High-energy cosmic-ray fluxes in the Earth atmosphere: Calculations vs experiments

Abstract

A new calculation of the atmospheric fluxes of cosmic-ray hadrons and muons in the energy range 10 – 10 5 GeV has been performed for the set of hadron production models, EPOS 1.6, QGSJET II-03, SIBYLL 2.1, and others that are of interest to cosmic-ray physicists. The fluxes of secondary cosmic rays at several levels in the atmosphere are computed using directly data of the ATIC-2, GAMMA experiments, and the model proposed recently by Zatsepin and Sokolskaya as well as the parameterization of the primary cosmic-ray spectrum by Gaisser and Honda. The calculated energy spectra of the hadrons and muon flux as a function of zenith angle are compared with measurements as well as other calculations. The effect of uncertainties both in the primary cosmic-ray flux and hadronic model predictions on the spectra of atmospheric hadrons and muons is considered.