Extensive air showers generated by protons, nuclei, gamma-quanta and neutrinos at energy range 1 – 100 TeV

Abstract

Basic science: nuclear physics, physics of elementary particles and connected with them astrophysics and cosmology, has studied the structure of matter on micro and macro scales. Gamma-astronomy and neutrino-astronomy, are unique experimental possibilities to search for high-energy cosmic ray sources (10 12 – 10 14 eV). Evidence has already been obtained of metagalactic sources exceeding by 10 6 – 10 12 times the power of gamma-quanta galactic sources. This data puts into doubt the assumption about the galactic origin of the observed very high energy cosmic radiation. The energy spectrum of the majority of known gamma-sources with energy 10 12 − 10 14 eV is harder than the proton and cosmic ray nuclei spectrum. The problem of observing extensive air showers generated by neutrinos is connected with the extremely small effective cross-section of inelastic collisions of neutrinos with nuclei. However, two facts allow a search for showers generated by neutrinos. The hadron cascade with primary energy of more than 10 12 eV leaves the ground to atmosphere from depth of ∼ 300 g/ cm 2 without essential loss of total energy in the hadron cascade. The Cherenkov radiation in the atmosphere from such hadron cascades will be observed at distances from the telescope of 7.5 km over an area more than 7 · 10 5 m 2. This partially compensates for the small cross-section of inelastic neutrino collisions.