vliet, A.; Becker Tjus, J.

    2018-02-01

    Radio galaxies are intensively discussed as the sources of cosmic rays observed above about 3 × 1018 eV, called ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). We present a first, systematic approach that takes the individual characteristics of these sources into account, as well as the impact of the extragalactic magnetic-field structures up to a distance of 120 Mpc. We use a mixed simulation setup, based on 3D simulations of UHECRs ejected by observed, individual radio galaxies taken out to a distance of 120 Mpc, and on 1D simulations over a continuous source distribution contributing from beyond 120 Mpc. Additionally, we include the ultra-luminous radio galaxy Cygnus A at a distance of about 250 Mpc, as its contribution is so strong that it must be considered as an individual point source. The implementation of the UHECR ejection in our simulation setup, both that of individual radio galaxies and the continuous source function, is based on a detailed consideration of the physics of radio jets and standard first-order Fermi acceleration. This allows to derive the spectrum of ejected UHECR as a function of radio luminosity, and at the same time provides an absolute normalization of the problem involving only a small set of parameters adjustable within narrow constraints. We show that the average contribution of radio galaxies taken over a very large volume cannot explain the observed features of UHECRs measured at Earth. However, we obtain excellent agreement with the spectrum, composition, and arrival-direction distribution of UHECRs measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory, if we assume that most UHECRs observed arise from only two sources: the ultra-luminous radio galaxy Cygnus A, providing a mostly light composition of nuclear species dominating up to about 6 × 1019 eV, and the nearest radio galaxy Centaurus A, providing a heavy composition dominating above 6 × 1019 eV . Here we have to assume that extragalactic magnetic fields out to 250 Mpc, which we did not

  2. A search for anisotropy in the arrival directions of ultra high energy cosmic rays recorded at the Pierre Auger Observatory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Abreu, P.

    2012-01-01

    Observations of cosmic ray arrival directions made with the Pierre Auger Observatory have previously provided evidence of anisotropy at the 99% CL using the correlation of ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) with objects drawn from the Veron-Cetty Veron catalog. In this paper we report on the use of three catalog independent methods to search for anisotropy. The 2pt-L, 2pt+ and 3pt methods, each giving a different measure of self-clustering in arrival directions, were tested on mock cosmic ray data sets to study the impacts of sample size and magnetic smearing on their results, accounting for both angular and energy resolutions. If the sources of UHECRs follow the same large scale structure as ordinary galaxies in the local Universe and if UHECRs are deflected no more than a few degrees, a study of mock maps suggests that these three methods can efficiently respond to the resulting anisotropy with a P-value = 1.0% or smaller with data sets as few as 100 events. Using data taken from January 1, 2004 to July 31, 2010 we examined the 20, 30, ..., 110 highest energy events with a corresponding minimum energy threshold of about 51 EeV. The minimum P-values found were 13.5% using the 2pt-L method, 1.0% using the 2pt+ method and 1.1% using the 3pt method for the highest 100 energy events. In view of the multiple (correlated) scans performed on the data set, these catalog-independent methods do not yield strong evidence of anisotropy in the highest energy cosmic rays.

  3. Measurements at LHC and their relevance for cosmic ray physics

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2016-01-01

    Many LHC measurements are already used to improve hadronic interaction models used in cosmic ray analyses. This already had a positive effect on the model dependence of crucial data analyses. Some of the data and the model tuning is reviewed. However, the LHC still has a lot more potential to provide crucial information. Since the start of Run2 the highest accelerator beam energies are reached and no further increase can be expected for a long time. First data of Run2 are published and the fundamental performance of cosmic ray hadronic interaction models can be scrutinized. The relevance of LHC data in general for cosmic ray data analyses is demonstrated.

  4. Measurement of cosmic-ray muons with the Distributed Electronic Cosmic-ray Observatory, a network of smartphones

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vandenbroucke, J.; Bravo, S.; Karn, P.; Meehan, M.; Plewa, M.; Schultz, D.; Tosi, D.; BenZvi, S.; Jensen, K.; Peacock, J.; Ruggles, T.; Santander, M.; Simons, A.L.

    2016-01-01

    Solid-state camera image sensors can be used to detect ionizing radiation in addition to optical photons. We describe the Distributed Electronic Cosmic-ray Observatory (DECO), an app and associated public database that enables a network of consumer devices to detect cosmic rays and other ionizing radiation. In addition to terrestrial background radiation, cosmic-ray muon candidate events are detected as long, straight tracks passing through multiple pixels. The distribution of track lengths can be related to the thickness of the active (depleted) region of the camera image sensor through the known angular distribution of muons at sea level. We use a sample of candidate muon events detected by DECO to measure the thickness of the depletion region of the camera image sensor in a particular consumer smartphone model, the HTC Wildfire S. The track length distribution is fit better by a cosmic-ray muon angular distribution than an isotropic distribution, demonstrating that DECO can detect and identify cosmic-ray muons despite a background of other particle detections. Using the cosmic-ray distribution, we measure the depletion thickness to be 26.3 ± 1.4 μm. With additional data, the same method can be applied to additional models of image sensor. Once measured, the thickness can be used to convert track length to incident polar angle on a per-event basis. Combined with a determination of the incident azimuthal angle directly from the track orientation in the sensor plane, this enables direction reconstruction of individual cosmic-ray events using a single consumer device. The results simultaneously validate the use of cell phone camera image sensors as cosmic-ray muon detectors and provide a measurement of a parameter of camera image sensor performance which is not otherwise publicly available

  5. Heliospheric modulation of cosmic rays: model and observation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gerasimova S.K.

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents the basic model of cosmic ray modulation in the heliosphere, developed in Yu.G. Shafer Institute of Cosmophysical Research and Aeronomy of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The model has only one free modulation parameter: the ratio of the regular magnetic field to the turbulent one. It may also be applied to the description of cosmic ray intensity variations in a wide energy range from 100 MeV to 100 GeV. Possible mechanisms of generation of the turbulent field are considered. The primary assumption about the electrical neutrality of the heliosphere appears to be wrong, and the zero potential needed to match the model with observations in the solar equatorial plane can be achieved if the frontal point of the heliosphere, which is flowed around by interstellar gas, lies near the plane. We have revealed that the abnormal rise of cosmic ray intensity at the end of solar cycle 23 is related to the residual modulation produced by the subsonic solar wind behind the front of a standing shock wave. The model is used to describe features of cosmic ray intensity variations in several solar activity cycles.

  6. Acceleration and propagation of cosmic rays. Production, oscillation and detection of neutrinos

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lagage, P.O.

    1987-01-01

    This thesis is devoted to studies on cosmic rays and neutrinos, particles astrophysically relevant. In recent years, the old problem of cosmic-ray acceleration and propagation has become alive again, with the discovery of the diffusive shock acceleration mechanism, and with the first measurements of the cosmic-ray antiproton flux, which appears to be higher than expected. I have shown that the new acceleration mechanism was slow and I have calculated the maximum energy that can be reached by particles accelerated in various astrophysical sites. I have also studied in detail a cosmic-ray propagation model which takes into account the antiproton measurements. Neutrino astronomy is a field much more recent and in rapid expansion, thanks to a convergence of interests between astrophysicists and elementary particle physicists. Several large neutrino detectors already exist; really huge ones are in project. I have studied the possible impact of the high energy (> 1 TeV) neutrino astronomy on models of cosmic-ray sources such as Cygnus X3. Comparing the low energy (∼ 10 MeV) cosmic-ray antineutrinos with other sources of neutrinos and antineutrinos (sun, supernova, earth ...), I have pointed out that the antineutrino background resulting from all the nuclear power-stations of the planet was sizeable. This background is a nuisance for some astrophysical applications but could be useful for studies on vacuum or matter neutrino oscillations (MSW effect). I have also examined the MSW effect in another context: the travel through the earth of neutrinos from the supernova explosion SN1987a [fr

  7. THE CENTAURUS A ULTRAHIGH-ENERGY COSMIC-RAY EXCESS AND THE LOCAL EXTRAGALACTIC MAGNETIC FIELD

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yüksel, Hasan; Kronberg, Philipp P.; Stanev, Todor; Kistler, Matthew D.

    2012-01-01

    The ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray (UHECR) anisotropies discovered by the Pierre Auger Observatory provide the potential to finally address both the particle origins and properties of the nearby extragalactic magnetic field (EGMF). We examine the implications of the excess of ∼10 20 eV events around the nearby radio galaxy Centaurus A. We find that, if Cen A is the source of these cosmic rays, the angular distribution of events constrains the EGMF strength within several Mpc of the Milky Way to ∼> 20 nG for an assumed primary proton composition. Our conclusions suggest that either the observed excess is a statistical anomaly or the local EGMF is stronger than conventionally thought. We discuss several implications, including UHECR scattering from more distant sources, time delays from transient sources, and the possibility of using magnetic lensing signatures to attain tighter constraints.

  8. THE CENTAURUS A ULTRAHIGH-ENERGY COSMIC-RAY EXCESS AND THE LOCAL EXTRAGALACTIC MAGNETIC FIELD

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yueksel, Hasan; Kronberg, Philipp P. [Theoretical Division, MS B285, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States); Stanev, Todor [Bartol Research Institute, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 (United States); Kistler, Matthew D. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)

    2012-10-10

    The ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray (UHECR) anisotropies discovered by the Pierre Auger Observatory provide the potential to finally address both the particle origins and properties of the nearby extragalactic magnetic field (EGMF). We examine the implications of the excess of {approx}10{sup 20} eV events around the nearby radio galaxy Centaurus A. We find that, if Cen A is the source of these cosmic rays, the angular distribution of events constrains the EGMF strength within several Mpc of the Milky Way to {approx}> 20 nG for an assumed primary proton composition. Our conclusions suggest that either the observed excess is a statistical anomaly or the local EGMF is stronger than conventionally thought. We discuss several implications, including UHECR scattering from more distant sources, time delays from transient sources, and the possibility of using magnetic lensing signatures to attain tighter constraints.

  9. Average Anisotropy Characteristics of High Energy Cosmic Ray ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Further Shrivastava & Shukla (1996) reported that there is a high correlation between solar wind velocity and Ap index. As we know from convection diffusion approximate theory, solar wind velocity plays an important role in cosmic ray modulation. In the absence of solar wind data, one can use the daily values of Ap index.

  10. Anisotropy of TeV and PeV cosmic rays with IceCube and IceTop

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Santander, M., E-mail: santander@icecube.wisc.edu [University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53703 (United States)

    2013-10-11

    The interaction of high energy cosmic rays with the Earth's atmosphere produces extensive air showers of secondary particles with a large muon component. By exploiting the sensitivity of neutrino telescopes to high energy muons, it is possible to use these detectors for precision cosmic ray studies. The high rate of cosmic-ray muon events provides a high-statistics data sample that can be used to look for anisotropy in the arrival directions of the parent particles at the per-mille level. This paper will report on the observation of anisotropy in the cosmic ray data collected with the IceCube neutrino telescope in the 20-400 TeV energy range at multiple angular scales. New data from the IceTop air shower array, located on the ice surface above IceCube, shows an anisotropy that is consistent with the high-energy IceCube results. The sensitivity of IceTop to all the components of the extensive air shower will allow us to explore in more detail the characteristics of the primary cosmic rays associated with the observed anisotropy.

  11. Cosmic ray radio emission as air shower detection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Curutiu, Alexandru; Rusu, Mircea; Isar, Gina; Zgura, Sorin

    2004-01-01

    The possibility of radio-detection of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (within the 10 to 100 MHz range) are discussed. Currently, air showers are detected by various methods, mainly based on particle detectors (KASCADE, Auger) or optical detection (Cerenkov radiation). Recently,to detect radio emission from cosmic ray air showers a method using electromagnetic radiation in low frequency domain (LOFAR) was proposed. We are investigating this possibility, using simulation codes created to investigate electromagnetic radiation of intricate antennae structure, for example fractal antennas. Some of the preliminary results will be communicated in this session. (authors)

  12. OBSERVATIONS OF HIGH-ENERGY COSMIC-RAY ELECTRONS FROM 30 GeV TO 3 TeV WITH EMULSION CHAMBERS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kobayashi, T. [Department of Physics and Mathematics, Aoyama Gakuin University, Sagamihara 252-5258 (Japan); Komori, Y. [Faculty of Health and Social Services, Kanagawa University of Human Services, Yokosuka 238-0013 (Japan); Yoshida, K.; Yanagisawa, K. [College of Systems Engineering and Science, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Saitama 337-8570 (Japan); Nishimura, J.; Yamagami, T.; Saito, Y. [Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Sagamihara 229-8510 (Japan); Tateyama, N. [Faculty of Engineering, Kanagawa University, Yokohama 221-8686 (Japan); Yuda, T. [Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa 277-8582 (Japan); Wilkes, R. J., E-mail: tadasik-112850@jasper.dti.ne.jp, E-mail: komori-y@kuhs.ac.jp, E-mail: yoshida@shibaura-it.ac.jp, E-mail: nisimura@icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp, E-mail: tateyama@n.kanagawa-u.ac.jp, E-mail: yuda@icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp, E-mail: wilkes@u.washington.edu [Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1560 (United States)

    2012-12-01

    We have performed a series of cosmic-ray electron observations using balloon-borne emulsion chambers since 1968. While we previously reported the results from subsets of the exposures, the final results of the total exposures up to 2001 are presented here. Our successive experiments have yielded a total exposure of 8.19 m{sup 2} sr day at altitudes of 4.0-9.4 g cm{sup -2}. The performance of the emulsion chambers was examined by accelerator beam tests and Monte Carlo simulations, and the on-board calibrations were carried out by using the flight data. In this work, we present the cosmic-ray electron spectrum in the energy range from 30 GeV to 3 TeV at the top of the atmosphere, which is well represented by a power-law function with an index of -3.28 {+-} 0.10. The observed data can also be interpreted in terms of diffusive propagation models. The evidence of cosmic-ray electrons up to 3 TeV suggests the existence of cosmic-ray electron sources at distances within {approx}1 kpc and times within {approx}1 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 5} yr ago.

  13. Cosmic rays, clouds and climate

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Svensmark, Henrik [Danish Space Research Institute, Juliane Maries Vej 30, DK-2100 Copenhagen (Denmark)

    2007-07-01

    Changes in the intensity of galactic cosmic rays seems alter the Earth's cloudiness. A recent experiment has shown how electrons liberated by cosmic rays assist in making aerosols, the building blocks of cloud condensation nuclei, while anomalous climatic trends in Antarctica confirm the role of clouds in helping to drive climate change. Variations in the cosmic-ray influx due to solar magnetic activity account well for climatic fluctuations on decadal, centennial and millennial timescales. Over longer intervals, the changing galactic environment of the Solar System has had dramatic consequences, including Snowball Earth episodes.

  14. Cosmic rays Monte Carlo simulations for the Extreme Energy Events Project

    CERN Document Server

    Abbrescia, M; Aiola, S; Antolini, R; Avanzini, C; Baldini Ferroli, R; Bencivenni, G; Bossini, E; Bressan, E; Chiavassa, A; Cicalò, C; Cifarelli, L; Coccia, E; De Gruttola, D; De Pasquale, S; Di Giovanni, A; D'Incecco, M; Dreucci, M; Fabbri, F L; Frolov, V; Garbini, M; Gemme, G; Gnesi, I; Gustavino, C; Hatzifotiadou, D; La Rocca, P; Li, S; Librizzi, F; Maggiora, A; Massai, M; Miozzi, S; Panareo, M; Paoletti, R; Perasso, L; Pilo, F; Piragino, G; Regano, A; Riggi, F; Righini, G C; Sartorelli, G; Scapparone, E; Scribano, A; Selvi, M; Serci, S; Siddi, E; Spandre, G; Squarcia, S; Taiuti, M; Tosello, F; Votano, L; Williams, M C S; Yánez, G; Zichichi, A; Zuyeuski, R

    2014-01-01

    The Extreme Energy Events Project (EEE Project) is an innovative experiment to study very high energy cosmic rays by means of the detection of the associated air shower muon component. It consists of a network of tracking detectors installed inside Italian High Schools. Each tracking detector, called EEE telescope, is composed of three Multigap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPCs). At present, 43 telescopes are installed and taking data, opening the way for the detection of far away coincidences over a total area of about 3 × 10 5 km 2 . In this paper we present the Monte Carlo simulations that have been performed to predict the expected coincidence rate between distant EEE telescopes.

  15. Light element production by cosmological cosmic rays and the gamma-ray background

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Montmerle, T.

    1977-01-01

    This paper examines the view that the 1-100 MeV γ-ray background is of cosmological origin, and is produced by high-energy collisions in a burst at high redshifts (approximately 100) between cosmic rays and the ambient gas, as suggested by Stecker (1969). To test this 'cosmological cosmic-ray (CCR) hypothesis', use is made of the fact that, simultaneously, low energy interactions give birth to the light elements D, 3 He, 6 Li, 7 Li and 7 Be. Their resulting abundances are calculated by normalizing the CCR flux to the observed γ-ray background. Since it is possible to find the correct (observed) 7 Li abundance, which is otherwise unexplained as yet, by this process, it is of interest to discuss the various uncertainties involved in the calculations. Among these, the spread of the present γ-ray data, especially between 1 and approximately 10 MeV, is a major uncertainty, and emphasis is put on its influence on the results and, as a consequence, on the validity of the CCR hypothesi

  16. Cosmic-ray antiprotons as a probe of a photino-dominated universe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silk, J.; Srednicki, M.

    1984-01-01

    Observational tests of the hypothesis that the universe is flat and dominated by dark matter in the form of massive photinos include the production of significant fluxes of cosmic rays and gamma rays in our galactic halo. Specification of the cosmological photino density and the masses of scalar quarks and leptons determines the present annihilation rate. The predicted number of low-energy cosmic-ray antiprotons is comparable to the observed flux.

  17. The maximum energy of cosmic rays gained in the jet of black holes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tascau, Oana; Biermann, Peter

    2003-01-01

    In this paper we will present the results of the calculation of maximum energy gained by a particle in the acceleration process done by the black hole mechanism. We are using here the model of P. Biermann and H. Falcke to determine if and how the black holes contribute to the cosmic rays that reach the Earth. The conclusion is that at the highest energy only M87 contributes, as has been claimed for many years. Secondly, at lower energy, Cen A may indeed take over as second most important source, again as expected for some time. (authors)

  18. High energy nucleonic component of cosmic rays at mountain altitudes

    CERN Document Server

    Stora, Raymond Félix

    The diffusion equations describing the unidimensional propagation of .the high energy nucleonic component of cosmic rays throughout the atmosphere are sol"V'ed under two assumptions: (l) The nucleon-nucleon collisions are described according to Fermi's therlnOdynamical model involving completely inelastic pion and.nucleon-antinucleon pair production. (2) A somewhat opposite assumption is made assuming partially elastic collisions without nucleon-anti.nucleon pair production. Due to the present inaccuracy of experiments, we are able to derive only tentati v.e conclusions. The values computed under both hypotheses for the absorption mean free path and the charged to neutral particles ratio are found in acceptable ranges when compared to experimental data. The diffeential energy spectrum at a given depth is always found steeper than the primary, and steeper than indicated by experimental values if the primary is taken proportional to the 2.5 inverse power of energy.

  19. LHCf-measurement of forward neutral particle production for cosmic ray research

    CERN Multimedia

    Masuda, K; Ito, Y; Adriani, O; Papini, P; Tricomi, A; Perrot, A; Ricciarini, S B; D'alessandro, R; Yoshida, K

    2007-01-01

    An energy calibration experiment is under preparation for ultra high energy cosmic ray experiments in the energy range between 1017eV and 1020eV. Small calorimeters will be installed between the two beam pipes in the â€ワY vacuum chamber” 140m away from the interaction point IP1 of the Large Hadron Collider. Within an exposure time of a few hours at luminosity ~10$^{29}$ cm-2s-1, very important results will be obtained that will resolve long standing quests by the highest energy cosmic ray physics experiments.

  20. Ultra-high energy cosmic rays from white dwarf pulsars and the Hillas criterion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lobato, Ronaldo V.; Coelho, Jaziel G.; Malheiro, M.

    2017-01-01

    The origins of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays ( E ≳ 10 19 eV) are a mystery and still under debate in astroparticle physics. In recent years some efforts were made to understand their nature. In this contribution we consider the possibility of Some Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs) and Anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXPs) beeing white dwarf pulsars, and show that these sources can achieve large electromagnetic potentials on their surface that accelerate particle almost at the speed of light, with energies E ∼ 10 20-21 eV. The sources SGRs/AXPs considered as highly magnetized white dwarfs are well described in the Hillas diagram, lying close to the AR Sorpii and AE Aquarii which are understood as white dwarf pulsars. (paper)

  1. Galactic cosmic ray iron composition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Scherzer, R.; Enge, W.; Beaujean, R.

    1980-11-01

    We have studied the isotopic compostition of galactic cosmic ray iron in the energy interval 500-750 MeV/nucleon with a visual track detector system consisting of nuclear emulsion and cellulose-nitrate platic. Stopping iron nuclei were identified from ionization - range measurements in the two detector parts. Cone lengths were measured in the plastic sheets and the residual ranges of the particles were measured in plastic and in emulsion. We have determined the mass of 17 iron nuclei with an uncertainty of about 0.3 amu. The isotopic composition at the detector level was found to be 52 Fe: 53 Fe: 54 Fe: 55 Fe: 56 Fe: 57 Fe: 58 Fe = 0:1: 4:3:8:1:0. These numbers are not in conflict with the assumption that the isotopic composition of cosmic ray iron at the source is similar to the solar system composition. (author)

  2. Do cosmic ray air showers initiate lightning? : A statistical analysis of cosmic ray air showers and lightning mapping array data

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hare, B. M.; Dwyer, J. R.; Winner, L. H.; Uman, M. A.; Jordan, D. M.; Kotovsky, D. A.; Caicedo, J. A.; Wilkes, R. A.; Carvalho, F. L.; Pilkey, J. T.; Ngin, T. K.; Gamerota, W. R.; Rassoul, H. K.

    2017-01-01

    It has been argued in the technical literature, and widely reported in the popular press, that cosmic ray air showers (CRASs) can initiate lightning via a mechanism known as relativistic runaway electron avalanche (RREA), where large numbers of high-energy and low-energy electrons can, somehow,

  3. Cosmic-ray muons as a calibration source for high-energy gamma-ray detectors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thoerngren Engblom, P.

    1990-09-01

    In this paper a measurement of the directional distribution of cosmic-ray muons, at the latitude of Stockholm, is reported. In fitting the measured flux to a simple analytical expression, the distribution was found to be symmetric around a line approximately to the northwest at 4.2±0.7 degrees from zenith. The east-west asymmetry amounted to a difference in the total intensity of 20±4% at the zenith angle of 45 degrees. The spectra of energies deposited by the muons in a BGO-detector orientated at different angles, are obtained through a Monte Carlo-simulation, where the muon distribution is used as a weight function for sampling muons in different directions. (author)

  4. Development and data analysis of a radio-detection of ultra high energy cosmic rays experiment; Developpement et analyse des donnees d'une experience de radiodetection des rayons cosmiques d'ultra haute energie

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Belletoile, A

    2007-10-15

    The radio-detection of cosmic rays was first attempted in the sixties. Unfortunately at that time, the results suffered from poor reproducibility and the technique was abandoned in favour of direct particle and fluorescence detection. Taking advantage of recent technological improvements the radio-detection of ultra high energy cosmic rays is being reinvestigated. In this document, first, we remind the reader of the global problematic of cosmic rays. Then, the several mechanisms involved in the emission of an electric field associated with extensive air showers are discussed. The CODALEMA (cosmic detection array with logarithmic electro magnetic antenna) experiment that aims to demonstrate the feasibility of cosmic ray radio-detection, is extensively described along with the first experimental results. A radio-detection test experiment implanted at the giant detector Pierre Auger is presented. It should provide inputs to design the future detector using this technique at extreme energies. (author)

  5. Atomic properties of the elements and cosmic ray composition at the source

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Casse, M.; Goret, P.; Cesarsky, C.J.

    1975-01-01

    Possible correlations between the abundances of cosmic rays at the source and the solar system abundances are discussed. Cosmic ray source abundances could be explained if the particles are accelerated to injection energies in a dilute, moderately hot plasma, from which they escape in a rigidity dependant fashion [fr

  6. The Hisparc cosmic ray experiment : data acquisition and reconstruction of shower direction

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fokkema, D.; Fokkema, D.

    2012-01-01

    The field of cosmic ray physics is a century old and an exciting area of research. When cosmic ray particles enter our atmosphere they collide with air molecules creating new high-energy particles. These particles participate in further collisions and the entire process is known as an air shower.

  7. Cosmic Ray Signatures of Decaying Dark Matter

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ibarra, Alejandro

    2011-01-01

    Astrophysical and cosmological observations do not require the dark matter particles to be absolutely stable. If they are indeed unstable, their decay into Standard Model particles might occur at a sufficiently large rate to allow the indirect detection of dark matter through an anomalous contribution to the high energy cosmic ray fluxes. We analyze the implications of the excess in the total electron plus positron flux and the positron fraction reported by the Fermi and PAMELA collaborations, respectively, for the scenario of decaying dark matter. We also discuss the constraints on this scenario from measurements of other cosmic ray species and the predictions for the diffuse gamma ray flux and the neutrino flux. In particular, we expect a sizable dipole-like anisotropy which may be observed in the near future by the Fermi-LAT.

  8. Constraints on the galactic distribution of cosmic rays from the COS-B gamma-ray data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1985-08-01

    The velocity information of the HI and CO observations is used as a distance indicator to ascertain the spatial distribution of the interstellar gas. Using this distance information, the galacto-centric distribution of the gamma-ray emissivity (the production rate per H atom) is determined for three gamma-ray energy ranges from a correlation study of the gamma-ray intensity maps and the gas-tracer maps for selected galacto-centric distance intervals, taking into account the expected IC contribution and pointlike gamma-ray sources. On the assumption that unresolved gamma-ray point sources do not contribute significantly to the observed gamma-ray emission, the gamma-ray emissivity is proportional to the Cosmic ray density and, more specifically, the energy dependence can be used to study separately the distribution of Cosmic ray electrons and nuclei: whereas the emission for the 300 MeV - 5 GeV range is dominated by π 0 -decay, the 70 MeV - 150 MeV range has a large electron bremsstrahlung contribution

  9. Synthesis of ideas on cosmic ray origin and propagation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wolfendale, A.W.

    1986-01-01

    An attempt is made, based largely on ideas reported at this Advanced Studies Institute, to synthesise ideas which have been put forward on cosmic ray origin and propagation. The conclusions drawn are as follows. The bulk of cosmic rays detected at earth appear to be of Galactic origin, many probably having come from supernova remnants, at least at the lowest energies. Only above 10/sup 19/ eV does an extragalactic origin appear likely and here the VIRGO cluster at the centre of our Supercluster is a likely source. Although extragalactic cosmic rays are not present to a large extent their energy density could well be significant and the case is made for its being about 10/sup -4/ eV cm/sup -3/. Concerning the controversy about continuous or ''quick'' particle acceleration, it appears necessary to separate origin and acceleration. The interesting model put forward by Schlickeiser involving what might be called pseudo-continuous acceleration appears to require that the bulk of the particle acceleration occurs in a very large Galactic halo, the secondaries being produced only in the gas disk. Problems are likely, however, with the expected fluxes of X-rays and radio synchrotron radiation

  10. Measurement of ultra-high energy cosmic rays: An experimental summary and prospects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fukushima M.

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Measurements of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays achieved remarkable progress in the last 10 years. Physicists, gathered from around the world in the symposium UHECR-2012 held at CERN on February 13-16 2012, reported their most up-to-date observations, discussed the meaning of their findings, and identified remaining problems and future challenges in this field. This paper is a part of the symposium proceedings on the experimental summary and future prospects of the UHECR study.

  11. Cosmic ray signatures of a 2-3 Myr old local supernova

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kachelrieß, M.; Neronov, A.; Semikoz, D. V.

    2018-03-01

    The supernova explosion which deposited Fe 60 isotopes on Earth 2-3 million years ago should have also produced cosmic rays which contribute to the locally observed cosmic ray flux. We show that the contribution of this "local source" causes the "anomalies" observed in the positron and antiproton fluxes and explains why their spectral shapes agree with that of the proton flux. At the same time, this local source component accounts for the difference in the slopes of the spectra of cosmic ray nuclei as the result of the slightly varying relative importance of the "local" and the average component for distinct CR nuclei. Such a "local supernova" model for the spectra of nuclei can be tested via a combined measurement of the energy dependence of the boron-to-carbon (primary-to-secondary cosmic rays) ratio and of the antiproton spectrum: while the antiproton spectrum is predicted to extend approximately as a power law into the TeV range without any softening break, the B/C ratio is expected to show a "plateau" at a level fixed by the observed positron excess in the 30-300 GeV range. We discuss the observability of such a plateau with dedicated experiments for the measurement of the cosmic ray composition in the 10 TeV energy range (NUCLEON, ISS-CREAM).

  12. QCD suggested high-energy asymptotics of the diffraction proton-proton scattering and the cosmic ray data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kopeliovich, V.Z.; Nikolaev, N.N.; Potashnikova, I.K.

    1986-01-01

    Asymptotics of nucleon-nucleon crosss sections is discussed within the perturbation quantum chromodynamics representations. At moderately high energies the perturbative two-gluon exchange satisfactorily reproduces the constant part of the total cross section. As the energy goes up, a series of the j-plane poles at Δ = j-1>0, dominates, the higher the energy, the bigger Δsub(eff). It is shown that the data on absorption of cosmic rays in atmosphere within the 10 5 - 10 6 TeV energy range need σsub(tot)sup(pp) approximately = 160-200 mbn which could be reproduced quantitatively, if only in asymptotics Δ approximately = 0.25-0.35. Standard one-pole description gives at these energies a sufficiently smaller cross section, approximately 100 mbn, and does not reproduce the cosmic ray data. The quoted in literature determinations from σsub(abs)(pAir) to σsub(tot)(pp) are erroneous. An important observation is that violation of the scaling of the fragment spectra is strongly correlated with the value of σsub(abs)(pAir). Making allowance for this dependence should essentially increase the reliability of σsub(abs)(pAir) determination

  13. Interactions of cosmic ray hadrons from 104 to 106 GeV

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gaisser, T.K.

    1977-01-01

    Three topics from the field of high energy cosmic rays that are relevant to properties of hadronic interactions at energies not accessible to existing accelerators are discussed. In each case, the implications for future experiments at ISABELLE and other accelerators planned to probe the energy range of E/sub Lab/ approximately 10 4 GeV and beyond are evaluated. A systematic analysis of inclusive distributions of photons produced in collisions of hadrons with light nuclei is given. The overall conclusion is that, although the data is consistent with scaling for small x in the fragmentation region, the plateau appears to rise significantly beyond ISR energies with a correspondingly rapid increase in multiplicity. The situation in the more controversial field of high p/sub T/ in cosmic rays is summarized. If the suggestions of some experiments are correct, then the high p/sub T/ component of hadronic interactions must become much more important relative to the normal component for E/sub Lab/ > 10 4 GeV than would be expected by extrapolating accelerator data on high p/sub T/ using fits of the form p/sub T/ -8 . Some analyses of atmospheric cascades produced by interactions of cosmic rays of E greater than or equal to 10 6 GeV are briefly reviewed. The interpretation of these experiments is ambiguous because the primary composition of cosmic rays is unknown at these energies. It is, however, possible to draw conclusions corresponding to various assumptions about the primary composition

  14. Charge-equilibrium and radiation of low-energy cosmic rays passing through interstellar medium

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rule, D. W.; Omidvar, K.

    1977-01-01

    The charge equilibrium and radiation of an oxygen and an iron beam in the MeV per nucleon energy range, representing a typical beam of low-energy cosmic rays passing through the interstellar medium, is considered. Electron loss of the beam has been taken into account by means of the First Born approximation allowing for the target atom to remain unexcited, or to be excited to all possible states. Electron capture cross sections have been calculated by means of the scaled Oppenheimer-Brinkman-Kramers approximation, taking into account all atomic shells of the target atoms. Radiation of the beam due to electron capture into the excited states of the ion, collisional excitation and collisional inner-shell ionization of the ions has been considered. Effective X-ray production cross sections and multiplicities for the most energetic X-ray lines emitted by the Fe and O beams have been calculated.

  15. Linking high-energy cosmic particles by black-hole jets embedded in large-scale structures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fang, Ke; Murase, Kohta

    2018-04-01

    The origin of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is a half-century-old enigma1. The mystery has been deepened by an intriguing coincidence: over ten orders of magnitude in energy, the energy generation rates of UHECRs, PeV neutrinos and isotropic sub-TeV γ-rays are comparable, which hints at a grand unified picture2. Here we report that powerful black hole jets in aggregates of galaxies can supply the common origin for all of these phenomena. Once accelerated by a jet, low-energy cosmic rays confined in the radio lobe are adiabatically cooled; higher-energy cosmic rays leaving the source interact with the magnetized cluster environment and produce neutrinos and γ-rays; the highest-energy particles escape from the host cluster and contribute to the observed cosmic rays above 100 PeV. The model is consistent with the spectrum, composition and isotropy of the observed UHECRs, and also explains the IceCube neutrinos and the non-blazar component of the Fermi γ-ray background, assuming a reasonable energy output from black hole jets in clusters.

  16. Closing CMS to hunt cosmic rays

    CERN Multimedia

    Claudia Marcelloni

    2006-01-01

    Every second the Earth is bombarded by billions of cosmic rays and occasionally one of these cosmic particles will collide with the Earth's atmosphere generating a shower of particles known as an 'air shower'. This is similiar to the collisions and subsequent particle showers observed in accelerators such as the LHC. Here the CMS detector is closed so that systems can be tested using muon cosmic rays in the 'Cosmic Challenge'.

  17. Energy estimation of cosmic rays with the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Aab, A.; Abreu, P.; Aglietta, M.; Blažek, Jiří; Boháčová, Martina; Chudoba, Jiří; Ebr, Jan; Mandát, Dušan; Nečesal, Petr; Palatka, Miroslav; Pech, Miroslav; Prouza, Michael; Řídký, Jan; Schovánek, Petr; Trávníček, Petr; Vícha, Jakub

    2016-01-01

    Roč. 93, č. 12 (2016), 1-15, č. článku 122005. ISSN 2470-0010 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) LG13007; GA MŠk(CZ) 7AMB14AR005; GA ČR(CZ) GA14-17501S Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : Pierre Auger Observatory * detector * cosmic rays * energy estimation Subject RIV: BF - Elementary Particles and High Energy Physics Impact factor: 4.568, year: 2016

  18. Muon acceleration in cosmic-ray sources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Klein, Spencer R.; Mikkelsen, Rune E.; Becker Tjus, Julia

    2013-01-01

    Many models of ultra-high energy cosmic-ray production involve acceleration in linear accelerators located in gamma-ray bursts, magnetars, or other sources. These transient sources have short lifetimes, which necessitate very high accelerating gradients, up to 10 13 keV cm –1 . At gradients above 1.6 keV cm –1 , muons produced by hadronic interactions undergo significant acceleration before they decay. This muon acceleration hardens the neutrino energy spectrum and greatly increases the high-energy neutrino flux. Using the IceCube high-energy diffuse neutrino flux limits, we set two-dimensional limits on the source opacity and matter density, as a function of accelerating gradient. These limits put strong constraints on different models of particle acceleration, particularly those based on plasma wake-field acceleration, and limit models for sources like gamma-ray bursts and magnetars.

  19. Acceleration of cosmic rays in supernova-remnants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dorfi, E. A.; Drury, L. O.

    1985-01-01

    It is commonly accepted that supernova-explosions are the dominant source of cosmic rays up to an energy of 10 to the 14th power eV/nucleon. Moreover, these high energy particles provide a major contribution to the energy density of the interstellar medium (ISM) and should therefore be included in calculations of interstellar dynamic phenomena. For the following the first order Fermi mechanism in shock waves are considered to be the main acceleration mechanism. The influence of this process is twofold; first, if the process is efficient (and in fact this is the cas) it will modify the dynamics and evolution of a supernova-remnant (SNR), and secondly, the existence of a significant high energy component changes the overall picture of the ISM. The complexity of the underlying physics prevented detailed investigations of the full non-linear selfconsistent problem. For example, in the context of the energy balance of the ISM it has not been investigated how much energy of a SN-explosion can be transfered to cosmic rays in a time-dependent selfconsistent model. Nevertheless, a lot of progress was made on many aspects of the acceleration mechanism.

  20. Acceleration of cosmic rays in supernova-remnants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dorfi, E.A.; Drury, L.O.

    1985-01-01

    It is commonly accepted that supernova-explosions are the dominant source of cosmic rays up to an energy of 10 to the 14th power eV/nucleon. Moreover, these high energy particles provide a major contribution to the energy density of the interstellar medium (ISM) and should therefore be included in calcuations of interstellar dynamic phenomena. For the following the first order Fermi mechanism in shock waves are considered to be the main acceleration mechanism. The influence of this process is twofold; first, if the process is efficient (and in fact this is the case) it will modify the dynamics and evolution of a supernova-remnant (SNR), and secondly, the existence of a significant high energy component changes the overall picture of the ISM. The complexity of the underlying physics prevented detailed investigations of the full non-linear selfconsistent problem. For example, in the context of the energy balance of the ISM it has not been investigated how much energy of a SN-explosion can be transfered to cosmic rays in a time-dependent selfconsistent model. Nevertheless, a lot of progress was made on many aspects of the acceleration mechnism

  1. Cosmic ray production curves below reworking zones

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blanford, G.E.

    1980-01-01

    A method is presented for calculating cosmic ray production profiles below reworking zones. The method uses an input reworking depth determined from data such as signatures in the depth profile of ferromagnetic resonance intensity and input cosmic ray production profiles for an undisturbed surface. Reworking histories are simulated using Monte Carlo techniques, and depth profiles are used to determine cosmic ray exposure age limits with a specified probability. It is shown that the track density profiles predict cosmic ray exposure ages in lunar cores that are consistent with values determined by other methods. Results applied to neutron fluence and spallation rare gases eliminate the use of reworking depth as an adjustable parameter and give cosmic ray exposure ages that are compatible with each other

  2. Energy spectrum of galactic cosmic ray modulation and dependence of modulation parameters on distance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Erkhov, V.I.; Kolomeets, E.V.; Likhoded, V.A.; Sevast'yanov, V.N.; Stekol'nikov, N.V.

    1981-01-01

    The paper presents the results of numerical calculation of galactic cosmic ray modulation by solar wind. Calculations were carried out on the basis of diffusion model taking into account convection and adiabatic loss of particles in interplanetary space. Both isotropic and anisotropic models were used in calculations. Modulation coefficient was calculated using the data on intensity of neutron component of cosmic rays and primary cosmic rays in the stratosphere for the period 1958-1979. The form of modulation function was determined. Obtained results allow to determine the size of modulation region and dependence of solar wind speed and diffusion coefficient on distance

  3. Irradiated ISM : Discriminating between cosmic rays and X-rays

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Meijerink, R.; Spaans, M.; Israel, F. P.

    2006-01-01

    The interstellar medium ( ISM) at the centers of active galaxies is exposed to a combination of cosmic-ray, far-ultraviolet (FUV), and X-ray radiation. We apply photodissociation region (PDR) models to this ISM with both "normal" and highly elevated (5 x 10(-15) s(-1)) cosmic- ray (CR) rates and

  4. Lorentz invariance violation and chemical composition of ultra high energy cosmic rays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Saveliev, Andrey; Sigl, Guenter [Hamburg Univ. (Germany). II. Inst. fuer Theoretische Physik; Maccione, Luca [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany). Theory Group

    2010-12-15

    Motivated by experimental indications of a significant presence of heavy nuclei in the cosmic ray flux at ultra high energies (>or similar 10{sup 19} eV), we consider the effects of Planck scale suppressed Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) on the propagation of cosmic ray nuclei. In particular we focus on LIV effects on the photodisintegration of nuclei onto the background radiation fields. After a general discussion of the behavior of the relevant quantities, we apply our formalism to a simplified model where the LIV parameters of the various nuclei are assumed to kinematically result from a single LIV parameter for the constituent nucleons, {eta}, and we derive constraints on {eta}. Assuming a nucleus of a particular species to be actually present at 10{sup 20} eV the following constraints can be placed: -3 x 10{sup -2}

  5. Cosmic ray muon study with the NEVOD-DECOR experiment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saavedra San Martin, Oscar

    2017-06-01

    The experiment NEVOV-DECOR, which is desinged to study the cosmic muons at very inclined directions, is running under the collaboration of the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, Moscow, Russia, and the Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica and the Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Torino, Italy. The main purpose of this experiment is to study the characteristics of the high multiplicity muons in muon bundles and their angular distributions. The result has shown the observation of the second knee at 1017 eV in the primary cosmic ray spectrum. In addition, we found that the number of high energy muons in EAS is more than 30% of what is predicted by the Monte Carlo models. This effect was found also by other experiments like Auger, but at primary cosmic ray energies higher than 1018 eV. We will present and discuss the main results of these investigations.

  6. Cosmic ray muon study with the NEVOD-DECOR experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Saavedra San Martin, Oscar

    2017-01-01

    The experiment NEVOV-DECOR, which is designed to study the cosmic muons at very inclined directions, is running under the collaboration of the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, Moscow, Russia, and the Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica and the Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Torino, Italy. The main purpose of this experiment is to study the characteristics of the high multiplicity muons in muon bundles and their angular distributions. The result has shown the observation of the second knee at 10 17 eV in the primary cosmic ray spectrum. In addition, we found that the number of high energy muons in EAS is more than 30% of what is predicted by the Monte Carlo models. This effect was found also by other experiments like Auger, but at primary cosmic ray energies higher than 10 18 eV. We will present and discuss the main results of these investigations. (paper)

  7. Catching Cosmic Rays with a DSLR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sibbernsen, Kendra

    2010-01-01

    Cosmic rays are high-energy particles from outer space that continually strike the Earth's atmosphere and produce cascades of secondary particles, which reach the surface of the Earth, mainly in the form of muons. These particles can be detected with scintillator detectors, Geiger counters, cloud chambers, and also can be recorded with commonly…

  8. Cosmic-ray and neutrino emission from Gamma-Ray Bursts with a nuclear cascade

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Biehl, Daniel; Boncioli, Denise; Fedynitch, Anatoli; Winter, Walter

    2017-05-24

    We discuss neutrino and cosmic-ray emission from Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) with the injection of nuclei, where we take into account that a nuclear cascade from photo-disintegration can fully develop in the source. One of our main objectives is to test if recent results from the IceCube and the Pierre Auger Observatory can be accommodated with the paradigm that GRBs are the sources of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs). While our key results are obtained using an internal shock model, we discuss how the secondary emission from a GRB shell can be interpreted in terms of other astrophysical models. It is demonstrated that the expected neutrino flux from GRBs weakly depends on the injection composition, which implies that prompt neutrinos from GRBs can efficiently test the GRB-UHECR paradigm even if the UHECRs are nuclei. We show that the UHECR spectrum and composition, as measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory, can be self-consistently reproduced in a combined source-propagation model. In an attempt to describe the energy range including the ankle, we find tension with the IceCube bounds from the GRB stacking analyses. In an alternative scenario, where only the UHECRs beyond the ankle originate from GRBs, the requirement for a joint description of cosmic-ray and neutrino observations favors lower luminosities, which does not correspond to the typical expectation from γ-ray observations.

  9. Cosmic-ray and neutrino emission from Gamma-Ray Bursts with a nuclear cascade

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Biehl, Daniel; Boncioli, Denise; Fedynitch, Anatoli; Winter, Walter

    2017-01-01

    We discuss neutrino and cosmic-ray emission from Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) with the injection of nuclei, where we take into account that a nuclear cascade from photo-disintegration can fully develop in the source. One of our main objectives is to test if recent results from the IceCube and the Pierre Auger Observatory can be accommodated with the paradigm that GRBs are the sources of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs). While our key results are obtained using an internal shock model, we discuss how the secondary emission from a GRB shell can be interpreted in terms of other astrophysical models. It is demonstrated that the expected neutrino flux from GRBs weakly depends on the injection composition, which implies that prompt neutrinos from GRBs can efficiently test the GRB-UHECR paradigm even if the UHECRs are nuclei. We show that the UHECR spectrum and composition, as measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory, can be self-consistently reproduced in a combined source-propagation model. In an attempt to describe the energy range including the ankle, we find tension with the IceCube bounds from the GRB stacking analyses. In an alternative scenario, where only the UHECRs beyond the ankle originate from GRBs, the requirement for a joint description of cosmic-ray and neutrino observations favors lower luminosities, which does not correspond to the typical expectation from γ-ray observations.

  10. Acceleration of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays in starburst superwinds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anchordoqui, Luis Alfredo

    2018-03-01

    The sources of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) have been stubbornly elusive. However, the latest report of the Pierre Auger Observatory provides a compelling indication for a possible correlation between the arrival directions of UHECRs and nearby starburst galaxies. We argue that if starbursts are sources of UHECRs, then particle acceleration in the large-scale terminal shock of the superwind that flows from the starburst engine represents the best known concept model in the market. We investigate new constraints on the model and readjust free parameters accordingly. We show that UHECR acceleration above about 1 011 GeV remains consistent with observation. We also show that the model could accommodate hard source spectra as required by Auger data. We demonstrate how neutrino emission can be used as a discriminator among acceleration models.

  11. Fornax A, Centaurus A other radio galaxies as sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matthews, J. H.; Bell, A. R.; Blundell, K. M.; Araudo, A. T.

    2018-06-01

    The origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is still unknown. It has recently been proposed that UHECR anisotropies can be attributed to starburst galaxies or active galactic nuclei. We suggest that the latter is more likely and that giant-lobed radio galaxies such as Centaurus A and Fornax A can explain the data.

  12. Reconstructing the long-term cosmic ray intensity: linear relations do not work

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. Mursula

    2003-04-01

    Full Text Available It was recently suggested (Lockwood, 2001 that the cosmic ray intensity in the neutron monitor energy range is linearly related to the coronal source flux, and can be reconstructed for the last 130 years using the long-term coronal flux estimated earlier. Moreover, Lockwood (2001 reconstructed the coronal flux for the last 500 years using a similar linear relation between the flux and the concentration of cosmogenic 10 Be isotopes in polar ice. Here we show that the applied linear relations are oversimplified and lead to unphysical results on long time scales. In particular, the cosmic ray intensity reconstructed by Lockwood (2001 for the last 130 years has a steep trend which is considerably larger than the trend estimated from observations during the last 65 years. Accordingly, the reconstructed cosmic ray intensity reaches or even exceeds the local interstellar cosmic ray flux around 1900. We argue that these unphysical results obtained when using linear relations are due to the oversimplified approach which does not take into account the complex and essentially nonlinear nature of long-term cosmic ray modulation in the heliosphere. We also compare the long-term cosmic ray intensity based on a linear treatment with the reconstruction based on a recent physical model which predicts a considerably lower cosmic ray intensity around 1900.Key words. Interplanetary physics (cosmic rays; heliopause and solar wind termination – Geomagnetism and paleomagnetism (time variations, secular and long-term

  13. Measurement of Cosmic-Ray TeV Electrons

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schubnell, Michael; Anderson, T.; Bower, C.; Coutu, S.; Gennaro, J.; Geske, M.; Mueller, D.; Musser, J.; Nutter, S.; Park, N.; Tarle, G.; Wakely, S.

    2011-09-01

    The Cosmic Ray Electron Synchrotron Telescope (CREST) high-altitude balloon experiment is a pathfinding effort to detect for the first time multi-TeV cosmic-ray electrons. At these energies distant sources will not contribute to the local electron spectrum due to the strong energy losses of the electrons and thus TeV observations will reflect the distribution and abundance of nearby acceleration sites. CREST will detect electrons indirectly by measuring the characteristic synchrotron photons generated in the Earth's magnetic field. The instrument consist of an array of 1024 BaF2 crystals viewed by photomultiplier tubes surrounded by a hermetic scintillator shield. Since the primary electron itself need not traverse the payload, an effective detection area is achieved that is several times the nominal 6.4 m2 instrument. CREST is scheduled to fly in a long duration circumpolar orbit over Antarctica during the 2011-12 season.

  14. Study of ultra-energetic cosmic rays at the Pierre Auger Observatory from particle detection to anisotropy measurement

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aublin, J.

    2006-09-01

    The Pierre Auger Observatory, still under construction in Argentina, is designed to study the cosmic rays with energies above a few EeV. The experiment combines two complementary techniques: the fluorescence light detection and the sampling of the shower with an array of detectors at ground, covering a surface of 3000 square kilometers. The calculation of the acceptance of the detector, which is of utmost importance to establish the energy spectrum, has been achieved. The method of computation of the acceptance is simple and reliable. The detection efficiency depends on the nature of primary cosmic rays, allowing to study the cosmic rays composition with the surface detector. The calculation of the cosmic rays energy spectrum has been performed, using different methods to estimate the energy of the events. A cross calibration between the fluorescence and the surface detector provides an estimation of the energy almost independent of hadronic interaction models. The study of large scale anisotropies in the cosmic rays angular distribution provides useful informations about the cosmic rays sources and the conditions of propagation. A new analysis method is presented, allowing to estimate the parameters of an underlying dipolar and quadrupolar anisotropy in the data. The method is applied to a preliminary Auger data set. (author)

  15. Interaction of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays with microwave background radiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aharonyan, F.A.; Kanevskij, B.L.; Vardanyan, V.V.

    1989-01-01

    The formation of the bump and black-body cutoff in the cosmic-ray (CR) spectrum arising from the π-meson photoproduction reaction in collisions of CR protons with the microwave background radiation (MBR) photons is studied. A kinetic equation which describes CR proton propagation in MBR with account of a catastrophic of the π-meson photoproduction process is derived. The equilibrium CR proton spectrum obtained from the solution of the stationary kinetic equation is in general agreement with spectrum obtained under assumption of continuous energy loss approximation. However spectra from local sources especially for the times of propagation t>10 9 years differ noticeably from those obtained in the continuous loss approximation. 24 refs.; 5 figs

  16. Ground detectors for the study of cosmic ray showers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Salazar, H; Villasenor, L

    2008-01-01

    We describe the work that we have done over the last decade to design and construct instruments to measure properties of cosmic rays in Mexico. We describe the detection of decaying and crossing muons in a water Cherenkov detector and discuss an application of these results to calibrate water Cherenkov detectors. We also describe a technique to separate isolated isolated muons and electrons in water Cherenkov detector. Next we describe the design and performance of a hybrid extensive air shower detector array built on the Campus of the University of Puebla (19 deg. N, 90 deg. W, 800 g/cm 2 ) to measure the energy, arrival direction and composition of primary cosmic rays with energies around 1 PeV

  17. Detection of ultraviolet Cherenkov light from high energy cosmic ray atmospheric showers: A field test

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bartoli, B.; Peruzzo, L.; Sartori, G.; Bedeschi, F.; Bertolucci, E.; Mariotti, M.; Menzione, A.; Ristori, L.; Stefanini, A.; Zetti, F.; Scribano, A.; Budinich, M.; Liello, F.

    1991-01-01

    We present the results of a test with a prototype apparatus aimed to detect the ultraviolet Cherenkov light in the wavelenght range 2000-2300A, emitted by high energy cosmic ray showers. The system consists of a gas proportional chamber, with TMAE vapour as the photosensitive element, placed on the focal plane of a 1.5 m diameter parabolic mirror. The test was done during the summer of 1989 with cosmic ray showers seen in coincidence with the EAS-TOP experiment, an extended atmospheric shower charged particle array now being exploited at Campo Imperatore, 1900 m above sea level, on top of the Gran Sasso underground Laboratory of INFN. The results were positive and show that a full scale ultraviolet Cherenkov experiment with good sensitivity, angular resolution and virtually no background from moonlight or even daylight can be envisaged. (orig.)

  18. Receiver system for radio observation of high-energy cosmic ray air showers and its behaviour in self trigger mode

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kroemer, Oliver

    2008-04-01

    The observation of high-energy cosmic rays is carried out by indirect measurements. Thereby the primary cosmic particle enters into the earth's atmosphere and generates a cosmic ray air shower by interactions with the air molecules. The secondary particles arriving at ground level are detected with particle detector arrays. The fluorescence light from the exited nitrogen molecules along the shower axis is observed with reflector telescopes in the near-ultraviolet range. In addition to these well-established detection methods, the radio observation of the geosynchrotron emission from cosmic ray air showers is investigated at present as a new observation method. Geosynchrotron emission is generated by the acceleration of the relativistic electron-positron-pairs contained in the air shower by Lorentz forces in the earth's magnetic field. At ground level this causes a single pulse of the electric field strength with a continuous frequency spectrum ranging from a few MHz to above 100 MHz. In this work, a suitable receiver concept is developed based on the signal properties of the geosynchrotron emission and the analysis of the superposed noise and radio frequency interferences. As the required receiver system was not commercially available, it was designed in the framework of this work and realised as system including the antenna, the receiver electronics and suitable data acquisition equipment. In this concept considerations for a large scale radio detector array have already been taken into account, like low power consumption to enable solar power supply and cost effectiveness. The result is a calibrated, multi-channel, digital wideband receiver for the complete range from 40 MHz to 80 MHz. Its inherent noise and RFI suppression essentially results from the antenna directional characteristic and frequency selectivity and allows effective radio observation of cosmic ray air showers also in populated environment. Several units of this receiver station have been deployed

  19. Search for Cosmic-Ray Antiproton Origins and for Cosmological Antimatter with BESS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yamamoto, A.; Mitchell, J. W.; Yoshimura, K.; Abe, K.; Fuke, H.; Haino, S.; Hams, T.; Hasegawa, M.; Horikoshi, A.; Itazaki, A.; hide

    2011-01-01

    The balloon-borne experiment with a superconducting spectrometer (BESS) has performed cosmic-ray observations as a US-Japan cooperative space science program, and has provided fundamental data on cosmic rays to study elementary particle phenomena in the early Universe. The BESS experiment has measured the energy spectra of cosmic-ray antiprotons to investigate signatures of possible exotic origins such as dark matter candidates or primordial black holes. and searched for heavier antinuclei that might reach Earth from antimatter domains formed in the early Universe. The apex of the BESS program was reached with the Antarctic flight of BESS-Polar II, during the 2007- 2008 Austral Summer, that obtained over 4.7 billion cosmic-ray events from 24.5 days of observation. The flight took place at the expected solar minimum, when the sensitivity of the low-energy antiproton measurements to a primary source is greatest. Here, we report the scientific restults, focusing on the long-duration flights of BESS-Polar I (2004) and BESS-Polar II (2007-2008).

  20. Monopole, astrophysics and cosmic ray observatory at Gran Sasso

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Demarzo, C.; Enriquez, O.; Giglietto, N.

    1985-01-01

    A new large area detector, MACRO was approved for installation at the Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy. The detector will be dedicated to the study of naturally penetrating radiation deep underground. It is designed with the general philosophy of covering the largest possible area with a detector having both sufficient built-in redundancy and use of complementary techniques to study very rare phenomena. The detector capabilities will include monopole investigations significantly below the Parker bound; astrophysics studies of very high energy gamma ray and neutrino point sources; cosmic ray measurements of single and multimuons; and the general observation of rare new forms of matter in the cosmic rays

  1. Monopole, astrophysics and cosmic ray observatory at Gran Sasso

    Science.gov (United States)

    Demarzo, C.; Enriquez, O.; Giglietto, N.; Posa, F.; Attolini, M.; Baldetti, F.; Giacomelli, G.; Grianti, F.; Margiotta, A.; Serra, P.

    1985-01-01

    A new large area detector, MACRO was approved for installation at the Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy. The detector will be dedicated to the study of naturally penetrating radiation deep underground. It is designed with the general philosophy of covering the largest possible area with a detector having both sufficient built-in redundancy and use of complementary techniques to study very rare phenomena. The detector capabilities will include monopole investigations significantly below the Parker bound; astrophysics studies of very high energy gamma ray and neutrino point sources; cosmic ray measurements of single and multimuons; and the general observation of rare new forms of matter in the cosmic rays.

  2. Empirical model for the Earth's cosmic ray shadow at 400 KM: prohibited cosmic ray access

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Humble, J.E.; Smart, D.F.; Shea, M.A.

    1985-01-01

    The possibility of constructing a unit sphere of access that describes the cosmic radiation allowed to an Earth-orbiting spacecraft is discussed. It is found that it is possible to model the occluded portion of the cosmic ray sphere of access as a circular projection with a diameter bounded by the satellite-Earth horizon. Maintaining tangency at the eastern edge of the spacecraft-Earth horizon, this optically occluded area is projected downward by an angle beta which is a function of the magnetic field inclination and cosmic ray arrival direction. This projected plane, corresponding to the forbidden area of cosmic ray access, is bounded by the spacecraft-Earth horizon in easterly directions, and is rotated around the vertical axis by an angle alpha from the eastern direction, where the angle alpha is a function of the offset dipole latitude of the spacecraft

  3. Large scale anisotropy studies of ultra high energy cosmic rays using data taken with the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Grigat, Marius

    2011-06-10

    The distribution of arrival directions of cosmic rays is remarkably uniform over the complete spectrum of energies. At large angular scales only tiny deviations from isotropy have been observed and huge statistics are required to quantify the corresponding amplitudes. The measurement of cosmic rays with energies above 10{sup 15} eV is only feasible with large, earthbound observatories: The cosmic ray primary particles initiate cascades of secondary particles in the Earth's atmosphere. Every aspect of the development of these air showers down to the measurement of the resulting particles at ground level needs to be well understood and controlled in order to precisely reconstruct the properties of the primary particle. The development of air showers is subject to systematic distortions caused by the magnetic field of the Earth. Both this and other local effects are capable of inducing false anisotropy into the distribution of arrival directions. In this thesis, the effect of the geomagnetic field on the energy measurement is modelled and quantified; consequently, a correction of the energy estimator is derived. Furthermore, a method is introduced to fit dipolar patterns to the distribution of arrival directions of cosmic rays as observed from the field of view of the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. After correcting for all relevant local effects the method is applied to data and the parameters of a potentially underlying dipole are determined and evaluated. (orig.)

  4. Large scale anisotropy studies of ultra high energy cosmic rays using data taken with the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Grigat, Marius

    2011-06-10

    The distribution of arrival directions of cosmic rays is remarkably uniform over the complete spectrum of energies. At large angular scales only tiny deviations from isotropy have been observed and huge statistics are required to quantify the corresponding amplitudes. The measurement of cosmic rays with energies above 10{sup 15} eV is only feasible with large, earthbound observatories: The cosmic ray primary particles initiate cascades of secondary particles in the Earth's atmosphere. Every aspect of the development of these air showers down to the measurement of the resulting particles at ground level needs to be well understood and controlled in order to precisely reconstruct the properties of the primary particle. The development of air showers is subject to systematic distortions caused by the magnetic field of the Earth. Both this and other local effects are capable of inducing false anisotropy into the distribution of arrival directions. In this thesis, the effect of the geomagnetic field on the energy measurement is modelled and quantified; consequently, a correction of the energy estimator is derived. Furthermore, a method is introduced to fit dipolar patterns to the distribution of arrival directions of cosmic rays as observed from the field of view of the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. After correcting for all relevant local effects the method is applied to data and the parameters of a potentially underlying dipole are determined and evaluated. (orig.)

  5. Large scale anisotropy studies of ultra high energy cosmic rays using data taken with the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grigat, Marius

    2011-01-01

    The distribution of arrival directions of cosmic rays is remarkably uniform over the complete spectrum of energies. At large angular scales only tiny deviations from isotropy have been observed and huge statistics are required to quantify the corresponding amplitudes. The measurement of cosmic rays with energies above 10 15 eV is only feasible with large, earthbound observatories: The cosmic ray primary particles initiate cascades of secondary particles in the Earth's atmosphere. Every aspect of the development of these air showers down to the measurement of the resulting particles at ground level needs to be well understood and controlled in order to precisely reconstruct the properties of the primary particle. The development of air showers is subject to systematic distortions caused by the magnetic field of the Earth. Both this and other local effects are capable of inducing false anisotropy into the distribution of arrival directions. In this thesis, the effect of the geomagnetic field on the energy measurement is modelled and quantified; consequently, a correction of the energy estimator is derived. Furthermore, a method is introduced to fit dipolar patterns to the distribution of arrival directions of cosmic rays as observed from the field of view of the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. After correcting for all relevant local effects the method is applied to data and the parameters of a potentially underlying dipole are determined and evaluated. (orig.)

  6. HAWC Observations Strongly Favor Pulsar Interpretations of the Cosmic-Ray Positron Excess

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hooper, Dan [Fermilab; Cholis, Ilias [Johns Hopkins U.; Linden, Tim [Ohio State U., CCAPP; Fang, Ke [Maryland U.

    2017-11-17

    Recent measurements of the Geminga and B0656+14 pulsars by the gamma-ray telescope HAWC (along with earlier measurements by Milagro) indicate that these objects generate significant fluxes of very high-energy electrons. In this paper, we use the very high-energy gamma-ray intensity and spectrum of these pulsars to calculate and constrain their expected contributions to the local cosmic-ray positron spectrum. Among models that are capable of reproducing the observed characteristics of the gamma-ray emission, we find that pulsars invariably produce a flux of high-energy positrons that is similar in spectrum and magnitude to the positron fraction measured by PAMELA and AMS-02. In light of this result, we conclude that it is very likely that pulsars provide the dominant contribution to the long perplexing cosmic-ray positron excess.

  7. Measurement of the cosmic ray muon charge ratio with the OPERA detector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mauri, N.; Sioli, M.

    2012-01-01

    The OPERA detector at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory (LNGS) was used to measure the cosmic ray muon charge ratio R μ =N μ + /N μ − in the TeV energy region. R μ is shown as a function of the “vertical surface energy” E μ cosθ. A fit to a simplified model of muon production in atmosphere allowed the determination of the pion and kaon charge ratios weighted by the cosmic ray energy spectrum.

  8. Determining the primary cosmic ray energy from the total flux of Cherenkov light measured at the Yakutsk EAS array

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ivanov, A. A.; Knurenko, S. P.; Sleptsov, I. E.

    2007-01-01

    We present a method for determining the energy of the primary particle that generates an extensive air shower (EAS) of comic rays based on measuring the total flux of Cherenkov light from the shower. Applying this method to Cherenkov light measurements at the Yakutsk EAS array has allowed us to construct the cosmic ray energy spectrum in the range 10 15 - 3 x 10 19 eV

  9. The Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Aab, A.; Abreu, P.; Aglietta, M.; Boháčová, Martina; Chudoba, Jiří; Ebr, Jan; Grygar, Jiří; Mandát, Dušan; Nečesal, Petr; Palatka, Miroslav; Pech, Miroslav; Prouza, Michael; Řídký, Jan; Schovánek, Petr; Trávníček, Petr; Vícha, Jakub

    2015-01-01

    Roč. 798, Oct (2015), s. 172-213 ISSN 0168-9002 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) LG13007; GA MŠk(CZ) 7AMB14AR005; GA ČR(CZ) GA14-17501S Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : Pierre Auger Observatory * high energy cosmic rays * hybrid observatory * water Cherenkov detectors * air fluorescence detectors Subject RIV: BF - Elementary Particles and High Energy Physics Impact factor: 1.200, year: 2015

  10. Cosmic PeV neutrinos and the sources of ultrahigh energy protons

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kistler, Matthew D.; Stanev, Todor; Yüksel, Hasan

    2014-12-01

    The IceCube experiment recently detected the first flux of high-energy neutrinos in excess of atmospheric backgrounds. We examine whether these neutrinos originate from within the same extragalactic sources as ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. Starting from rather general assumptions about spectra and flavors, we find that producing a neutrino flux at the requisite level through pion photoproduction leads to a flux of protons well below the cosmic-ray data at ˜1 018 eV , where the composition is light, unless pions/muons cool before decaying. This suggests a dominant class of accelerator that allows for cosmic rays to escape without significant neutrino yields.

  11. PREFACE: 23rd European Cosmic Ray Symposium (and 32nd Russian Cosmic Ray Conference)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erlykin, A. D.; Kokoulin, R. P.; Lidvansky, A. S.; Meroshnichenko, L. I.; Panasyuk, M. I.; Panov, A. D.; Wolfendale, A. W.

    2013-02-01

    The 23rd European Cosmic Ray Symposium (ECRS) took place in Moscow at the Lomonosov Moscow State University (3-7 July 2012), and was excellently organized by the Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, with the help of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Council on the Complex Problem of Cosmic Rays of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The first symposia were held in 1968 in Lodz, Poland (high energy, extensive air showers and astrophysical aspects) and in Bern (solar and heliospheric phenomena) and the two 'strands' joined together in 1976 with the meeting in Leeds. Since then the symposia, which have been very successful, have covered all the major topics with some emphasis on European collaborations and on meeting the demands of young scientists. Initially, a driving force was the need to overcome the divisions caused by the 'Cold War' but the symposia continued even when that threat ceased and they have shown no sign of having outlived their usefulness. 2012 has been an important year in the history of cosmic ray studies, in that it marked the centenary of the discovery of enigmatic particles in the perilous balloon ascents of Victor Hess. A number of conferences have taken place in Western Europe during the year, but this one took place in Moscow as a tribute to the successful efforts of many former USSR and other Eastern European scientists in discovering the secrets of the subject, often under very difficult conditions. The symposium covers a wide range of scientific issues divided into the following topics: PCR-IPrimary cosmic rays I (E 1015 eV) MNCosmic ray muons and neutrinos GAGeV and TeV gamma astronomy SHEnergetic particles in the heliosphere (solar and anomalous CRs and GCR modulation) GEOCosmic rays and geophysics (energetic particles in the atmosphere and magnetosphere of the Earth) On a personal note, as I step down as co-founder and chairman of the International Advisory Committee, I should like to

  12. Solar panels as air Cherenkov detectors for extremely high energy cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cecchini, S.; D'Antone, I.; Degli Esposti, L.; Giacomelli, G.; Guerra, M.; Lax, I.; Mandrioli, G.; Parretta, A.; Sarno, A.; Schioppo, R.; Sorel, M.; Spurio, M.

    2000-01-01

    Increasing interest towards the observation of the highest energy cosmic rays has motivated the development of new detection techniques. The properties of the Cherenkov photon pulse emitted in the atmosphere by these very rare particles indicate low-cost semiconductor detectors as good candidates for their optical read-out. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the viability of solar panels for this purpose. The experimental framework resulting from measurements performed with suitably-designed solar cells and large conventional photovoltaic areas is presented. A discussion on the obtained and achievable sensitivities follows

  13. Photon damping in cosmic-ray acceleration in active galactic nuclei

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Colgate, S.A.

    1983-01-01

    The usual assumption of the acceleration of ultra high energy cosmic rays, greater than or equal to 10 18 eV in quasars, Seyfert galaxies and other active galactic nuclei is challenged on the basis of the photon interactions with the accelerated nucleons. This is similar to the effect of the black body radiation on particles > 10 20 eV for times of the age of the universe except that the photon spectrum is harder and the energy density greater by approx. = 10 15 . Hence, a single traversal, radial or circumferential, of radiation whose energy density is no greater than the emitted flux will damp an ultra high energy. Hence, it is unlikely that any reasonable configuration of acceleration can void disastrous photon energy loss. A different site for ultra high energy cosmic ray acceleration must be found

  14. Cosmic rays and space weather: effects on global climate change

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. I. Dorman

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available We consider possible effects of cosmic rays and some other space factors on the Earth's climate change. It is well known that the system of internal and external factors formatting the climate is very unstable; decreasing planetary temperature leads to an increase of snow surface, and decrease of the total solar energy input into the system decreases the planetary temperature even more, etc. From this it follows that even energetically small factors may have a big influence on climate change. In our opinion, the most important of these factors are cosmic rays and cosmic dust through their influence on clouds, and thus, on climate.

  15. Cosmic rays and space weather. Effects on global climate change

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dorman, L.I.; Israel Space Agency; Russian Academy of Sciences

    2012-01-01

    We consider possible effects of cosmic rays and some other space factors on the Earth's climate change. It is well known that the system of internal and external factors formatting the climate is very unstable; decreasing planetary temperature leads to an increase of snow surface, and decrease of the total solar energy input into the system decreases the planetary temperature even more, etc. From this it follows that even energetically small factors may have a big influence on climate change. In our opinion, the most important of these factors are cosmic rays and cosmic dust through their influence on clouds, and thus, on climate. (orig.)

  16. A deep learning-based reconstruction of cosmic ray-induced air showers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erdmann, M.; Glombitza, J.; Walz, D.

    2018-01-01

    We describe a method of reconstructing air showers induced by cosmic rays using deep learning techniques. We simulate an observatory consisting of ground-based particle detectors with fixed locations on a regular grid. The detector's responses to traversing shower particles are signal amplitudes as a function of time, which provide information on transverse and longitudinal shower properties. In order to take advantage of convolutional network techniques specialized in local pattern recognition, we convert all information to the image-like grid of the detectors. In this way, multiple features, such as arrival times of the first particles and optimized characterizations of time traces, are processed by the network. The reconstruction quality of the cosmic ray arrival direction turns out to be competitive with an analytic reconstruction algorithm. The reconstructed shower direction, energy and shower depth show the expected improvement in resolution for higher cosmic ray energy.

  17. A two-zone cosmic ray propagation model and its implication of the surviving fraction of radioactive cosmic ray isotopes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Simon, M.; Scherzer, R.; Enge, W.

    1977-01-01

    In cosmic ray propagation calculations one can usually assume a homogeneous distribution of interstellar matter. The crucial astrophysical parameters in these models are: The path length distribution, the age of the cosmic ray particles and the interstellar matter density. These values are interrelated. The surviving fraction of radioactive cosmic ray isotopes is often used to determine a mean matter density of that region, where the cosmic ray particles may mainly reside. Using a Monte Carlo Propagation Program we calculated the change in the surviving fraction quantitatively assuming a region around the sources with higher matter density. (author)

  18. Cosmic Ray and Tev Gamma Ray Generation by Quasar Remnants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boldt, Elihu; Loewenstein, Michael; White, Nicholas E. (Technical Monitor)

    2000-01-01

    Results from new broadband (radio to X-ray) high-resolution imaging studies of the dormant quasar remnant cores of nearby giant elliptical galaxies are now shown to permit the harboring of compact dynamos capable of generating the highest energy cosmic ray particles and associated curvature radiation of TeV photons. Confirmation would imply a global inflow of interstellar gas all the way to the accretion powered supermassive black hole at the center of the host galaxy.

  19. Development and data analysis of a radio-detection of ultra high energy cosmic rays experiment; Developpement et analyse des donnees d'une experience de radiodetection des rayons cosmiques d'ultra haute energie

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Belletoile, A

    2007-10-15

    The radio-detection of cosmic rays was first attempted in the sixties. Unfortunately at that time, the results suffered from poor reproducibility and the technique was abandoned in favour of direct particle and fluorescence detection. Taking advantage of recent technological improvements the radio-detection of ultra high energy cosmic rays is being reinvestigated. In this document, first, we remind the reader of the global problematic of cosmic rays. Then, the several mechanisms involved in the emission of an electric field associated with extensive air showers are discussed. The CODALEMA (cosmic detection array with logarithmic electro magnetic antenna) experiment that aims to demonstrate the feasibility of cosmic ray radio-detection, is extensively described along with the first experimental results. A radio-detection test experiment implanted at the giant detector Pierre Auger is presented. It should provide inputs to design the future detector using this technique at extreme energies. (author)

  20. Radio detection of cosmic rays with LOFAR

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hörandel, J. R.; Buitink, S.; Corstanje, A.; Enriquez, J. E.; Falcke, H.; Karskens, T.; Krause, M.; Nelles, A.; Rachen, J. P.; Rossetto, L.; Schellart, P.; Scholten, O.; Ter Veen, S.; Thoudam, S.; Trinh, T. N G

    2015-01-01

    When high-energy cosmic rays (ionized atomic nuclei) impinge on the atmosphere of the Earth they interact with atomic nuclei and initiate cascades of secondary particles - the extensive air showers. Many of the secondary particles in the air showers are electrons and positrons. They cause radiation

  1. The acceleration of cosmic ray by shock waves

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Axford, W.I.; Leer, E.; Skadron, G.

    1977-01-01

    The acceleration of cosmic rays in flows involving shocks and other compressional waves is considered in terms of one-dimensionl, steady flows and the diffusion approximation. The results suggest that very substantial energy conversion can occur. (author)

  2. Cosmic ray investigation for the Voyager missions; energetic particle studies in the outer heliosphere - and beyond

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stone, E C; Vogt, R E [California Inst. of Tech., Pasadena (USA); McDonald, F B; Teegarden, B J; Trainor, J H [National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Greenbelt, Md. (USA). Goddard Space Flight Center; Jokipii, J R [Arizona Univ., Tucson (USA); Webber, W R [New Hampshire Univ., Durham (USA)

    1977-12-01

    A cosmic-ray detector system (CRS) has been developed for the Voyager mission which will measure the energy spectrum of electrons from approximately 3-110 MeV and the energy spectra and elemental comparison of all cosmic-ray nuclei from hydrogen through iron over an energy range from approximately 1-500 MeV.nuc. Isotopes of hydrogen through sulfur will be resolved from approximately 2-75 MeV/nuc. Studies with CRS data will provide information on the energy content, origin and acceleration process, life history, and dynamics of cosmic rays in the galaxy, and contribute to an understanding of the nucleosynthesis of elements in the cosmic-ray sources. Particular emphasis will be placed on low-energy phenomena that are expected to exist in interstellar space and are known to be present in the outer Solar System. This investigation will also add to our understanding of the transport of cosmic rays, Jovian electrons, and low-energy interplanetary particles over an extended region of interplanetary space. A major contribution to these areas of study will be the measurement of three-dimensional streaming patterns of nuclei from H through Fe and electrons over an extended energy range, with a precision that will allow determination of anisotropies down to 1%. The required combination of charge resolution, reliability and redundance has been achieved with systems consisting entirely of solid-state charged-particle detectors.

  3. Acceleration of cosmic rays in SNR shock waves

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Drury, L.O'C.; Markiewicz, W.J.; Voelk, H.J.

    1988-01-01

    The time dependence of the energy density of cosmic rays accelerated in the outer shock of a supernova is studied in simple nonlinear models. The solutions are classified in their dependence on the parameters of the system. (orig.)

  4. Measurement of the Shadowing of High-Energy Cosmic Rays by the Moon A Search for TeV-Energy Antiprotons

    CERN Document Server

    Achard, P; Aguilar-Benítez, M; Alcaraz, J; Alemanni, G; Allaby, James V; Aloisio, A; Alviggi, M G; Anderhub, H; Andreev, V P; Anselmo, F; Arefev, A; Azemoon, T; Aziz, T; Bagnaia, P; Bajo, A; Baksay, G; Baksay, L; Baldew, S V; Banerjee, S; Barczyk, A; Barillère, R; Bartalini, P; Basile, M; Batalova, N; Battiston, R; Bay, A; Becattini, F; Becker, U; Behner, F; Bellucci, L; Berbeco, R; Berdugo, J; Berges, P; Bertucci, B; Betev, B L; Biasini, M; Biglietti, M; Biland, A; Blaising, J J; Blyth, S C; Bobbink, G J; Böhm, A; Boldizsar, L; Borgia, B; Bottai, S; Bourilkov, D; Bourquin, Maurice; Braccini, S; Branson, J G; Brochu, F; Burger, J D; Burger, W J; Cai, X D; Capell, M; Cara Romeo, G; Carlino, G; Cartacci, A; Casaus, J; Cavallari, F; Cavallo, N; Cecchi, C; Cerrada, M; Chamizo-Llatas, M; Chang, Y H; Chemarin, M; Chen, A; Chen, G; Chen, G M; Chen, H F; Chen, H S; Chiefari, G; Cifarelli, Luisa; Cindolo, F; Clare, I; Clare, R; Coignet, G; Colino, N; Costantini, S; de la Cruz, B; Cucciarelli, S; van Dalen, J A; De Asmundis, R; Déglon, P L; Debreczeni, J; Degré, A; Dehmelt, K; Deiters, K; Della Volpe, D; Delmeire, E; Denes, P; De Notaristefani, F; De Salvo, A; Diemoz, M; Dierckxsens, M; Dionisi, C; Dittmar, M; Doria, A; Dova, M T; Duchesneau, D; Duda, M; Echenard, B; Eline, A; El-Hage, A; El-Mamouni, H; Engler, A; Eppling, F J; Extermann, P; Falagán, M A; Falciano, S; Favara, A; Fay, J; Fedin, O; Felcini, M; Ferguson, T; Fesefeldt, H S; Fiandrini, E; Field, J H; Filthaut, F; Fisher, P H; Fisher, W; Fisk, I; Forconi, G; Freudenreich, Klaus; Furetta, C; Galaktionov, Yu; Ganguli, S N; García-Abia, P; Gataullin, M; Gentile, S; Giagu, S; Gong, Z F; Grenier, G; Grimm, O; Grünewald, M W; Guida, M; Gupta, V K; Gurtu, A; Gutay, L J; Haas, D; Hatzifotiadou, D; Hebbeker, T; Hervé, A; Hirschfelder, J; Hofer, H; Hohlmann, M; Holzner, G; Hou, S R; Hu, Y; Jin, B N; Jones, L W; de Jong, P; Josa-Mutuberria, I; Kaur, M; Kienzle-Focacci, M N; Kim, J K; Kirkby, Jasper; Kittel, E W; Klimentov, A; König, A C; Kopal, M; Koutsenko, V F; Kraber, M; Krämer, R W; Krüger, A; Kunin, A; Ladrón de Guevara, P; Laktineh, I; Landi, G; Lebeau, M; Lebedev, A; Lebrun, P; Lecomte, P; Lecoq, P; Le Coultre, P; Le Goff, J M; Leiste, R; Levtchenko, M; Levchenko, P M; Li, C; Likhoded, S; Lin, C H; Lin, W T; Linde, Frank L; Lista, L; Liu, Z A; Lohmann, W; Longo, E; Lü, Y S; Luci, C; Luminari, L; Lustermann, W; Ma Wen Gan; Malgeri, L; Malinin, A; Maña, C; Mans, J; Martin, J P; Marzano, F; Mazumdar, K; McNeil, R R; Mele, S; Merola, L; Meschini, M; Metzger, W J; Mihul, A; Milcent, H; Mirabelli, G; Mnich, J; Mohanty, G B; Muanza, G S; Muijs, A J M; Musicar, B; Musy, M; Nagy, S; Natale, S; Napolitano, M; Nessi-Tedaldi, F; Newman, H; Nisati, A; Novák, T; Nowak, H; Ofierzynski, R A; Organtini, G; Pal, I; Palomares, C; Paolucci, P; Paramatti, R; Passaleva, G; Patricelli, S; Paul, T; Pauluzzi, M; Paus, C; Pauss, Felicitas; Pedace, M; Pensotti, S; Perret-Gallix, D; Petersen, B; Piccolo, D; Pierella, F; Pioppi, M; Piroué, P A; Pistolesi, E; Plyaskin, V; Pohl, M; Pozhidaev, V; Pothier, J; Prokofev, D; Prokofiev, D O; Quartieri, J; Rahal-Callot, G; Rahaman, M A; Raics, P; Raja, N; Ramelli, R; Rancoita, P G; Ranieri, R; Raspereza, A V; Razis, P; Ren, D; Rescigno, M; Reucroft, S; Riemann, S; Riles, K; Roe, B P; Romero, L; Rosca, A; Rosemann, C; Rosenbleck, C; Rosier-Lees, S; Roth, S; Rubio, J A; Ruggiero, G; Rykaczewski, H; Sakharov, A; Saremi, S; Sarkar, S; Salicio, J; Sánchez, E; Schäfer, C; Shchegelskii, V; Schopper, Herwig Franz; Schotanus, D J; Sciacca, C; Servoli, L; Shevchenko, S; Shivarov, N; Shoutko, V; Shumilov, E; Shvorob, A; Son, D; Souga, C; Spillantini, P; Steuer, M; Stickland, D P; Stoyanov, B; Strässner, A; Sudhakar, K; Sultanov, G G; Sun, L Z; Sushkov, S; Suter, H; Swain, J D; Szillási, Z; Tang, X W; Tarjan, P; Tauscher, L; Taylor, L; Tellili, B; Teyssier, D; Timmermans, C; Ting, Samuel C C; Ting, S M; Tonwar, S C; Tóth, J; Tully, C; Tung, K L; Ulbricht, J; Valente, E; Van de Walle, R T; Vásquez, R; Veszpremi, V; Vesztergombi, G; Vetlitskii, I; Vicinanza, D; Viertel, Gert M; Villa, S; Vivargent, M; Vlachos, S; Vodopyanov, I; Vogel, H; Vogt, H; Vorobev, I; Vorobyov, A A; Wadhwa, M; Wang, Q; Wang, X L; Wang, Z M; Weber, M; Wilkens, H; Wynhoff, S; Xia, L; Xu, Z Z; Yamamoto, J; Yang, B Z; Yang, C G; Yang, H J; Yang, M; Yeh, S C; Zalite, A; Zalite, Yu; Zhang, Z P; Zhao, J; Zhu, G Y; Zhu, R Y; Zhuang, H L; Zichichi, A; Zimmermann, B; Zöller, M

    2005-01-01

    The shadowing of high-energy cosmic rays by the Moon has been observed with a significance of 9.4 standard deviations with the L3+C muon spectrometer at CERN. A significant effect of the Earth magnetic field is observed. Since no event deficit on the east side of the Moon has been observed, an upper limit at 90% confidence level on the antiproton to proton ratio of 0.11 is obtained for primary energies around 1 TeV.

  5. Cosmic ray and neutrino emission from gamma-ray bursts with a nuclear cascade

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biehl, D.; Boncioli, D.; Fedynitch, A.; Winter, W.

    2018-04-01

    Aim. We discuss neutrino and cosmic ray emission from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with the injection of nuclei, where we take into account that a nuclear cascade from photodisintegration can fully develop in the source. Our main objective is to test whether recent results from the IceCube and the Pierre Auger Observatory can be accommodated within the paradigm that GRBs are the sources of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). Methods: We simulate this scenario in a combined source-propagation model. While our key results are obtained using an internal shock model of the source, we discuss how the secondary emission from a GRB shell can be interpreted in terms of other astrophysical models. Results: We demonstrate that the expected neutrino flux from GRBs weakly depends on the injection composition for the same injection spectra and luminosities, which implies that prompt neutrinos from GRBs can efficiently test the GRB-UHECR paradigm even if the UHECRs are nuclei. We show that the UHECR spectrum and composition, as measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory, can be self-consistently reproduced. In an attempt to describe the energy range including the ankle, we find tension with the IceCube bounds from the GRB stacking analyses. In an alternative scenario, where only the UHECRs beyond the ankle originate from GRBs, the requirement for a joint description of cosmic ray and neutrino observations favors lower luminosities, which does not correspond to the typical expectation from γ-ray observations.

  6. OBSERVATION OF COSMIC-RAY ANISOTROPY WITH THE ICETOP AIR SHOWER ARRAY

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Aartsen, M. G. [School of Chemistry and Physics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005 Australia (Australia); Abbasi, R.; Ahlers, M.; Andeen, K.; Auffenberg, J.; Baker, M. [Department of Physics and Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706 (United States); Abdou, Y. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Gent, B-9000 Gent (Belgium); Ackermann, M. [DESY, D-15735 Zeuthen (Germany); Adams, J. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch (New Zealand); Aguilar, J. A. [Departement de physique nucleaire et corpusculaire, Universite de Geneve, CH-1211 Geneve (Switzerland); Altmann, D. [Institut fuer Physik, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, D-12489 Berlin (Germany); Bai, X. [Bartol Research Institute and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 (United States); Barwick, S. W. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 (United States); Baum, V. [Institute of Physics, University of Mainz, Staudinger Weg 7, D-55099 Mainz (Germany); Bay, R. [Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Beattie, K. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Beatty, J. J. [Department of Physics and Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 (United States); Bechet, S. [Science Faculty CP230, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, B-1050 Brussels (Belgium); Tjus, J. Becker [Fakultaet fuer Physik and Astronomie, Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, D-44780 Bochum (Germany); Becker, K.-H. [Department of Physics, University of Wuppertal, D-42119 Wuppertal (Germany); Collaboration: IceCube Collaboration; and others

    2013-03-01

    We report on the observation of anisotropy in the arrival direction distribution of cosmic rays at PeV energies. The analysis is based on data taken between 2009 and 2012 with the IceTop air shower array at the south pole. IceTop, an integral part of the IceCube detector, is sensitive to cosmic rays between 100 TeV and 1 EeV. With the current size of the IceTop data set, searches for anisotropy at the 10{sup -3} level can, for the first time, be extended to PeV energies. We divide the data set into two parts with median energies of 400 TeV and 2 PeV, respectively. In the low energy band, we observe a strong deficit with an angular size of about 30 Degree-Sign and an amplitude of (- 1.58 {+-} 0.46{sub stat} {+-} 0.52{sub sys}) Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -3} at a location consistent with previous observations of cosmic rays with the IceCube neutrino detector. The study of the high energy band shows that the anisotropy persists to PeV energies and increases in amplitude to (- 3.11 {+-} 0.38{sub stat} {+-} 0.96{sub sys}) Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -3}.

  7. Cosmic Rays and Climate

    CERN Document Server

    Kirkby, Jasper

    2007-01-01

    Among the most puzzling questions in climate change is that of solar-climate variability, which has attracted the attention of scientists for more than two centuries. Until recently, even the existence of solar-climate variability has been controversial—perhaps because the observations had largely involved correlations between climate and the sunspot cycle that had persisted for only a few decades. Over the last few years, however, diverse reconstructions of past climate change have revealed clear associations with cosmic ray variations recorded in cosmogenic isotope archives, providing persuasive evidence for solar or cosmic ray forcing of the climate. However, despite the increasing evidence of its importance, solar-climate variability is likely to remain controversial until a physical mechanism is established. Although this remains a mystery, observations suggest that cloud cover may be influenced by cosmic rays, which are modulated by the solar wind and, on longer time scales, by the geomagnetic fiel...

  8. Studies in cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bemalkhedkar, M.M.

    1974-03-01

    The investigation of the diurnal variation in the cosmic ray intensity on individual days has revealed a new class of diurnal variation showing a maximum around 09 hour direction in the interplanetary space. It is shown to occur during the recovery phase of Forbush decreases as well as during quiet periods. The rigidity spectrum of the anomalous diurnal variation has an exponent around zero, the same as that for the average diurnal variation exhibiting maximum around 18 hours in the interplanetary space. It is shown that the Forbush decreases associated with the diurnal variation exhibiting morning maximum, are 27 day recurrent in nature and are preceded by east limb solar flares on most of the occasions. A qualitative model of the transient modulation by solar corotating corpuscular streams of enhanced solar wind velocity, emanating from the active regions on the solar disc, is proposed to explain the anomalous diurnal anisotropy in the recovery phase of 27 day recurrent Forbush decreases. From this model, the cosmic ray diffusion coefficients, parallel and perpendicular to the interplanetary magnetic field inside the corotating stream, are derived and compared with the average values. To investigate the possibility of determining the energy spectra of cosmic ray intensity variations from a single station, a continuous record of neutron multiplicity spectrum has been obtained for the period October, 1967 - October, 1971, using the Gulmarg neutron monitor. The average multiplicity spectrum in the Gulmarg neutron monitor shows a mean multiplicity approximately equal to 1.4 for 12 Boron-tri-fluoride counters and is an increasing function of the number of counters used. The mean multiplicity measured in various other neutron monitors, when normalized to the cutoff rigidity of Gulmurg (11.91 GV), shows a systematic increase with the altitude of the station. (author)

  9. Probing Very High Energy Prompt Muon and Neutrino fluxes and the cosmic ray knee via Underground Muons

    OpenAIRE

    Gandhi, Raj; Panda, Sukanta

    2005-01-01

    We calculate event rate and demonstrate the observational feasibility of very high energy muons (1-1000 TeV) in a large mass underground detector operating as a pair-meter. This energy range corresponds to surface muon energies of $\\sim$(5 TeV - 5000 TeV) and primary cosmic ray energies of $\\sim$ (50 TeV - 5 $\\times 10^4$ TeV). Such measurements would significantly assist in an improved understanding of the prompt contribution to $\

  10. Pair production from nuclear collisions and cosmic ray transport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Norbury, John W

    2006-01-01

    Modern cosmic ray transport codes, that are capable of use for a variety of applications, need to include all significant atomic, nuclear and particle reactions at a variety of energies. Lepton pair production from nucleus-nucleus collisions has not been included in transport codes to date. Using the methods of Baur, Bertulani and Baron, the present report provides estimates of electron-positron pair production cross sections for nuclei and energies relevant to cosmic ray transport. It is shown that the cross sections are large compared to other typical processes such as single neutron removal due to strong or electromagnetic interactions. Therefore, lepton pair production may need to be included in some transport code applications involving MeV electrons. (brief report)

  11. Nuclear interactions of super high energy cosmic-rays observed by mountain emulsion chambers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1981-01-01

    Here is presented a summary of joint discussions on the results of three mountain experiments with large-scale emulsion chambers, at Pamir, Mt. Fuji and Chacaltaya. The observation covers gamma-quanta, hadrons and their clusters (called ''families''). Following topics are covered concerning on characteristics of nuclear interactions in energy region of 10 14 - 10 16 eV: 1) rapid dissipation seen in atmospheric diffusion of high energy cosmic-rays, 2) multiplicity and p sub(t) increase in produced pimesons in the fragmentation region, 3) existence of large p sub(t) jets, 4) extremely-hadron-rich family of Centauro type, 5) exotic phenomena at extremely high energy region beyond 10 16 eV. (author)

  12. Studying High pT muons in Cosmic-Ray Air Showers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Klein, Spencer R.

    2006-01-01

    Most cosmic-ray air shower arrays have focused on detecting electromagnetic shower particles and low energy muons. A few groups (most notably MACRO + EASTOP and SPASE + AMANDA) have studied the high energy muon component of showers. However, these experiments had small solid angles, and did not study muons far from the core. The IceTop + IceCube combination, with its 1 km 2 muon detection area can study muons far from the shower core. IceCube can measure their energy loss (dE/dx), and hence their energy. With the energy, and the known distribution of production heights, the transverse momentum (p T ) spectrum of high p T muons can be determined. The production of the semuons is calculable in perturbative QCD, so the measured muon spectra can be used to probe the composition of incident cosmic-rays

  13. Search for tachyonomonopoles in cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bartlett, D.F.; Nauenberg, U.

    1977-05-01

    Two of the most speculative particles are the magnetic monopole and the tachyon. One conjectures that these particles exist in cosmic rays as a combined ''tachyon monopole''. The fringing magnetic field of Fermilab's 15-foot bubble chamber is used to ''accelerate'' the tachyon to sufficiently high energy that it can emit visible Cherenkov radiation. This radiation is detected by 8 photomultiplier tubes mounted on the corners of a room-sized box which is suspended from the ceiling above the bubble chamber. Two small plastic scintillator counters placed inside the box differentiate between extensive air showers and tachyon monopoles. The detector was exposed to cosmic rays for 50 days. During that time we have not recorded any tachyon monopoles. The flux of such particles in cosmic rays cannot exceed 2.5 x 10 -15 cm -2 sec -1 if they follow the earth's magnetic field lines or 1.2 x 10 -12 cm -2 sec -1 if they do not. In either event this limit is at least 400 times lower than that inferred from a previous measurement. One did record counts from extensive air showers at a rate consistent with previous experiment. This rate was halved when the bubble chamber's magnetic field was turned off. This phenomenon was likely caused by focusing of the shower electrons in the fringing magnetic field of the bubble chamber

  14. Cosmic gamma-ray background radiation. Current understandings and problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Inoue, Yoshiyuki

    2015-01-01

    The cosmic gamma-ray background radiation is one of the most fundamental observables in the gamma-ray band. Although the origin of the cosmic gamma-ray background radiation has been a mystery for a long time, the Fermi gamma-ray space telescope has recently measured it at 0.1-820 GeV and revealed that the cosmic GeV gamma-ray background is composed of blazars, radio galaxies, and star-forming galaxies. However, Fermi still leaves the following questions. Those are dark matter contribution, origins of the cosmic MeV gamma-ray background, and the connection to the IceCube TeV-PeV neutrino events. In this proceeding, I will review the current understandings of the cosmic gamma-ray background and discuss future prospects of cosmic gamma-ray background radiation studies. (author)

  15. Cosmic Rays Report from the Structure of Space

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Annila

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Spectrum of cosmic rays follows a broken power law over twelve orders of magnitude. Since ubiquitous power laws are manifestations of the principle of least action, we interpret the spectrum accordingly. Our analysis complies with understanding that low-energy particles originate mostly from rapidly receding sources throughout the cosmos. The flux peaks about proton rest energy whereafter it decreases because fewer and fewer receding sources are energetic enough to provide particles with high enough velocities to compensate for the recessional velocities. Above 1015.6 eV the flux from the expanding Universe diminishes below the flux from the nearby nonexpanding part of the Universe. In this spectral feature, known as the “knee,” we relate to a distance of about 1.3 Mpc where the gravitational potential tallies the energy density of free space. At higher energies particles decelerate in a dissipative manner to attain thermodynamic balance with the vacuum. At about 1017.2 eV a distinct dissipative mechanism opens up for protons to slow down by electron-positron pair production. At about 1019.6 eV a more effective mechanism opens up via pion production. All in all, the universal principle discloses that the broad spectrum of cosmic rays probes the structure of space from cosmic distances down to microscopic details.

  16. Selected Theoretical Studies Group contributions to the 14th International Cosmic Ray conference. [including studies on galactic molecular hydrogen, interstellar reddening, and on the origin of cosmic rays

    Science.gov (United States)

    1975-01-01

    The galactic distribution of H2 was studied through gamma radiation and through X-ray, optical, and infrared absorption measurements from SAS-2 and other sources. A comparison of the latitude distribution of gamma-ray intensity with reddening data shows reddening data to give the best estimate of interstellar gas in the solar vicinity. The distribution of galactic cosmic ray nucleons was determined and appears to be identical to the supernova remnant distribution. Interactions between ultrahigh energy cosmic-ray nuclei and intergalactic photon radiation fields were calculated, using the Monte Carlo method.

  17. MODELING THE GAMMA-RAY EMISSION IN THE GALACTIC CENTER WITH A FADING COSMIC-RAY ACCELERATOR

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liu, Ruo-Yu; Wang, Xiang-Yu; Prosekin, Anton [Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany); Chang, Xiao-Chuan, E-mail: ruoyu@mpi-hd.mpg.de, E-mail: xywang@nju.edu.cn [School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093 (China)

    2016-12-20

    Recent HESS observations of the ∼200 pc scale diffuse gamma-ray emission from the central molecular zone (CMZ) suggest the presence of a PeV cosmic-ray accelerator (PeVatron) located in the inner 10 pc region of the Galactic center. Interestingly, the gamma-ray spectrum of the point-like source (HESS J1745-290) in the Galactic center shows a cutoff at ∼10 TeV, implying a cutoff around 100 TeV in the cosmic-ray proton spectrum. Here we propose that the gamma-ray emission from the inner and the outer regions may be explained self-consistently by run-away protons from a single yet fading accelerator. In this model, gamma-rays from the CMZ region are produced by protons injected in the past, while gamma-rays from the inner region are produced by protons injected more recently. We suggest that the blast wave formed in a tidal disruption event (TDE) caused by the supermassive black hole (Sgr A*) could serve as such a fading accelerator. With typical parameters of the TDE blast wave, gamma-ray spectra of both the CMZ region and HESS J1745-290 can be reproduced simultaneously. Meanwhile, we find that the cosmic-ray energy density profile in the CMZ region may also be reproduced in the fading accelerator model when appropriate combinations of the particle injection history and the diffusion coefficient of cosmic rays are adopted.

  18. Fermi LAT Observation of Diffuse Gamma-Rays Produced through Interactions Between Local Interstellar Matter and High Energy Cosmic Rays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Abdo, A.A.; /Naval Research Lab, Wash., D.C. /Federal City Coll.; Ackermann, M.; /Stanford U., HEPL /KIPAC, Menlo Park /Stanford U., Phys. Dept.; Ajello, M.; /Stanford U., HEPL /KIPAC, Menlo Park /Stanford U., Phys. Dept.; Atwood, W.B.; /UC, Santa Cruz; Axelsson, M.; /Stockholm U. /Stockholm U., OKC; Baldini, L.; /INFN, Pisa; Ballet, J.; /DAPNIA, Saclay; Barbiellini, G.; /INFN, Trieste /Trieste U.; Bastieri, D.; /INFN, Padua /Padua U.; Baughman, B.M.; /Ohio State U.; Bechtol, K.; /Stanford U., HEPL /KIPAC, Menlo Park /Stanford U., Phys. Dept.; Bellazzini, R.; /INFN, Pisa; Berenji, B.; /Stanford U., HEPL /KIPAC, Menlo Park /Stanford U., Phys. Dept.; Bloom, E.D.; /Stanford U., HEPL /KIPAC, Menlo Park /Stanford U., Phys. Dept.; Bonamente, E.; /INFN, Perugia /Perugia U.; Borgland, A.W.; /Stanford U., HEPL /KIPAC, Menlo Park /Stanford U., Phys. Dept.; Bregeon, J.; /INFN, Pisa; Brez, A.; /INFN, Pisa; Brigida, M.; /Bari U. /INFN, Bari; Bruel, P.; /Ecole Polytechnique; Burnett, T.H.; /Washington U., Seattle /Bari U. /INFN, Bari /Stanford U., HEPL /KIPAC, Menlo Park /Stanford U., Phys. Dept. /IASF, Milan /Milan Polytechnic /Royal Inst. Tech., Stockholm /Stockholm U., OKC /DAPNIA, Saclay /INFN, Perugia /Perugia U. /NASA, Goddard /Naval Research Lab, Wash., D.C. /George Mason U. /NASA, Goddard /INFN, Perugia /Perugia U. /Stanford U., HEPL /KIPAC, Menlo Park /Stanford U., Phys. Dept. /Montpellier U. /Stockholm U. /Stockholm U., OKC /Royal Inst. Tech., Stockholm /ASDC, Frascati /Naval Research Lab, Wash., D.C. /INFN, Trieste /Bari U. /INFN, Bari /Stanford U., HEPL /KIPAC, Menlo Park /Stanford U., Phys. Dept. /Stanford U., HEPL /KIPAC, Menlo Park /Stanford U., Phys. Dept. /Stanford U., HEPL /KIPAC, Menlo Park /Stanford U., Phys. Dept. /Stanford U., HEPL /KIPAC, Menlo Park /Stanford U., Phys. Dept. /CENBG, Gradignan /CENBG, Gradignan /Montpellier U. /Bari U. /INFN, Bari /Ecole Polytechnique /Stanford U., HEPL /KIPAC, Menlo Park /Stanford U., Phys. Dept. /INFN, Trieste /Hiroshima U. /Stanford U., HEPL /KIPAC, Menlo Park /Stanford U., Phys. Dept. /Bari U. /INFN, Bari /INFN, Bari; /more authors..

    2012-03-30

    Observations by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi mission of diffuse {gamma}-rays in a mid-latitude region in the third quadrant (Galactic longitude l from 200{sup o} to 260{sup o} and latitude |b| from 22{sup o} to 60{sup o}) are reported. The region contains no known large molecular cloud and most of the atomic hydrogen is within 1 kpc of the solar system. The contributions of {gamma}-ray point sources and inverse Compton scattering are estimated and subtracted. The residual {gamma}-ray intensity exhibits a linear correlation with the atomic gas column density in energy from 100 MeV to 10 GeV. The measured integrated {gamma}-ray emissivity is (1.63 {+-} 0.05) x 10{sup -26} photons s{sup -1}sr{sup -1} H-atom{sup -1} and (0.66 {+-} 0.02) x 10{sup -26} photons s{sup -1}sr{sup -1} H-atom{sup -1} above 100 MeV and above 300 MeV, respectively, with an additional systematic error of {approx}10%. The differential emissivity from 100 MeV to 10 GeV agrees with calculations based on cosmic ray spectra consistent with those directly measured, at the 10% level. The results obtained indicate that cosmic ray nuclei spectra within 1 kpc from the solar system in regions studied are close to the local interstellar spectra inferred from direct measurements at the Earth within {approx}10%.

  19. Study of Primary Cosmic Ray Electrons In Energy Range 10^11 - 10^13 Ev By Pamela Instrument.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Voronov, S.; Pamela Collaboration

    The main goal of the magnetic spectrometer PAMELA is the study of antiparticle fluxes with energy up to 300 GeV in cosmic rays on board satellite. A modification of instrument was done by introducing of neutron detector. This device was placed under imaging calorimeter and bottom scintillator counter. It consists of two layers of 36 3He gas counters enveloped by a polyethylene moderator. The neutron detector gives additional possibility to identify the antiprotons going in aperture of spectrome- ter and generating the nuclear cascade in tungsten plates of calorimeter. This shower is followed by big number of neutrons in contrast to electromagnetic one caused by elec- tron or positron. From other side the combination of the imaging calorimeter, bottom scintillator and neutron detector constitute the independent instrument with large field of view which gives the possibility to measure the electron-positron cosmic ray com- ponent in energy range 1011-1013 eV with a rejection factor of order 10-4 regarding to nuclear one.

  20. International Conference on Cosmic Rays

    CERN Multimedia

    W.O. LOCK

    1964-01-01

    Towards the end of last year the 8th International conference on cosmic rays, held under the auspices of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (I.U.P.A.P.) and the Department of Atomic Energy of the Government of India, was held at Jaipur, India. Among the participants was W.O. Lock, head of CERN's Emulsion Group, who gave an invited talk on recent work in the field of what is normally known as high-energy physics — though in the context of this conference such energies seem quite low. In this article, Dr. Lock gives a general review of the conference and of the subjects discussed.

  1. The Cosmic-ray Spectrum: from the knee to the ankle

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gaisser, T K

    2006-01-01

    This talk addresses the question, 'Where is the transition from cosmic rays of galactic origin to extra-galactic cosmic-rays?' I have addressed the background of this topic recently in lectures at Erice and, with Todor Stanev, in a collection of papers on various aspects of nuclear astrophysics. Here I concentrate on primary composition as a signature of the transition and mention some new air-shower experiments aimed at the energy region from the knee to the ankle (PeV to 10 EeV)

  2. A constraint on prompt supernova cosmic ray production from γ-ray observations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Morfill, G.E.; Drury, L.O'C.

    1981-01-01

    The consequences of prompt cosmic ray production intrinsic to supernovae are examined for supernova explosions occurring in dense molecular clouds. For reasonable parameters it is shown that prompt cosmic ray production cannot exceed 10 48 erg per supernova. This suggests that cosmic ray production takes place mainly in the intercloud medium. (author)

  3. Cosmic rays and Earth's climate

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Svensmark, Henrik

    2000-01-01

    During the last solar cycle the Earth's cloud cover underwent a modulation in phase with the cosmic ray flux. Assuming that there is a causal relationship between the two, it is expected and found that the Earth's temperature follows more closely decade variations in cosmic ray flux than other...... solar activity parameters. If the relationship is real the state of the Heliosphere affects the Earth's climate....

  4. Detection of cosmic ray tracks using scintillating fibers and position sensitive multi-anode photomultipliers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Atac, M.; Streets, J.; Wilcer, N.

    1998-02-01

    This experiment demonstrates detection of cosmic ray tracks by using Scintillating fiber planes and multi-anode photomultipliers (MA-PMTs). In a laboratory like this, cosmic rays provide a natural source of high-energy charged particles which can be detected with high efficiency and with nanosecond time resolution

  5. Sequential measurements of spectrum and dose for cosmic-ray neutrons on the ground

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hirabayashi, N.; Nunomiya, T.; Suzuki, H.; Nakamura, T.

    2002-01-01

    The earth is continually bathed in high-energy particles that come from outside the solar system, known as galactic cosmic rays. When these particles penetrate the magnetic fields of the solar system and the Earth and reach the Earth's atmosphere, they collide with atomic nuclei in air and secondary cosmic rays of every kind. On the other hand, levels of accumulation of the semiconductor increase recently, and the soft error that the cosmic-ray neutrons cause has been regarded as questionable. There have been long-term measurements of cosmic-ray neutron fluence at several places in the world, but no systematic study on cosmic-ray neutron spectrum measurements. This study aimed to measure the cosmic-ray neutron spectrum and dose on the ground during the solar maximum period of 2000 to 2002. Measurements have been continuing in a cabin of Tohoku University Kawauchi campus, by using five multi-moderator spectrometers (Bonner sphere), 12.7 cm diam by 12.7 cm long NE213 scintillator, and rem counter. The Bonner sphere uses a 5.08 cm diam spherical 3 He gas proportional counter and the rem counter uses a 12.7 cm diam 3 He gas counter. The neutron spectra were obtained by unfolding from the count rates measured with the Bonner sphere using the SAND code and the pulse height spectra measured with the NE213 scintillator using the FORIST code . The cosmic- ray neutron spectrum and ambient dose rates have been measured sequentially from April 2001. Furthermore, the correlation between ambient dose rate and the atmospheric pressure was investigated with a barometer. We are also very much interested in the variation of neutron spectrum following big solar flares. From the sequential measurements, we found that the cosmic-ray neutron spectrum has two peaks at around 1 MeV and at around 100 MeV, and the higher energy peak increases with a big solar flare

  6. New fermionic dark matters, extended Standard Model and cosmic rays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hwang, Jae-Kwang

    2017-08-01

    Three generations of leptons and quarks correspond to the lepton charges (LCs) in this work. Then, the leptons have the electric charges (ECs) and LCs. The quarks have the ECs, LCs and color charges (CCs). Three heavy leptons and three heavy quarks are introduced to make the missing third flavor of EC. Then the three new particles which have the ECs are proposed as the bastons (dark matters) with the rest masses of 26.121 eV/c2, 42.7 GeV/c2 and 1.9 × 1015 eV/c2. These new particles are applied to explain the origins of the astrophysical observations like the ultra-high energy cosmic rays and supernova 1987A anti-neutrino data. It is concluded that the 3.5 keV X-ray peak observed from the cosmic X-ray background spectra is originated not from the pair annihilations of the dark matters but from the X-ray emission of the Q1 baryon atoms which are similar in the atomic structure to the hydrogen atom. The presence of the 3.5 keV cosmic X-ray supports the presence of the Q1 quark with the EC of -4/3. New particles can be indirectly seen from the astrophysical observations like the cosmic ray and cosmic gamma ray. In this work, the systematic quantized charges of EC, LC and CC for the elementary particles are used to consistently explain the decay and reaction schemes of the elementary particles. Also, the strong, weak and dark matter forces are consistently explained.

  7. Primary Cosmic Rays Composition: Simulations and Detector Design

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Supanitsky, D.; Etchegoyen, A.; Medina, C.; Medina-Tanco, G.; Gomez Berisso, M.

    2007-01-01

    The Pierre Auger Observatory is a hybrid detector system for the detection of very high energy cosmic rays. A most difficult and important problem in these studies is the determination of the primary cosmic ray composition for which muon content in air showers appears to be one of the best parameters to discriminate between different composition types.Although the Pierre Auger surface detectors, which consist of water Cherenkov tanks, are sensitive to muon content they are not able to measure the number of muons directly. In this work we study using simulations the information that can be gained by adding muon detectors to the Auger surface detectors. We consider muon counters with two alternative areas

  8. Sensitivity of a search for cosmic ray sources including magnetic field effects

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Urban, Martin; Erdmann, Martin; Mueller, Gero [III. Physikalisches Institut A, RWTH Aachen University (Germany)

    2016-07-01

    We analyze the sensitivity of a new method investigating correlations between ultra-high energy cosmic rays and extragalactic sources taking into account deflections in the galactic magnetic field. In comparisons of expected and simulated arrival directions of cosmic rays we evaluate the directional characteristics and magnitude of the field. We show that our method is capable of detecting anisotropy in data sets with a low signal fraction.

  9. Impact of energetic cosmic-ray ions on astrophysical ice grains

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mainitz, Martin; Anders, Christian; Urbassek, Herbert M.

    2017-01-01

    Highlights: • We use the REAX potential to model dissociations and reactions. • An ice grain consisting of a mixture of small molecules is considered. • The passage of a cosmic-ray ion initiates an ion track. • The track induces a shock wave and disintegrates the grain. • Abundant fragments and reaction products are detected. - Abstract: Using molecular-dynamics simulation with REAX potentials, we study the consequences of cosmic-ray ion impact on ice grains. The grains are composed of a mixture of H_2O, CO_2, NH_3, and CH_3OH molecules. Due to the high energy deposition of the cosmic-ray ion, 5 keV/nm, a strong pressure wave runs through the grain, while the interior of the ion track gasifies. Abundant molecular dissociations occur; reactions of the fragments form a variety of novel molecular product species.

  10. Lightning Discharges, Cosmic Rays and Climate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumar, Sanjay; Siingh, Devendraa; Singh, R. P.; Singh, A. K.; Kamra, A. K.

    2018-03-01

    The entirety of the Earth's climate system is continuously bombarded by cosmic rays and exhibits about 2000 thunderstorms active at any time of the day all over the globe. Any linkage among these vast systems should have global consequences. Numerous studies done in the past deal with partial links between some selected aspects of this grand linkage. Results of these studies vary from weakly to strongly significant and are not yet complete enough to justify the physical mechanism proposed to explain such links. This review is aimed at presenting the current understanding, based on the past studies on the link between cosmic ray, lightning and climate. The deficiencies in some proposed links are pointed out. Impacts of cosmic rays on engineering systems and the possible effects of cosmic rays on human health are also briefly discussed. Also enumerated are some problems for future work which may help in developing the grand linkage among these three vast systems.

  11. From cosmic ray physics to cosmic ray astronomy: Bruno Rossi and the opening of new windows on the universe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonolis, Luisa

    2014-01-01

    Bruno Rossi is considered one of the fathers of modern physics, being also a pioneer in virtually every aspect of what is today called high-energy astrophysics. At the beginning of 1930s he was the pioneer of cosmic ray research in Italy, and, as one of the leading actors in the study of the nature and behavior of the cosmic radiation, he witnessed the birth of particle physics and was one of the main investigators in this fields for many years. While cosmic ray physics moved more and more towards astrophysics, Rossi continued to be one of the inspirers of this line of research. When outer space became a reality, he did not hesitate to leap into this new scientific dimension. Rossi's intuition on the importance of exploiting new technological windows to look at the universe with new eyes, is a fundamental key to understand the profound unity which guided his scientific research path up to its culminating moments at the beginning of 1960s, when his group at MIT performed the first in situ measurements of the density, speed and direction of the solar wind at the boundary of Earth's magnetosphere, and when he promoted the search for extra-solar sources of X rays. A visionary idea which eventually led to the breakthrough experiment which discovered Scorpius X-1 in 1962, and inaugurated X-ray astronomy.

  12. CaloCube: a novel calorimeter for high-energy cosmic rays in space

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rappoldi A.

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available CaloCube is an R&D project borne to develop a novel calorimeter design, optimized for high-energy cosmic ray measurements in space. A small prototype made of CsI(Tl elements has been built and tested on particle beams. A final version, made of 5×5×18 crystals and with dual readout (two photodiodes for each crystal, to cover the full required dynamic range, is under construction and will be tested at CERN SPS in Summer 2016. The dual readout compensation technique were developed and the feasibility to extract Čerenkov signals from CsI crystals verified.

  13. Antiprotons from spallation of cosmic rays on ISM

    CERN Document Server

    Donato, F

    2002-01-01

    We provide the first evaluation of the secondary interstellar cosmic antiproton flux that is fully consistent with cosmic ray nuclei in the framework of a two-zone diffusion model. We also study and conservatively quantify all possible sources of uncertainty that may affect that antiproton flux. Uncertainties related to propagation are shown to range between 10% and 25%, depending on which part of the spectrum is considered, while the ones related to nuclear physics stand around 22-25 % over all the energy spectrum.

  14. Cosmic Ray Deuterium from 0.2 to 3.0 GeV/nucleon

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Davis, A.J.; Labrador, A.W.; Mewaldt, R.A.

    1996-01-01

    The abundances of cosmic ray protons and deuterium between 0.2 and 3.0 GeV/nucleon were measured by the IMAX balloon--borne magnet spectrometer during a flight in July, 1992. These isotope measurements extend to significantly higher energies than have previously been achieved. A high--resolution ......The abundances of cosmic ray protons and deuterium between 0.2 and 3.0 GeV/nucleon were measured by the IMAX balloon--borne magnet spectrometer during a flight in July, 1992. These isotope measurements extend to significantly higher energies than have previously been achieved. A high...

  15. Large vessel imaging using cosmic-ray muons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jenneson, P.M.

    2004-01-01

    Cosmic-ray muons are assessed for their practical use in the tomographic imaging of the internal composition of large vessels over 2 m in diameter. The technique is based on the attenuation and scattering of cosmic-ray muons passing through a vessel and has advantages over photon-based methods of tomography that it is extendable to object containing high-density materials over many tens of metres. The main disadvantage is the length of time required to produce images of sufficient resolution and hence cosmic ray muon tomography will be most suited to the imaging of large structures whose internal composition is effectively static for the duration of the imaging period. Simulation and theoretical results are presented here which demonstrate the feasibility of cosmic ray muon tomography

  16. VI School on Cosmic Rays and Astrophysics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2017-01-01

    VI School on Cosmic Rays and Astrophysics 17-25 November 2015, Chiapas, Mexico The VI School on Cosmic Rays and Astrophysics was held at the MCTP, at the Autonomous University of Chiapas (UNACH), Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico thanks to the Science for Development ICTP-UNACH-UNESCO Regional Seminar, 17-25 November 2015 (http://mctp.mx/e-VI-School-on-Cosmic-Rays-and-Astrophysics.html). The School series started in La Paz, Bolivia in 2004 and it has been, since then, hosted by several Latin American countires: 1.- La Paz, Bolivia (August, 2004), 2.- Puebla, Mexico (September, 2006), 3.- Arequipa, Peru (September, 2008), 4.- Santo André, Brazil (September, 2010), 5.- La Paz, Bolivia (August, 2012). It aims to promote Cosmic Ray (CR) Physics and Astrophysics in the Latin American community and to provide a general overview of theoretical and experimental issues on these topics. It is directed to undergraduates, postgraduates and active researchers in the field. The lectures introduce fundamental Cosmic Ray Physics and Astrophysics with a review of standards of the field. It is expected the school continues happening during the next years following a tradition. In this edition, the list of seminars included topics such as experimental techniques of CR detection, development of CR showers and hadronic interactions, composition and energy spectrum of primary CR, Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), neutrino Astrophysics, spacecraft detectors, simulations, solar modulation, and the current state of development and results of several astroparticle physics experiments such as The Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina, HAWC in Mexico, KASCADE and KASCADE Grande, HESS, IceCube, JEM-EUSO, Fermi-LAT, and others. This time the school has been complemented with the ICTP-UNACH-UNESCO Seminar of theory on Particle and Astroparticle Physics. The organization was done by MCTP, the Mesoamerican Centre for Theoretical Physics. The school had 46 participants, 30 students from Honduras, Brazil

  17. Solar flares and the cosmic ray intensity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hatton, C.J.

    1980-01-01

    The relationship between the cosmic ray intensity and solar activity during solar cycle 20 is discussed. A model is developed whereby it is possible to simulate the observed cosmic ray intensity from the observed number of solar flares of importance >= 1. This model leads to a radius for the modulation region of 60-70 AU. It is suggested that high speed solar streams also made a small contribution to the modulation of cosmic rays during solar cycle 20. (orig.)

  18. Stable Superstring Relics and Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays

    CERN Document Server

    Coriano, Claudio; Plumacher, Michael; Coriano, Claudio; Faraggi, Alon E.; Plumacher, Michael

    2001-01-01

    One of the most intriguing experimental results of recent years is the observation of Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) above the GZK cutoff. Plausible candidates for the UHECR primaries are the decay products of a meta--stable matter state with mass of order O(10^{12-15 GeV}), which simultaneously is a good cold dark matter candidate. We study possible meta-stable matter states that arise from Wilson line breaking of GUT symmetries in semi-realistic heterotic string models. In the models that we study the exotic matter states can be classified according to patterns of SO(10) symmetry breaking. We show that cryptons, which are states that carry fractional electric charge $\\pm1/2$, and are confined by a hidden gauge group cannot produce viable dark matter. This is due to the fact that, in addition to the lightest neutral bound state, cryptons give rise to meta-stable charged bound states. However, these states may still account for the UHECR events. We argue that the uniton, which is an exotic Standard Mod...

  19. Measurement of angular distribution of cosmic-ray muon fluence rate

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lin, Jeng-Wei; Chen, Yen-Fu; Sheu, Rong-Jiun; Jiang, Shiang-Huei

    2010-01-01

    In this work a Berkeley Lab cosmic ray detector was used to measure the angular distribution of the cosmic-ray muon fluence rate. Angular response functions of the detector at each measurement orientation were calculated by using the FLUKA Monte Carlo code, where no energy attenuation was taken into account. Coincidence counting rates were measured at ten orientations with equiangular intervals. The muon angular fluence rate spectrum was unfolded from the measured counting rates associated with the angular response functions using both the MAXED code and the parameter adjusting method.

  20. Cosmic ray origin: the way ahead

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wolfendale, A W

    2003-01-01

    Despite their discovery being 90 years ago cosmic rays are still characterised by their uncertain masses at high energy and their uncertain origin. This paper deals with the origin problem. The case is put for the majority of the particles being of galactic origin - a generally accepted result. Specific models are put forward for the galactic mechanism and that for the minority extragalactic component

  1. The puzzle of the ankle in the Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Ray Spectrum, and composition indicators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farrar, Glennys

    2015-08-01

    The sharp change in slope of the ultra-high energy cosmic ray spectrum around 10^18.6 eV (the ankle), combined with evidence of a light but extragalactic component near and below the ankle and intermediate composition above, has proved exceedingly challenging to understand theoretically. In this talk I discuss two possible solutions to the puzzle and how they can be (in)validated.First, I present a new mechanism whereby photo-disintegration of ultra-high energy nuclei in the region surrounding a UHECR accelerator naturally accounts for the observed spectrum and inferred composition (using LHC-tuned models extrapolated to UHE) at Earth. We discuss the conditions required to reproduce the spectrum above 10^17.5 eV and the composition, which -- in our model -- consists below the ankle of extragalactic protons and the high energy tail of Galactic Cosmic Rays, and above the ankle of surviving nuclei from the extended source. Predictions for the spectrum and flavors of neutrinos resulting from this process will be presented, and also implications for candidate sources.The other possible explanation is that in actuality UHECRs are entirely or almost entirely protons, and the cross-section for p-Air scattering increases more rapidly above center-of-mass energy of 70 TeV (10 times the current LHC cm energy) than predicted in conventional models. This gives an equally good fit to the depth-of-shower maximum behavior obverved by Auger, while being an intriguing sign of new state in QCD at extremely high energy density.

  2. Probing cosmic-ray acceleration and propagation with H{sub 3}{sup +} observations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Indriolo, Nick; Fields, Brian D.; McCall, Benjamin J. [3D University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801 (United States)

    2015-01-22

    As cosmic rays traverse the interstellar medium (ISM) they interact with the ambient gas in various ways. These include ionization of atoms and molecules, spallation of nuclei, excitation of nuclear states, and production of pions among others. All of these interactions produce potential observables which may be used to trace the flux of cosmic rays. One such observable is the molecular ion H{sub 3}{sup +}-produced via the ionization of an H{sub 2} molecule and its subsequent collision with another H{sub 2}-which can be identified by absorption lines in the 3.5-4 μm spectral region. We have detected H{sub 3}{sup +} in several Galactic diffuse cloud sight lines and used the derived column densities to infer ζ{sub 2}, the cosmic-ray ionization rate of H{sub 2}. Ionization rates determined in this way vary from about 7×10{sup −17} s{sup −1} to about 8×10{sup −16} s{sup −1}, and suggest the possibility of discrete sources producing high local fluxes of low-energy cosmic rays. Theoretical calculations of the ionization rate from postulated cosmic-ray spectra also support this possibility. Our recent observations of H{sub 3}{sup +} near the supernova remnant IC 443 (a likely site of cosmic-ray acceleration) point to even higher ionization rates, on the order of 10{sup −15} s{sup −1}. Together, all of these results can further our understanding of the cosmic-ray spectrum both near the acceleration source and in the general Galactic ISM.

  3. Feasibility study on a cosmic-ray level gauge

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsuda, H.; Fukaya, M.; Minato, S.

    1989-01-01

    Cosmic-ray intensities were measured at the stairs in a subway station in Nagoya City, inside a tall concrete building and under a cylindrical water tank, to examine the feasibility of a cosmic-ray level gauge. The measured results agreed quite well with the theoretical calculations. These results show that a cosmic-ray level gauge is feasible. (author)

  4. Cosmic ray nuclei detection in the balloon borne nuclear emulsion gamma ray telescope flight in Australia (GRAINE 2015

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Iyono Atsushi

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Nuclear emulsion plates for studying elementary particle physics as well as cosmic ray physics are very powerful tracking tools with sub-micron spatial resolutions of charged particle trajectories. Even if gamma rays have to be detected, electron-positron pair tracks can provide precise information to reconstruct their direction and energy with high accuracy. Recent developments of emulsion analysis technology can digitally handle almost all tracks recorded in emulsion plates by using the Hyper Track Selector of the OPERA group at NAGOYA University. On the other hand, the potential of time resolutions have been equipped by emulsion multilayer shifter technology in the GRAINE (Gamma Ray Astro-Imager with Nuclear Emulsion experiments, the aims of which are to detect cosmic gamma rays such as the Vela pulsar stellar object by precise emulsion tracking analysis and to study cosmic ray particle interactions and chemical compositions. In this paper, we focus on the subject of cosmic ray nuclei detection in the GRAINE balloon flight experiments launched at Alice Springs, Australia in May 2015.

  5. The effect of the geomagnetic field on cosmic ray energy estimates and large scale anisotropy searches on data from the Pierre Auger Observatory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Abreu, P.; /Lisbon, IST; Aglietta, M.; /IFSI, Turin; Ahn, E.J.; /Fermilab; Albuquerque, I.F.M.; /Sao Paulo U.; Allard, D.; /APC, Paris; Allekotte, I.; /Centro Atomico Bariloche; Allen, J.; /New York U.; Allison, P.; /Ohio State U.; Alvarez Castillo, J.; /Mexico U., ICN; Alvarez-Muniz, J.; /Santiago de Compostela U.; Ambrosio, M.; /Naples U. /INFN, Naples /Nijmegen U., IMAPP

    2011-11-01

    We present a comprehensive study of the influence of the geomagnetic field on the energy estimation of extensive air showers with a zenith angle smaller than 60{sup o}, detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory. The geomagnetic field induces an azimuthal modulation of the estimated energy of cosmic rays up to the {approx} 2% level at large zenith angles. We present a method to account for this modulation of the reconstructed energy. We analyse the effect of the modulation on large scale anisotropy searches in the arrival direction distributions of cosmic rays. At a given energy, the geomagnetic effect is shown to induce a pseudo-dipolar pattern at the percent level in the declination distribution that needs to be accounted for. In this work, we have identified and quantified a systematic uncertainty affecting the energy determination of cosmic rays detected by the surface detector array of the Pierre Auger Observatory. This systematic uncertainty, induced by the influence of the geomagnetic field on the shower development, has a strength which depends on both the zenith and the azimuthal angles. Consequently, we have shown that it induces distortions of the estimated cosmic ray event rate at a given energy at the percent level in both the azimuthal and the declination distributions, the latter of which mimics an almost dipolar pattern. We have also shown that the induced distortions are already at the level of the statistical uncertainties for a number of events N {approx_equal} 32 000 (we note that the full Auger surface detector array collects about 6500 events per year with energies above 3 EeV). Accounting for these effects is thus essential with regard to the correct interpretation of large scale anisotropy measurements taking explicitly profit from the declination distribution.

  6. Aerosols Produced by Cosmic Rays

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Enghoff, Martin Andreas Bødker

    an experiment in order to investigate the underlying microphysical processes. The results of this experiment will help to understand whether ionization from cosmic rays, and by implication the related processes in the universe, has a direct influence on Earth’s atmosphere and climate. Since any physical...... mechanism linking cosmic rays to clouds and climate is currently speculative, there have been various suggestions of the role atmospheric ions may play; these involve any one of a number of processes from the nucleation of aerosols up to the collection processes of cloud droplets. We have chosen to start......Satellite observations have shown that the Earth’s cloud cover is strongly correlated with the galactic cosmic ray flux. While this correlation is indicative of a possible physical connection, there is currently no confirmation that a physical mechanism exists. We are therefore setting up...

  7. Cosmic rays, clouds, and climate

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Marsh, N.; Svensmark, Henrik

    2000-01-01

    cloud radiative properties. Thus, a moderate influence on atmospheric aerosol distributions from cosmic ray ionisation would have a strong influence on the Earth's radiation budget. Historical evidence over the past 1000 years indicates that changes in climate have occurred in accord with variability......A correlation between a global average of low cloud cover and the flux of cosmic rays incident in the atmosphere has been observed during the last solar cycle. The ionising potential of Earth bound cosmic rays are modulated by the state of the heliosphere, while clouds play an important role...... in the Earth's radiation budget through trapping outgoing radiation and reflecting incoming radiation. If a physical link between these two features can be established, it would provide a mechanism linking solar activity and Earth's climate. Recent satellite observations have further revealed a correlation...

  8. Probing the Cosmic X-Ray and MeV Gamma-Ray Background Radiation through the Anisotropy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Inoue, Yoshiyuki [Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Kavli Inst. for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology; SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Murase, Kohta [Inst. for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (United States). School of Natural Sciences; Madejski, Grzegorz M. [Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Kavli Inst. for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology; SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Uchiyama, Yasunobu [Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Kavli Inst. for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology; SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Rikkyo Univ., Tokyo (Japan). Dept. of Physics

    2013-09-24

    While the cosmic soft X-ray background is very likely to originate from individual Seyfert galaxies, the origin of the cosmic hard X-ray and MeV gamma-ray background is not fully understood. It is expected that Seyferts including Compton thick population may explain the cosmic hard X-ray background. At MeV energy range, Seyferts having non-thermal electrons in coronae above accretion disks or MeV blazars may explain the background radiation. We propose that future measurements of the angular power spectra of anisotropy of the cosmic X-ray and MeV gamma-ray backgrounds will be key to deciphering these backgrounds and the evolution of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). As AGNs trace the cosmic large-scale structure, spatial clustering of AGNs exists. We show that e-ROSITA will clearly detect the correlation signal of unresolved Seyferts at 0.5-2 keV and 2-10 keV bands and will be able to measure the bias parameter of AGNs at both bands. Once the future hard X-ray all sky satellites achieve the sensitivity better than 10-12 erg/cm2/s-1 at 10-30 keV or 30-50 keV - although this is beyond the sensitivities of current hard X-ray all sky monitors - angular power spectra will allow us to independently investigate the fraction of Compton-thick AGNs in all Seyferts. We also find that the expected angular power spectra of Seyferts and blazars in the MeV range are different by about an order of magnitude, where the Poisson term, so-called shot noise, is dominant. Current and future MeV instruments will clearly disentangle the origin of the MeV gamma-ray background through the angular power spectrum.

  9. Probing the cosmic x-ray and MeV gamma ray background radiation through the anisotropy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Inoue, Yoshiyuki [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); Murase, Kohta [Inst. for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (United States); Madejski, Grzegorz M. [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); Uchiyama, Yasunobu [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); Rikkyo Univ., Tokyo (Japan)

    2013-09-24

    While the cosmic soft X-ray background is very likely to originate from individual Seyfert galaxies, the origin of the cosmic hard X-ray and MeV gamma-ray background is not fully understood. It is expected that Seyferts including Compton thick population may explain the cosmic hard X-ray background. At MeV energy range, Seyferts having non-thermal electrons in coronae above accretion disks or MeV blazars may explain the background radiation. We propose that future measurements of the angular power spectra of anisotropy of the cosmic X-ray and MeV gamma-ray backgrounds will be key to deciphering these backgrounds and the evolution of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). As AGNs trace the cosmic large-scale structure, spatial clustering of AGNs exists. We show that e-ROSITA will clearly detect the correlation signal of unresolved Seyferts at 0.5-2 keV and 2-10 keV bands and will be able to measure the bias parameter of AGNs at both bands. Once future hard X-ray all sky satellites achieve a sensitivity better than 10–12 erg cm–2 s–1 at 10-30 keV or 30-50 keV—although this is beyond the sensitivities of current hard X-ray all sky monitors—angular power spectra will allow us to independently investigate the fraction of Compton-thick AGNs in all Seyferts. We also find that the expected angular power spectra of Seyferts and blazars in the MeV range are different by about an order of magnitude, where the Poisson term, so-called shot noise, is dominant. Current and future MeV instruments will clearly disentangle the origin of the MeV gamma-ray background through the angular power spectrum.

  10. Educational Cosmic Ray Arrays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Soluk, R. A.

    2006-01-01

    In the last decade a great deal of interest has arisen in using sparse arrays of cosmic ray detectors located at schools as a means of doing both outreach and physics research. This approach has the unique advantage of involving grade school students in an actual ongoing experiment, rather then a simple teaching exercise, while at the same time providing researchers with the basic infrastructure for installation of cosmic ray detectors. A survey is made of projects in North America and Europe and in particular the ALTA experiment at the University of Alberta which was the first experiment operating under this paradigm

  11. First results of the cosmic ray NUCLEON experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Atkin, E.; Shumikhin, V.; Bulatov, V.

    2017-01-01

    The NUCLEON experiment was designed to study the chemical composition and energy spectra of galactic cosmic ray nuclei from protons to zinc at energies of ∼ 10 11 –10 15 eV per particle. The research was carried out with the NUCLEON scientific equipment installed on the Russian satellite 'Resource-P' No. 2 as an additional payload. This article presents the results for the measured nuclei spectra related to the first approximately 250 days of the scientific data collection during 2015 and 2016. The all-particle spectrum and the spectra of p, He, C, O, Ne, Mg, Si and Fe are presented. Some interesting ratios of the spectra are also presented and discussed. The experiment is now in its beginning stage and the data still have a preliminary character, but they already give numerous indications of the existence of various non-canonical phenomena in the physics of cosmic rays, which are expressed in the violation of a simple universal power law of the energy spectra. These features of the data are briefly discussed.

  12. First results of the cosmic ray NUCLEON experiment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Atkin, E.; Shumikhin, V. [National Research Nuclear University ' MEPhI' , Kashirskoe highway 31, Moscow, 115409 (Russian Federation); Bulatov, V., E-mail: evatkin@mephi.ru, E-mail: shuma.v.v@mail.ru, E-mail: bulat@horizont.e-burg.ru [SDB Automatika, Mamin-Sibiryak str. 145, Ekaterinburg, 620075 (Russian Federation); and others

    2017-07-01

    The NUCLEON experiment was designed to study the chemical composition and energy spectra of galactic cosmic ray nuclei from protons to zinc at energies of ∼ 10{sup 11}–10{sup 15} eV per particle. The research was carried out with the NUCLEON scientific equipment installed on the Russian satellite 'Resource-P' No. 2 as an additional payload. This article presents the results for the measured nuclei spectra related to the first approximately 250 days of the scientific data collection during 2015 and 2016. The all-particle spectrum and the spectra of p, He, C, O, Ne, Mg, Si and Fe are presented. Some interesting ratios of the spectra are also presented and discussed. The experiment is now in its beginning stage and the data still have a preliminary character, but they already give numerous indications of the existence of various non-canonical phenomena in the physics of cosmic rays, which are expressed in the violation of a simple universal power law of the energy spectra. These features of the data are briefly discussed.

  13. Cosmic-ray electrons and galactic radio emission - a conflict

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Badhwar, G.D.; Daniel, R.R.; Stephens, S.A.

    1977-01-01

    Reference is made to attempts in the past to deduce information of astrophysical importance from a study of the galactic non-thermal continuum in relation to cosmic ray electrons observed in the neighbourhood of the Earth. Such investigations were carried out using the cosmic ray electron data obtained from a single experiment or by making use of an average spectrum derived from world data, although it was known that the flux values observed by different investigators in any energy band differed by as much as a factor of 4. This has led to conflicting conclusions being drawn from the analysis of data of different observers. The present authors used a different approach for analysing the observational data, based on arguments of internal consistency between each measured electron spectrum and the magnetic field strength and the dimension of the radio-emitting region required to explain the radio observations. Such an approach makes it possible to highlight the inconsistencies associated with some of the electron measurements and permits certain inferences of cosmic ray and astrophysical interest. From the discussion it is concluded that the observed spectral index of the radio continuum in the Galaxy is in conflict with some of the cosmic ray electron measurements; also that the absolute intensities of cosmic ray electrons as measured in some experiments are so low that they cannot be reconciled either with the interstellar magnetic field limits or with the extent of the galactic disk, and it is likely that the field strength derived from Faraday rotation measurements gives only a lower limit to the local magnetic field in the Galaxy. (U.K.)

  14. Impact of energetic cosmic-ray ions on astrophysical ice grains

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mainitz, Martin; Anders, Christian; Urbassek, Herbert M., E-mail: urbassek@rhrk.uni-kl.de

    2017-02-15

    Highlights: • We use the REAX potential to model dissociations and reactions. • An ice grain consisting of a mixture of small molecules is considered. • The passage of a cosmic-ray ion initiates an ion track. • The track induces a shock wave and disintegrates the grain. • Abundant fragments and reaction products are detected. - Abstract: Using molecular-dynamics simulation with REAX potentials, we study the consequences of cosmic-ray ion impact on ice grains. The grains are composed of a mixture of H{sub 2}O, CO{sub 2}, NH{sub 3}, and CH{sub 3}OH molecules. Due to the high energy deposition of the cosmic-ray ion, 5 keV/nm, a strong pressure wave runs through the grain, while the interior of the ion track gasifies. Abundant molecular dissociations occur; reactions of the fragments form a variety of novel molecular product species.

  15. Preheating of the Universe by cosmic rays from primordial supernovae at the beginning of cosmic reionization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sazonov, S.; Sunyaev, R.

    2015-12-01

    The 21-cm signal from the cosmic reionization epoch can shed light on the history of heating of the primordial intergalactic medium (IGM) at z ˜ 30-10. It has been suggested that X-rays from the first accreting black holes could significantly heat the Universe at these early epochs. Here we propose another IGM heating mechanism associated with the first stars. As known from previous work, the remnants of powerful supernovae (SNe) ending the lives of massive Population III stars could readily expand out of their host dark matter minihaloes into the surrounding IGM, aided by the preceding photo-evaporation of the halo's gas by the UV radiation from the progenitor star. We argue that during the evolution of such a remnant, a significant fraction of the SN kinetic energy can be put into low-energy (E ≲ 30 MeV) cosmic rays that will eventually escape into the IGM. These subrelativistic cosmic rays could propagate through the Universe and heat the IGM by ˜10-100 K by z ˜ 15, before more powerful reionization/heating mechanisms associated with the first galaxies and quasars came into play. Future 21-cm observations could thus constrain the energetics of the first SNe and provide information on the magnetic fields in the primordial IGM.

  16. Cerenkov radiation from cosmic rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Turver, K.E.

    1988-01-01

    It is almost 40 years since it was suggested that Cerenkov radiations may be produced in the atmosphere by the passage of the cosmic radiation and account for a small part of the night sky brightness. The first detection of this visible Cerenkov radiation followed within a few years and by the 1960s the atmospheric Cerenkov radiation technique was established as a tool in high energy astrophysics. An exciting new field of astronomy, high energy gamma ray astronomy, has developed which relies on the atmospheric Cerenkov light. We here review the mechanism for the production of Cerenkov light in the atmosphere and summarize the contributions to high energy astrophysics made using the technique. (author)

  17. Simulation of the charge ratio of cosmic ray muons in extensive air showers using CORSIKA

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ochilo, Livingstone [University of Siegen (Germany); Kenyatta University, Nairobi (Kenya); Hashim, Nadir; Okumu, John [Kenyatta University, Nairobi (Kenya)

    2013-07-01

    The interaction of primary cosmic rays in the atmosphere produces, among other particles, pions and kaons. They decay to muons, which form an important component of extensive air showers. The ratio of positively to negatively charged muons, called the muon charge ratio, provides important information about the cosmic ray interactions in the atmosphere. In this study, the theoretical hadronic interaction models in the cosmic ray simulation code CORSIKA have been used to study the charge ratio of cosmic ray muons simulated in extensive air showers. An East - West effect on the charge ratio of simulated cosmic ray muons is observed. It is more pronounced for inclined and low-energy muons (momentum less than 100 GeV/c and zenith angle greater than 80 ). Experimental data from ''MINOS Near'' experiment gives similar results.

  18. Efficient cold outflows driven by cosmic rays in high-redshift galaxies and their global effects on the IGM

    Science.gov (United States)

    Samui, Saumyadip; Subramanian, Kandaswamy; Srianand, Raghunathan

    2018-05-01

    We present semi-analytical models of galactic outflows in high-redshift galaxies driven by both hot thermal gas and non-thermal cosmic rays. Thermal pressure alone may not sustain a large-scale outflow in low-mass galaxies (i.e. M ˜ 108 M⊙), in the presence of supernovae feedback with large mass loading. We show that inclusion of cosmic ray pressure allows outflow solutions even in these galaxies. In massive galaxies for the same energy efficiency, cosmic ray-driven winds can propagate to larger distances compared to pure thermally driven winds. On an average gas in the cosmic ray-driven winds has a lower temperature which could aid detecting it through absorption lines in the spectra of background sources. Using our constrained semi-analytical models of galaxy formation (that explains the observed ultraviolet luminosity functions of galaxies), we study the influence of cosmic ray-driven winds on the properties of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at different redshifts. In particular, we study the volume filling factor, average metallicity, cosmic ray and magnetic field energy densities for models invoking atomic cooled and molecular cooled haloes. We show that the cosmic rays in the IGM could have enough energy that can be transferred to the thermal gas in presence of magnetic fields to influence the thermal history of the IGM. The significant volume filling and resulting strength of IGM magnetic fields can also account for recent γ-ray observations of blazars.

  19. One century of cosmic rays – A particle physicist's view

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sutton Christine

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Experiments on cosmic rays and the elementary particles share a common history that dates back to the 19th century. Following the discovery of radioactivity in the 1890s, the paths of the two fields intertwined, especially during the decades after the discovery of cosmic rays. Experiments demonstrated that the primary cosmic rays are positively charged particles, while other studies of cosmic rays revealed various new sub-atomic particles, including the first antiparticle. Techniques developed in common led to the birth of neutrino astronomy in 1987 and the first observation of a cosmic γ-ray source by a ground-based cosmic-ray telescope in 1989.

  20. Supernova remnants and the origin of cosmic rays

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vink, J.

    2014-01-01

    Supernova remnants have long been considered to be the dominant sources of Galactic cosmic rays. For a long time the prime evidence consisted of radio synchrotron radiation from supernova remnants, indicating the presence of electrons with energies of several GeV. However, in order to explain the

  1. The LHCf experiment modelling cosmic rays at LHC

    CERN Document Server

    Tricomi, A; Bonechi, L; Bongi, M; Castellini, G; D'Alessandro, R; Faus, A; Fukui, K; Haguenauer, M; Itow, Y; Kasahara, K; Macina, D; Mase, T; Masuda, K; Matsubara, Y; Mizuishi, M; Menjo, H; Muraki, Y; Papini, P; Perrot, A L; Ricciarini, S B; Sako, T; Shimizu, Y; Tamura, T; Taki, K; Torii, S; Tricomi, A; Turner, W C; Velasco, J; Watanabe, H; Yoshida, K

    2008-01-01

    The LHCf experiment at LHC has been designed to provide a calibration of nuclear interaction models used in cosmic ray physics up to energies relevant to test the region between the knee and the GZK cut-off. Details of the detector and its performances are discussed.

  2. Search for patterns by combining cosmic-ray energy and arrival directions at the Pierre Auger Observatory

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Aab, A.; Abreu, P.; Aglietta, M.; Boháčová, Martina; Chudoba, Jiří; Ebr, Jan; Mandát, Dušan; Nečesal, Petr; Palatka, Miroslav; Pech, Miroslav; Prouza, Michael; Řídký, Jan; Schovánek, Petr; Trávníček, Petr; Vícha, Jakub

    2015-01-01

    Roč. 75, č. 6 (2015), s. 269 ISSN 1434-6044 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) LG13007; GA MŠk(CZ) 7AMB14AR005; GA ČR(CZ) GA14-17501S Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : Pierre Auger Observatory * detector * cosmic rays Subject RIV: BF - Elementary Particles and High Energy Physics Impact factor: 4.912, year: 2015

  3. COSMIC-RAY SPALLATION IN RADIO-QUIET ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI: A CASE STUDY OF NGC 4051

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Turner, T. J.; Miller, L.

    2010-01-01

    We investigate conditions for and consequences of spallation in radio-quiet Seyfert galaxies. The work is motivated by the recent discovery of significant line emission at 5.44 keV in Suzaku data from NGC 4051. The energy of the new line suggests an identification as Cr I Kα emission; however, the line is much stronger than would be expected from material with cosmic abundances, leading to a suggestion of enhancement owing to nuclear spallation of Fe by low-energy cosmic rays from the active nucleus. We find that the highest abundance enhancements are likely to take place in gas out of the plane of the accretion disk and that timescales for spallation could be as short as a few years. The suggestion of a strong nuclear flux of cosmic rays in a radio-quiet active Seyfert galaxy is of particular interest in light of the recent suggestion from Pierre Auger Observatory data that ultra-high-energy cosmic rays may originate in such sources.

  4. An Indication of Anisotropy in Arrival Directions of Ultra-high-energy Cosmic Rays through Comparison to the Flux Pattern of Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Sources

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Aab, A.; Abreu, P.; Aglietta, M.; Albuquerque, I. F. M.; Allekotte, I.; Almela, A.; Castillo, J. Alvarez; Alvarez-Muñiz, J.; Anastasi, G. A.; Anchordoqui, L.; Andrada, B.; Andringa, S.; Aramo, C.; Arsene, N.; Asorey, H.; Assis, P.; Avila, G.; Badescu, A. M.; Balaceanu, A.; Barbato, F.; Luz, R. J. Barreira; Beatty, J. J.; Becker, K. H.; Bellido, J. A.; Berat, C.; Bertaina, M. E.; Bertou, X.; Biermann, P. L.; Biteau, J.; Blaess, S. G.; Blanco, A.; Blazek, J.; Bleve, C.; Boháčová, M.; Bonifazi, C.; Borodai, N.; Botti, A. M.; Brack, J.; Brancus, I.; Bretz, T.; Bridgeman, A.; Briechle, F. L.; Buchholz, P.; Bueno, A.; Buitink, S.; Buscemi, M.; Caballero-Mora, K. S.; Caccianiga, L.; Cancio, A.; Canfora, F.; Caruso, R.; Castellina, A.; Catalani, F.; Cataldi, G.; Cazon, L.; Chavez, A. G.; Chinellato, J. A.; Chudoba, J.; Clay, R. W.; Cerutti, A. C. Cobos; Colalillo, R.; Coleman, A.; Collica, L.; Coluccia, M. R.; Conceição, R.; Consolati, G.; Contreras, F.; Cooper, M. J.; Coutu, S.; Covault, C. E.; Cronin, J.; D’Amico, S.; Daniel, B.; Dasso, S.; Daumiller, K.; Dawson, B. R.; Almeida, R. M. de; Jong, S. J. de; Mauro, G. De; de Mello Neto, J. R. T.; Mitri, I. De; Oliveira, J. de; Souza, V. de; Debatin, J.; Deligny, O.; Castro, M. L. Díaz; Diogo, F.; Dobrigkeit, C.; D’Olivo, J. C.; Dorosti, Q.; Anjos, R. C. dos; Dova, M. T.; Dundovic, A.; Ebr, J.; Engel, R.; Erdmann, M.; Erfani, M.; Escobar, C. O.; Espadanal, J.; Etchegoyen, A.; Falcke, H.; Farmer, J.; Farrar, G.; Fauth, A. C.; Fazzini, N.; Fenu, F.; Fick, B.; Figueira, J. M.; Filipčič, A.; Freire, M. M.; Fujii, T.; Fuster, A.; Gaïor, R.; García, B.; Gaté, F.; Gemmeke, H.; Gherghel-Lascu, A.; Ghia, P. L.; Giaccari, U.; Giammarchi, M.; Giller, M.; Głas, D.; Glaser, C.; Golup, G.; Berisso, M. Gómez; Vitale, P. F. Gómez; González, N.; Gorgi, A.; Grillo, A. F.; Grubb, T. D.; Guarino, F.; Guedes, G. P.; Halliday, R.; Hampel, M. R.; Hansen, P.; Harari, D.; Harrison, T. A.; Haungs, A.; Hebbeker, T.; Heck, D.; Heimann, P.; Herve, A. E.; Hill, G. C.; Hojvat, C.; Holt, E.; Homola, P.; Hörandel, J. R.; Horvath, P.; Hrabovský, M.; Huege, T.; Hulsman, J.; Insolia, A.; Isar, P. G.; Jandt, I.; Johnsen, J. A.; Josebachuili, M.; Jurysek, J.; Kääpä, A.; Kambeitz, O.; Kampert, K. H.; Keilhauer, B.; Kemmerich, N.; Kemp, E.; Kemp, J.; Kieckhafer, R. M.; Klages, H. O.; Kleifges, M.; Kleinfeller, J.; Krause, R.; Krohm, N.; Kuempel, D.; Mezek, G. Kukec; Kunka, N.; Awad, A. Kuotb; Lago, B. L.; LaHurd, D.; Lang, R. G.; Lauscher, M.; Legumina, R.; Oliveira, M. A. Leigui de; Letessier-Selvon, A.; Lhenry-Yvon, I.; Link, K.; Presti, D. Lo; Lopes, L.; López, R.; Casado, A. López; Lorek, R.; Luce, Q.; Lucero, A.; Malacari, M.; Mallamaci, M.; Mandat, D.; Mantsch, P.; Mariazzi, A. G.; Mariş, I. C.; Marsella, G.; Martello, D.; Martinez, H.; Bravo, O. Martínez; Meza, J. J. Masías; Mathes, H. J.; Mathys, S.; Matthews, J.; Matthiae, G.; Mayotte, E.; Mazur, P. O.; Medina, C.; Medina-Tanco, G.; Melo, D.; Menshikov, A.; Merenda, K. -D.; Michal, S.; Micheletti, M. I.; Middendorf, L.; Miramonti, L.; Mitrica, B.; Mockler, D.; Mollerach, S.; Montanet, F.; Morello, C.; Morlino, G.; Mostafá, M.; Müller, A. L.; Müller, G.; Muller, M. A.; Müller, S.; Mussa, R.; Naranjo, I.; Nellen, L.; Nguyen, P. H.; Niculescu-Oglinzanu, M.; Niechciol, M.; Niemietz, L.; Niggemann, T.; Nitz, D.; Nosek, D.; Novotny, V.; Nožka, L.; Núñez, L. A.; Oikonomou, F.; Olinto, A.; Palatka, M.; Pallotta, J.; Papenbreer, P.; Parente, G.; Parra, A.; Paul, T.; Pech, M.; Pedreira, F.; Pȩkala, J.; Pelayo, R.; Peña-Rodriguez, J.; Pereira, L. A. S.; Perlin, M.; Perrone, L.; Peters, C.; Petrera, S.; Phuntsok, J.; Pierog, T.; Pimenta, M.; Pirronello, V.; Platino, M.; Plum, M.; Poh, J.; Porowski, C.; Prado, R. R.; Privitera, P.; Prouza, M.; Quel, E. J.; Querchfeld, S.; Quinn, S.; Ramos-Pollan, R.; Rautenberg, J.; Ravignani, D.; Ridky, J.; Riehn, F.; Risse, M.; Ristori, P.; Rizi, V.; Rodrigues de Carvalho, W.; Rodriguez Fernandez, G.; Rodriguez Rojo, J.; Roncoroni, M. J.; Roth, M.; Roulet, E.; Rovero, A. C.; Ruehl, P.; Saffi, S. J.; Saftoiu, A.; Salamida, F.; Salazar, H.; Saleh, A.; Salina, G.; Sánchez, F.; Sanchez-Lucas, P.; Santos, E. M.; Santos, E.; Sarazin, F.; Sarmento, R.; Sarmiento-Cano, C.; Sato, R.; Schauer, M.; Scherini, V.; Schieler, H.; Schimp, M.; Schmidt, D.; Scholten, O.; Schovánek, P.; Schröder, F. G.; Schröder, S.; Schulz, A.; Schumacher, J.; Sciutto, S. J.; Segreto, A.; Shadkam, A.; Shellard, R. C.; Sigl, G.; Silli, G.; Šmída, R.; Snow, G. R.; Sommers, P.; Sonntag, S.; Soriano, J. F.; Squartini, R.; Stanca, D.; Stanič, S.; Stasielak, J.; Stassi, P.; Stolpovskiy, M.; Strafella, F.; Streich, A.; Suarez, F.; Durán, M. Suarez; Sudholz, T.; Suomijärvi, T.; Supanitsky, A. D.; Šupík, J.; Swain, J.; Szadkowski, Z.; Taboada, A.; Taborda, O. A.; Theodoro, V. M.; Timmermans, C.; Peixoto, C. J. Todero; Tomankova, L.; Tomé, B.; Elipe, G. Torralba; Travnicek, P.; Trini, M.; Ulrich, R.; Unger, M.; Urban, M.; Galicia, J. F. Valdés; Valiño, I.; Valore, L.; van Aar, G.; van Bodegom, P.; Berg, A. M. van den; Vliet, A. van; Varela, E.; Cárdenas, B. Vargas; Vázquez, R. A.; Veberič, D.; Ventura, C.; Quispe, I. D. Vergara; Verzi, V.; Vicha, J.; Villaseñor, L.; Vorobiov, S.; Wahlberg, H.; Wainberg, O.; Walz, D.; Watson, A. A.; Weber, M.; Weindl, A.; Wiedeński, M.; Wiencke, L.; Wilczyński, H.; Wirtz, M.; Wittkowski, D.; Wundheiler, B.; Yang, L.; Yushkov, A.; Zas, E.; Zavrtanik, D.; Zavrtanik, M.; Zepeda, A.; Zimmermann, B.; Ziolkowski, M.; Zong, Z.; Zuccarello, F.

    2018-02-01

    A new analysis of the dataset from the Pierre Auger Observatory provides evidence for anisotropy in the arrival directions of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays on an intermediate angular scale, which is indicative of excess arrivals from strong, nearby sources. The data consist of 5514 events above 20 EeV with zenith angles up to 80 deg recorded before 2017 April 30. Sky models have been created for two distinct populations of extragalactic gamma-ray emitters: active galactic nuclei from the second catalog of hard Fermi-LAT sources (2FHL) and starburst galaxies from a sample that was examined with Fermi-LAT. Flux-limited samples, which include all types of galaxies from the Swift-BAT and 2MASS surveys, have been investigated for comparison. The sky model of cosmic-ray density constructed using each catalog has two free parameters, the fraction of events correlating with astrophysical objects and an angular scale characterizing the clustering of cosmic rays around extragalactic sources. A maximum-likelihood ratio test is used to evaluate the best values of these parameters and to quantify the strength of each model by contrast with isotropy. It is found that the starburst model fits the data better than the hypothesis of isotropy with a statistical significance of 4.0 sigma, the highest value of the test statistic being for energies above 39 EeV. The three alternative models are favored against isotropy with 2.7-3.2 sigma significance. The origin of the indicated deviation from isotropy is examined and prospects for more sensitive future studies are discussed.

  5. Department of Cosmic Radiation Physics - Overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gawin, J.

    1997-01-01

    Full text: The Department of Cosmic Ray Physics in Lodz is involved in basic research in the area of high energy physics and cosmic ray physics related to: -Studies of the asymptotic properties of hadronic interactions from the analysis of cosmic ray propagation in the atmosphere. -Studies of structure and properties of Extensive Air Showers induced by cosmic ray particles. -Search for point sources of high energy cosmic rays. -Studies of cosmic ray propagation in the Galaxy and mechanisms of particle acceleration. -Studies of the mass composition of cosmic rays in the energy range 10 15 -10 17 eV. Theoretical and experimental studies of nuclear interactions for energies exceeding those obtained by modern particle accelerators are performed employing results obtained by the Lodz Extensive Air Shower Array. The Lodz hodoscope can register electromagnetic components of cosmic ray showers in the atmosphere as well as muons at two energy thresholds. Data collected by the Lodz array are also used to study mass composition of cosmic rays in the energy range 10 15 - 10 17 eV. The Lodz group collaborates with foreign institutes and laboratories on construction and data interpretation of cosmic ray experiments. Our most important partners are: Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (Germany), College de France, the Institute for Nuclear Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the University of Durham, and the University of Perpignan. (author)

  6. COSMOS: the COsmic-ray Soil Moisture Observing System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Zreda

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available The newly-developed cosmic-ray method for measuring area-average soil moisture at the hectometer horizontal scale is being implemented in the COsmic-ray Soil Moisture Observing System (or the COSMOS. The stationary cosmic-ray soil moisture probe measures the neutrons that are generated by cosmic rays within air and soil and other materials, moderated by mainly hydrogen atoms located primarily in soil water, and emitted to the atmosphere where they mix instantaneously at a scale of hundreds of meters and whose density is inversely correlated with soil moisture. The COSMOS has already deployed more than 50 of the eventual 500 cosmic-ray probes, distributed mainly in the USA, each generating a time series of average soil moisture over its horizontal footprint, with similar networks coming into existence around the world. This paper is written to serve a community need to better understand this novel method and the COSMOS project. We describe the cosmic-ray soil moisture measurement method, the instrument and its calibration, the design, data processing and dissemination used in the COSMOS project, and give example time series of soil moisture obtained from COSMOS probes.

  7. Structure formation cosmic rays: Identifying observational constraints

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Prodanović T.

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available Shocks that arise from baryonic in-fall and merger events during the structure formation are believed to be a source of cosmic rays. These "structure formation cosmic rays" (SFCRs would essentially be primordial in composition, namely, mostly made of protons and alpha particles. However, very little is known about this population of cosmic rays. One way to test the level of its presence is to look at the products of hadronic reactions between SFCRs and the ISM. A perfect probe of these reactions would be Li. The rare isotope Li is produced only by cosmic rays, dominantly in αα → 6Li fusion reactions with the ISM helium. Consequently, this nuclide provides a unique diagnostic of the history of cosmic rays. Exactly because of this unique property is Li affected most by the presence of an additional cosmic ray population. In turn, this could have profound consequences for the Big-Bang nucleosynthesis: cosmic rays created during cosmic structure formation would lead to pre-Galactic Li production, which would act as a "contaminant" to the primordial 7Li content of metalpoor halo stars. Given the already existing problem of establishing the concordance between Li observed in halo stars and primordial 7Li as predicted by the WMAP, it is crucial to set limits to the level of this "contamination". However, the history of SFCRs is not very well known. Thus we propose a few model-independent ways of testing the SFCR species and their history, as well as the existing lithium problem: 1 we establish the connection between gamma-ray and Li production, which enables us to place constraints on the SFCR-made lithium by using the observed Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Background (EGRB; 2 we propose a new site for testing the primordial and SFCR-made lithium, namely, low-metalicity High-Velocity Clouds (HVCs, which retain the pre-Galactic composition without any significant depletion. Although using one method alone may not give us strong constraints, using them in

  8. Long-term and transient time variation of cosmic ray fluxes detected in Argentina by CARPET cosmic ray detector

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Mendonça, R. R. S.; Raulin, J.-P.; Bertoni, F. C. P.; Echer, E.; Makhmutov, V. S.; Fernandez, G.

    2011-07-01

    We present results obtained at El Leoncito (CASLEO, San Juan, Argentina) with the CARPET charged particles detector installed in April 2006. The observed modulation of the cosmic ray flux is discussed as a function of its time variability and it is related to longer solar activity variations and to shorter variations during solar and geomagnetic transient activity. Short period (few minutes, few hours) cosmic ray modulation events are observed during rain time (precipitation) and significant variations of the atmospheric electric field. Complementary observations of the atmospheric electric field indicate that its time variations play an important role in the detected cosmic ray event.

  9. Cosmic Rays in the Heliosphere: Requirements for Future Observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mewaldt, R. A.

    2013-06-01

    Since the publication of Cosmic Rays in the Heliosphere in 1998 there has been great progress in understanding how and why cosmic rays vary in space and time. This paper discusses measurements that are needed to continue advances in relating cosmic ray variations to changes in solar and interplanetary activity and variations in the local interstellar environment. Cosmic ray acceleration and transport is an important discipline in space physics and astrophysics, but it also plays a critical role in defining the radiation environment for humans and hardware in space, and is critical to efforts to unravel the history of solar activity. Cosmic rays are measured directly by balloon-borne and space instruments, and indirectly by ground-based neutron, muon and neutrino detectors, and by measurements of cosmogenic isotopes in ice cores, tree-rings, sediments, and meteorites. The topics covered here include: what we can learn from the deep 2008-2009 solar minimum, when cosmic rays reached the highest intensities of the space era; the implications of 10Be and 14C isotope archives for past and future solar activity; the effects of variations in the size of the heliosphere; opportunities provided by the Voyagers for discovering the origin of anomalous cosmic rays and measuring cosmic-ray spectra in interstellar space; and future space missions that can continue the exciting exploration of the heliosphere that has occurred over the past 50 years.

  10. THE UNREASONABLE WEAKNESS OF R -PROCESS COSMIC RAYS IN THE NEUTRON-STAR-MERGER NUCLEOSYNTHESIS SCENARIO

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kyutoku, Koutarou [Interdisciplinary Theoretical Science (iTHES) Research Group, RIKEN, Wako, Saitama 351-0198 (Japan); Ioka, Kunihito, E-mail: koutarou.kyutoku@riken.jp [Center for Gravitational Physics, Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8502 (Japan)

    2016-08-10

    We reach the robust conclusion that, by combining the observed cosmic rays of r -process elements with the fact that the velocity of the neutron-star-merger ejecta is much higher than that of the supernova ejecta, either (1) the reverse shock in the neutron-star-merger ejecta is a very inefficient accelerator that converts less than 0.003% of the ejecta kinetic energy to the cosmic-ray energy or (2) the neutron star merger is not the origin of the Galactic r -process elements. We also find that the acceleration efficiency should be less than 0.1% for the reverse shock of the supernova ejecta with observed cosmic rays lighter than the iron.

  11. Cosmic-ray contribution in measurement of environmental gamma-ray dose

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nagaoka, Kazunori; Honda, Kouichirou; Miyano, Keiji

    1996-01-01

    Nowadays several kinds of dosimeters are being used for environmental gamma-ray monitoring. However the results measured by those instruments are not always in good agreement. It may be caused from the different characteristics of dosimeters. In particular the different responses of the instruments to cosmic-rays give significant influence on the results. Environmental radiation measurements at various altitudes on Mt. Fuji were carried out using a scintillation spectrometer with 3''φ spherical NaI(Tl), a pressurized ionization chamber (PIC), an air-equivalent ionization chamber (IC), thermoluminescence dosimeters (TLD), radiophotoluminescence glass dosimeters (RPLD) and NaI(Tl) scintillation survey meters so that the response characteristics of these instruments to cosmic-rays could be clarified. Cosmic-ray contributions for all instruments were correlated with counting rate over 3 MeV by the spectrometer. Each contribution can be estimated by measurement of the counting rate. Conversion factors (nGy/h/cpm) for IC, PIC, TLD, RPLD and NaI survey meters (TCS166 and TCS121C) were 0.33, 0.32, 0.25, 0.24, 0.06 and -0.01, respectively. Self-doses of these instruments were estimated by measurements at Nokogiriyama facilities of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo. Self-doses for TLD and RPLD were approximately 6 nGy/h. The self dose effect should be taken into consideration in environmental dose measurements. These data are expected to be useful in estimating the cosmic-ray contribution and self-dose in the measurement of environmental gamma-ray dose. (author)

  12. Exploring the Cosmic Ray Spectrum with the CREAM Experiment

    CERN Document Server

    Anderson, Tyler B

    The Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass (CREAM) project endeavors to resolve the cosmic-ray spectrum in an energy range between 10^{10} and 10^{15} eV for all particles with charges in the range Z = 1 (hydrogen) to Z = 26 (iron). From 2004 to 2011, the CREAM instrument was flown in a succession of long-duration balloon (LDB) missions over the Antarctic continent. To date, it has completed six successful campaigns, for a cumulative 161 days in flight. Starting in 2011, CREAM began a process of reconguration in order to prepare for ISSCREAM a three-year mission bound for the International Space Station in 2014. In addition, a subset of detectors from CREAM's balloon flights have been upgraded and reassembled for the Boron And Carbon Cosmic rays in the Upper Stratosphere (BACCUS) mission, which will mount a new LDB campaign during the 2013-2014 Antarctic summer season. The CREAM project is presented, with a special emphasis on the design, construction, and performance of CREAM's (and BACCUS') Timing Charge Detector (...

  13. Sulphur mountain: Cosmic ray intensity records

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Venkatesan, D.; Mathews, T.

    1985-01-01

    This book deals with the comic ray intensity registrations at the Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray Laboratory. The time series of intensity form a valuable data-set, for studying cosmic ray intensity variations and their dependence on solar activity. The IGY neutron monitor started operating from July 1, 1957 and continued through 1963. Daily mean values are tabulated for the period and these are also represented in plots. This monitor was set up by the National Research Council of Canada

  14. Elemental composition of cosmic rays using a maximum likelihood method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ruddick, K.

    1996-01-01

    We present a progress report on our attempts to determine the composition of cosmic rays in the knee region of the energy spectrum. We have used three different devices to measure properties of the extensive air showers produced by primary cosmic rays: the Soudan 2 underground detector measures the muon flux deep underground, a proportional tube array samples shower density at the surface of the earth, and a Cherenkov array observes light produced high in the atmosphere. We have begun maximum likelihood fits to these measurements with the hope of determining the nuclear mass number A on an event by event basis. (orig.)

  15. Cosmic Rays and Research in Schools: One School's Experience

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chaffer, Andy; Tedd, Bernie

    2016-01-01

    The High School Project on Astrophysics Research with Cosmics (HiSPARC) is an international project in which secondary schools and academic institutions join forces to form a network of detectors to measure cosmic rays with extremely high energy. We present results of research done by students at the King Edward VI High School For Girls,…

  16. Cosmic-ray exposure records and origins of meteorites

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reedy, R.C.

    1985-01-01

    The cosmic-ray records of meteorites can be used to infer much about their origins and recent histories. Some meteorites had simple cosmic-ray exposure histories, while others had complex exposure histories with their cosmogenic products made both before and after a collision in space. The methods used to interpret meteorites' cosmic-ray records, especially identifying simple or complex exposure histories, often are inadequate. Besides spallogenic radionuclides and stable nuclides, measurements of products that have location-sensitive production rates, such as the tracks of heavy cosmic-ray nuclei or neutron-capture nuclides, are very useful in accurately determining a meteorite's history. Samples from different, known locations of a meteorite help in studying the cosmic-ray record. Such extensive sets of meteorite measurements, plus theoretical modeling of complex histories, will improve our ability to predict the production of cosmogenic nuclides in meteorites, to distinguish simple and complex exposure histories, and to better determine exposure ages

  17. Key scientific problems from Cosmic Ray History

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lev, Dorman

    2016-07-01

    young scientist from the Graz University, started to investigate how γ-radiations change their intensity with the distance from their sources, i.e. from the ground. When he performed his historical experiments on balloons in 1911-1912, it was found that at the beginning (up to approximately one km) ionization did not change, but with increase of the altitude for up to 4 - 5 km, the ionization rate escalates several times. Victor Hess drew a conclusion that some new unknown source of ionization of extra terrestrial origin exists. He named it 'high altitude radiation'. 5. Many scientists did not agree with this conclusion and tried to prove that the discovered new radiation has terrestrial origin (e.g., radium and other emanations from radioactive substances in the ground, particle acceleration up to high energies during thunderstorms, and so on). However, a lot of experiments showed that Victor Hess's findings are right: the discovered new radiation has extra terrestrial origin. 6. In 1926 the great American scientist Robert Millikan named them 'cosmic rays': cosmic as coming from space, and rays because it was generally wrongly accepted at those time that the new radiation mostly consisted of γ-rays. Robert Millikan believed that God exists and continues to work: in space God has creates He atoms from four atoms of H with the generation high energy gamma rays (in contradiction with physical laws, as this reaction can occur only at very high temperature and great density, e.g., as inside stars). 7. On this problem, interesting to many people, there was a famous public discussion between two Nobel laureates Arthur Compton and Robert Millikan, widely reported in newspapers. Only after a lot of latitude surveys in the 1930s, organized mostly by Compton and Millikan, it became clear that 'cosmic rays' are mostly not γ-rays, but rather charged particles (based on Störmer's theory about behavior of charged energetic particles in the geomagnetic field, developed in 1910

  18. Ultra high energy cosmic rays: clustering, GUT scale and neutrino masses

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fodor, Z.

    2002-01-01

    The clustering of ultra high energy (above 5 · 10 19 eV) cosmic rays (UHECR) suggests that they might be emitted by compact sources. We present a statistical analysis on the source density based on the multiplicities. The propagation of UHECR protons is studied in detail. The UHECR spectrum is consistent with the decay of GUT scale particles and/or with the Z-burst. The predicted GUT mass is m x = 10 b GeV, where b 14.6 -1.7 +1.6 . Our neutrino mass prediction depends on the origin of the power part of the spectrum: m ν = 2.75 -0.97 +1.28 eV for halo and 0.26 -0.14 +0.20 eV for extragalactic (EG) origin

  19. Propagation and sky distribution of ultra-high energy cosmic rays; Propagation et distribution sur le ciel des rayons cosmiques d'ultra-haute energie dans le cadre de l'Observatoire Pierre Auger

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Armengaud, E

    2006-05-15

    The origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays remains an enigma of modern physics, which the Pierre Auger Observatory, a detector with a hybrid detection mode and an unprecedented size, will try to solve. The direct observation of the sources of those particles, or of large-scale structures in the sky associated to the sources, is one of the main goals of the observatory. Such observations should also allow to constrain cosmic ray propagation between their sources and the Earth, which is complicated by interactions with low-energy photon backgrounds and deflections in astrophysical magnetic fields. This thesis is made of two parts, in order to observe and simulate the sources of cosmic rays within the Auger Observatory. We begin with an extensive description of the Pierre Auger Observatory, and study the acceptance of its surface detector in order to build accurate sky exposure maps, an essential tool in order to study anisotropies. Then we present methods to search for anisotropies in the sky, and analyze the first two years of Auger data. After a description of the phenomena that can influence the propagation and observation of ultrahigh energy cosmic ray sources, we present numerical simulations aiming at predicting observables such as the spectrum, anisotropies and composition measurable by Auger as a function of various astrophysical models. We show that extragalactic magnetic fields can play a crucial role in particular if cosmic rays are partly heavy nuclei. Finally, we show that the propagation of these particles from a nearby source generates secondary fluxes of gamma-rays that could be detected by TeV gamma-ray telescopes. (author)

  20. Origin and propagation of galactic cosmic rays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cesarsky, Catherine J.; Ormes, Jonathan F.

    1987-01-01

    The study of systematic trends in elemental abundances is important for unfolding the nuclear and/or atomic effects that should govern the shaping of source abundances and in constraining the parameters of cosmic ray acceleration models. In principle, much can be learned about the large-scale distributions of cosmic rays in the galaxy from all-sky gamma ray surveys such as COS-B and SAS-2. Because of the uncertainties in the matter distribution which come from the inability to measure the abundance of molecular hydrogen, the results are somewhat controversial. The leaky-box model accounts for a surprising amount of the data on heavy nuclei. However, a growing body of data indicates that the simple picture may have to be abandoned in favor of more complex models which contain additional parameters. Future experiments on the Spacelab and space station will hopefully be made of the spectra of individual nuclei at high energy. Antiprotons must be studied in the background free environment above the atmosphere with much higher reliability and presion to obtain spectral information.