Cosmic ray albedo neutron spectrum at relativistic energies

Abstract

The omnidirectional spectrum of the cosmic ray albedo neutrons at relativistic energies has been estimated from the geometrical considerations. Since angular distribution of the albedo neutron flux escaping the earth's atmosphere depends on the neutron's energy, the omnidirectional spectrum appears to be much steeper than the unidirectional one. It is shown that the albedo neutron spectrum softening discovered by Freden and White from proton spectrum measurements in the inner radiation belt may be due to this effect.