Abstract
According to the superposition principle, an extensive air shower initiated by a nucleus with energy E and mass number A can be approximated as the superposition of A proton-initiated showers each with energy E/A. The superposition principle for interactions of atomic nuclei proposes to describe nucleus-initiated extensive air showers using simulations performed for proton showers. Single detectors and systems working in tight coincidence mainly register events initiated by particles with very low energies, which are affected by major statistical fluctuations, such as those used in high schools for education and outreach purposes. Verifying whether the superposition principle is still a good approximation in the low-energy region is important for the validity of the interpretation of such measurements. We present results of the comparison of results of the superposition model with detailed simulations of showers with the CORSIKA program from the energy of 10 GeV. While the energy dependence of the mean shower parameters satisfies the superposition principle, the higher moments do not. A modification of the superposition model based on the wounded nucleon model, reducing these discrepancies, is proposed. The semi-analytical description of showers in the modified superposition model can give the density spectrum of cosmic ray particles, which is consistent with the measurements. In this paper, we present results both consistent with the superposition model and indicating the need for its modification. This modification is proposed and tested.
Highlights
The surface detector arrays of the largest Extensive Air Shower (EAS) experiments, such as the Pierre Auger Observatory [1] or the Telescope Array [2], combine local triggers based on signals from individual stations into higher-level triggers combining local triggers from neighbouring stations, and so on hierarchically to record the events of interest.It was these composite interlinks of local triggers that made it possible in practice to measure ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray (UHECR) flux above 1020 eV, which is on the order of one particle per few km2 per century
The clear scale symmetry between the large, largest, and small local physics experiments reflects the physical consistency of the description of showers with giant numbers of particles counted in billions and the smallest ones with a few particles reaching the surface of the earth
Using the superposition principle based on the similarity symmetry of extensive air showers generated by primary cosmic ray nuclei and single protons, we developed a phenomenological “small shower generator”
Summary
The surface detector arrays of the largest Extensive Air Shower (EAS) experiments, such as the Pierre Auger Observatory [1] or the Telescope Array [2], combine local triggers based on signals from individual stations into higher-level triggers combining local triggers from neighbouring stations, and so on hierarchically to record the events of interest It was these composite interlinks of local triggers that made it possible in practice to measure ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray (UHECR) flux above 1020 eV, which is on the order of one particle per few km per century. Pupils must understand that they are investigating real physical phenomena and that what they see is the cosmic radiation reaching the Earth from distant space They need tools to interpret the signals recorded by their arrays. Thereby, building small, local, school-based EAS arrays and networking them on a much larger, global scale has many beneficial aspects
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