Chemical Composition Of Cosmic Rays Research Articles

Determination of the Cosmic-Ray Chemical Composition: Open Issues and Prospects

Cosmic rays are relativistic particles that come to the Earth from outer space. Despite a great effort made in both experimental and theoretical research, their origin is still unknown. One of the main keys to understand their nature is the determination of its chemical composition as a function of primary energy. In this paper, we review the measurements of the mass composition above 1015 eV. We first summarize the main aspects of air shower physics that are relevant in composition analyses. We discuss the composition measurements made by using optical, radio, and surface detectors and the limitations imposed by current high-energy hadronic interaction models that are used to interpret the experimental data. We also review the photons and neutrinos searches conducted in different experiments, which, in addition to being important to understand the nature of cosmic rays, can provide relevant information related to the abundance of heavy or light elements in the flux at the highest energies. Finally, we summarize the future composition measurements that are currently being planned or under development.

Particle identification capability of Plastic scintillator tiles equipped with SiPMs for the High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection (HERD) facility

The High Energy Cosmic Radiation Detection (HERD) facility onboard the future Chinese Space Station (CSS) will be able to detect charged cosmic rays and gamma rays from few GeV to PeV energies, giving a valuable contribution in several scientific topics, such as dark matter searches in astrophysical objects, the study of cosmic ray chemical composition and high energy gamma-ray observations. The entire instrument is supposed to be surrounded by a plastic scintillator detector (PSD), which will be used to discriminate charged from neutral particles in order to correctly identify gamma-rays and nuclei. One configuration proposed and studied for the HERD PSD detector consists in a segmented plastic scintillator with a squared-tile geometry, coupled to Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs). SiPMs provide similar or even better performances to the standard photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) with lower power consumption and cost benefits. In 2018, beam test campaigns were performed at CERN PS and SPS to test two prototypes of plastic scintillator tiles, equipped with a set of SiPMs. One was tested with a beam of electrons and pions and another prototype with an ion beam. The results will be presented, showing the capabilities of these prototypes to detect charged particles with very high efficiency and to measure the charge of heavier nuclei.

Calibration of the Yangbajing air-shower core detector

Aiming at the observation of cosmic-ray chemical composition at the `knee' energy region, a new type air-shower core detector (YAC, Yangbajing Air shower Core array) consisting of a lead plate of 3.5 cm thick and a scintillation counter with an area of 0.5 m2 has been developed and set up at Yangbajing, 4300 m a.s.l. in Tibet, China since 2014. The main purpose of YAC detector is to separate primary cosmic-ray mass by detecting high energy electromagnetic particles at the air-shower (AS) core generated by the secondary particles after passing through the lead plate. In order to precisely measure the number of shower particles, the calibration procedure of the YAC detector is described in this paper. We found that the linear relationship between YAC scintillation detector output and incident particles is good below 5×106 MIPs while the non-linearity is less than 3%. Such a wide dynamic range shows that YAC experiment may make it possible to obtain the primary mass composition and energy spectrum covering and above the `knee' energy region.

Galactic Center as an efficient source of cosmic rays

After the discovery of Fermi Bubbles and the excess of gamma-ray emission, the Galactic Centre has received increasing attention with the aim to understand its role in the origin and acceleration of primary cosmic rays (CRs). Based on a diffusion/re-acceleration model, we use the GALPROP software to solve the diffusion equation for the cosmic rays and compare the results with the CRs spectrum, motivated by relationship between several energetic sources at the Galactic Centre and the generated diffuse GeV-TeV gamma-rays. We calculate the cosmic ray distribution, gamma-ray flux from Galactic Centre and explore its contribution on the spectrum and chemical composition of cosmic rays observed at Earth. We also discuss the effects of nuclei interactions with different interstellar gas models.

Energy Spectra of Cosmic-Ray Protons and Nuclei Measured in the NUCLEON Experiment Using a New Method

Some results of studies of cosmic rays obtained during the NUCLEON space experiment in 2015–2017 are presented. This experiment was intended for direct measurements of the energy spectra and chemical composition of cosmic rays (Z = 1−30) in the energy range 2–500 TeV. Results presented include energy spectra for various abundant nuclei measured using the new Kinematic Lightweight Energy Meter (KLEM). The primary energies are established using the spatial densities of secondary particles produced in inelastic interactions with a carbon target.

The cosmic ray energy spectrum measured with the new Tibet hybrid experiment

We have upgraded the new Tibet ASgamma experiment in China since 2014 to measure the chemical composition of cosmic rays around the knee. This hybrid experiment consist of an air-shower-core detector array (YAC-II) to detect high energy electromagnetic component, the Tibet air-shower array (Tibet-III) and a large underground water-Cherenkov muon-detector array (MD). We have carried out a detailed air-shower Monte Carlo (MC) simulation to study the performance of the hybrid detectors by using CORSIKA (version 7.5000), which includes EPOS-LHC, QGSJETII-04, SIBYLL2.1 and SIBYLL2.3 hadronic interaction models. The preliminary results of the interaction model checking above 50 TeV energy region are reported in this paper, and the primary proton and helium spectra in the energy range 50 TeV to 1015 eV was derived from YAC-I data and is smoothly connected with direct observation data at lower energies and also with our previously reported works at higher energies within statistical errors. The knee of the (P+He) spectra is located around 400 TeV. The interaction model dependence in deriving the primary (P+He) spectra is found to be small (less than 25% in absolute intensity, 10% in position of the knee), and the composition model dependence is less than 10% in absolute intensity.

Absolute-energy-scale calibration of ARGO-YBJ for light primaries in multi-TeV region with the Moon shadow observation

In 2011 ARGO-YBJ experiment has reported a work to study the absolute rigidity scale of the primary cosmic ray particles based on the Moon’s shadow observation. Given the progress in high energy hadronic interaction models with LHC data, in cosmic ray chemical composition measurement and in experimental data accumulation, more updates can be researched. This paper aims to further disentangle the composition dependence in absolute-energy-scale calibration by using specific moon-shadow data which mainly is comprised of light component cosmic rays. Results show that, 17% energy scale error is estimated from 3 TeV to 50 TeV. To validate the performance of this technique, the light component cosmic ray spectrum in the same energy region is shown.

A proposed method for measurement of cosmic-ray mass composition based on geomagnetic spectroscopy

The effect of the geomagnetic Lorentz force on the muon component of extensive air shower (EAS) has been studied in a Monte Carlo generated simulated data sample. This geomagnetic field affects the paths of muons in an EAS, causing a local contrast or polar asymmetry in the abundance of positive and negative muons about the shower axis. The asymmetry can be approximately expressed as a function of transverse separation between the positive and negative muons barycentric positions in the EAS through opposite quadrants across the shower core in the shower front plane. In the present study, it is found that the transverse muon barycenter separation and its maximum value obtained from the polar variation of the parameter are higher for Iron primaries than protons for highly inclined showers. Hence, in principle, these parameters can be exploited to the measurement of primary cosmic-ray chemical composition. Possibility of practical realization of the proposed method in a real experiment is briefly discussed.

Performance of new 8-inch photomultiplier tube used for the Tibet muon-detector array

Since 2014, a new hybrid experiment consisting of a high-energy air-shower-core array (YAC-II), a high-density air-shower array (Tibet-III) and a large underground water-Cherenkov muon-detector array (MD) has been continued by the Tibet ASγ collaboration to measure the chemical composition of cosmic rays in the wide energy range including the ``knee''. In this experiment, YAC-II is used to select high energy core events induced by cosmic rays in the above energy region, while MD is used to estimate the type of nucleus of primary particles by measuring the number of muons contained in the air showers. However, the dynamic range of each MD cell is only 5 to 2000 photoelectrons (PEs) which is mainly designed for observation of high-energy celestial gamma rays. In order to obtain the primary proton, helium and iron spectra and their ``knee'' positions with energy up to 1016 eV, each of PMTs equipped to the MD cell is required to measure the number of photons capable of covering a wide dynamic range of 100–106 PEs according to Monte Carlo simulations. In this paper, we firstly compare the characteristic features between R5912-PMT made by Japan Hamamatsu and CR365-PMT made by Beijing Hamamatsu. If there exists no serious difference, we will then add two 8-inch-in-diameter PMTs to meet our requirements in each MD cell, which are responsible for the range of 100–10000 PEs and 2000–1000000 PEs, respectively. That is, MD cell is expected to be able to measure the number of muons over 6 orders of magnitudes.

Measurement of the mass composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays with the Pierre Auger Observatory

The understanding of the nature of ultra-high energy cosmic rays is one of the most intriguing open questions for current and future observatories. With its hybrid design and huge exposure, the Pierre Auger Observatory provides valuable statistical measurements of the chemical composition of cosmic rays with energies above 1017 eV, including the search for neutral primaries such as neutrinos and photons. We report on the most recent results which are based on the accurate measurement of the depth of the shower maximum, Xmax, by the fluorescence telescopes and on the shape of the signals recorded by the water-Cherenkov detectors. The interpretation of these results in terms of mass composition is also discussed related to the hadronic interaction models used to describe the development of air showers.

Development of Yangbajing air shower core detector for a new EAS hybrid experiment**Supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11078002, 11275212, 11165013), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (H9291450S3, Y4293211S5) and the Knowledge Innovation Fund of Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP), China (H95451D0U2, H8515530U1)

Aiming at the observation of cosmic-ray chemical composition in the “knee” energy region, we have been developing a new type of air-shower core detector (YAC, Yangbajing Air shower Core detector array) to be set up at Yangbajing (90.522° E, 30.102° N, 4300 m above sea level, atmospheric depth: 606 g/m2) in Tibet, China. YAC works together with the Tibet air-shower array (Tibet-III) and an underground water Cherenkov muon detector array (MD) as a hybrid experiment. Each YAC detector unit consists of lead plates of 3.5 cm thickness and a scintillation counter which detects the burst size induced by high energy particles in the air-shower cores. The burst size can be measured from 1 MIP (Minimum Ionization Particle) to 106 MIPs. The first phase of this experiment, named “YAC- I”, consists of 16 YAC detectors each with a size of 40 cm×50 cm and distributed in a grid with an effective area of 10 m2. YAC- I is used to check hadronic interaction models. The second phase of the experiment, called “YAC- II”, consists of 124 YAC detectors with coverage of about 500 m2. The inner 100 detectors of 80 cm×50 cm each are deployed in a 10×10 matrix with a 1.9 m separation; the outer 24 detectors of 100 cm×50 cm each are distributed around these to reject non-core events whose shower cores are far from the YAC- II array. YAC- II is used to study the primary cosmic-ray composition, in particular, to obtain the energy spectra of protons, helium and iron nuclei between 5×1013 eV and 1016 eV, covering the “knee” and also connected with direct observations at energies around 100 TeV. We present the design and performance of YAC- II in this paper.

Performance of the Tibet hybrid experiment (YAC-II + Tibet-III + MD) to measure the energy spectra of the light primary cosmic rays at energies 50–10,000 TeV

A new hybrid detector system has been constructed by the Tibet ASγ collaboration at Tibet, China, since 2014 to measure the chemical composition of cosmic rays around the knee in the wide energy range. They consist of an air-shower-core detector-grid (YAC-II) to detect high energy electromagnetic component, the Tibet air-shower array (Tibet-III) and a large underground water-Cherenkov muon-detector array (MD). We have carried out a detailed air-shower Monte Carlo (MC) simulation to study the performance of the hybrid detectors by using CORSIKA (version 6.204), which includes QGSJET01c and SIBYLL2.1 hadronic interaction models. Assumed primary cosmic ray models are based on helium poor, helium rich and Gaisser’s fit compositions around the knee. All detector responses are calculated using Geant4 (version 9.5) according to the real detector configurations and the MC events are reconstructed by the same procedure as the experimental data analysis. The energy determination is made by lateral density fitting (LDF) method using modified NKG function and the separation of the light components (proton, helium) is made by means of the artificial neural network (ANN) method and the random forest (RF) method. The systematic errors of the spectra of proton and helium caused by each steps of the analysis procedure are investigated including the dependence of the MC data on the hadronic interaction models and the primary composition models, and the algorithms for the primary mass identification. The systematic errors of the flux to be obtained by the new experiment are summarized as less than 30% in total. Our results show that the new hybrid experiment is powerful enough to study the chemical composition of the cosmic rays, in particular, to obtain the light-component spectra of the primary cosmic rays in 50–10,000TeV energy range overlapping to the direct observation data at low energy side and ground-based indirect observations at high energy side. It is possible in this energy range to find the break points of the power indices of proton and helium (the knee of individual component spectrum) which are basically important parameter for the study of the cosmic-ray origin.

Is it possible to determine the chemical composition of cosmic rays in the “LORD” lunar experiment?

The results of the simulation of cascade radio emission from ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays in the LORD lunar experiment using circularly polarized antennas are presented. It is shown that based on the characteristics of radio emission caused by cascades from protons and iron nuclei in lunar regolith and escaped into vacuum it is impossible to distinguish these cascades in the primary energy region above 1020 eV.

ON THE EXCESS OF ULTRA-HIGH ENERGY COSMIC RAYS IN THE DIRECTION OF CENTAURUS A

A posteriori anisotropy study of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) with the Pierre Auger Observatory (PAO) has shown evidence of excess of cosmic ray particles above 55 EeV within $18^{\circ}$ of the direction of the radio galaxy Centaurus A. However, the origin of the excess remains elusive. We simulate the propagation of different species of particles coming from the direction of Centaurus A in the Galactic magnetic fields, and find that only particles of nuclear charge $Z\la 10$ can avoid being deflected outside of the $18^{\circ}$ window of Centaurus A. On the other hand, considering the increasingly heavy composition of UHECRs at the highest energies measured by PAO, a plausible scenario for cosmic rays from the direction of Centaurus A can be found if they consist of intermediate-mass nuclei. The chemical composition of cosmic rays can be further constrained by lower-energy cosmic rays of the same rigidity. We find that cosmic ray acceleration in the lobes of Centaurus A is not favored, while acceleration in the stellar winds that are rich in intermediate-mass nuclei, could meet the requirement. This suggests that the observed excess may originate from cosmic ray accelerators induced by stellar explosions in the star-forming regions of Centaurus A and/or the Centaurus cluster located behind Centaurus A.

Diffusive propagation of cosmic rays from supernova remnants in the Galaxy. I: spectrum and chemical composition

In this paper we investigate the effect of stochasticity in the spatial and temporal distribution of supernova remnants on the spectrum and chemical composition of cosmic rays observed at Earth. The calculations are carried out for different choices of the diffusion coefficient D(E) experienced by cosmic rays during propagation in the Galaxy. In particular, at high energies we assume that D(E)∝Eδ, with δ = 1/3 and δ = 0.6 being the reference scenarios. The large scale distribution of supernova remnants in the Galaxy is modeled following the distribution of pulsars, with and without accounting for the spiral structure of the Galaxy. We find that the stochastic fluctuations induced by the spatial and temporal distribution of supernovae, together with the effect of spallation of nuclei, lead to mild but sensible violations of the simple, leaky-box-inspired rule that the spectrum observed at Earth is N(E)∝E−α with α = γ+δ, where γ is the slope of the cosmic ray injection spectrum at the sources. Spallation of nuclei, even with the small rates appropriate for He, may account for small differences in spectral slopes between different nuclei, possibly providing an explanation for the recent CREAM observations. For δ = 1/3 we find that the slope of the proton and helium spectra are ∼ 2.67 and ∼ 2.6 respectively (with fluctuations depending on the realization of source distribution) at energies around ∼ 1 TeV (to be compared with the measured values of 2.66±0.02 and 2.58±0.02). For δ = 0.6 the hardening of the He spectra is not observed. The stochastic effects discussed above cannot be found in ordinary propagation calculations, such as GALPROP, where these effects and the point like nature of the sources are not taken into account. We also comment on the effect of time dependence of the escape of cosmic rays from supernova remnants, and of a possible clustering of the sources in superbubbles. In a second paper we will discuss the implications of these different scenarios for the anisotropy of cosmic rays.

On the chemical composition of cosmic rays of highest energy

We present arguments aiming at reconciling apparently contradictory results concerning the chemical composition of cosmic rays (CRs) of highest energy, coming recently from the Auger and HiRes collaborations. In particular, we argue that the energy dependence of the mean value and root mean square fluctuation of shower maxima distributions observed by the Auger experiment are not necessarily caused by the change of the nuclear composition of primary CRs. They could also be caused by the change of distribution of the first interaction point in the cascade. A new observable, in which this influence is strongly suppressed, is proposed and tested.

Ultra-high-energy galactic cosmic ray hadrons from distributed focused acceleration

Large-scale spatial variations of the galactic guide magnetic field, characterized by the focusing length L = − [ d ( ln B ( z ) ) / d z ] − 1 , together with a nonzero value of the cross helicity state of Alfvenic slab turbulence H give rise to first-order Fermi, betatron-like acceleration of energetic cosmic ray hadrons, if the product H L 0 is negative. The equilibrium momentum spectrum of accelerated particles by this focus ed acceleration mechanism is determined. Assuming a simple chemical composition of injected cosmic rays (99 percent protons and 1 percent Fe), it is shown that the ultra-high-energy Fe/p-ratio is a rapidly changing function of the total energy. The derived chemical composition of cosmic rays is first proton-dominated at low energies, then becomes Fe-dominated between 0.1 and 2.4 PeV, before becoming strongly proton-dominated between 2.4 PeV and 1100 PeV, and strongly Fe-dominated at energies beyond 1100 PeV.

H.E.S.S. and the origin of cosmic rays

Galactic cosmic rays up to hundreds of TeV are very likely of Galactic origin, however the available observational data from measurements of energy spectra and chemical composition of cosmic rays provide only an indirect link to the originating particle accelerators. Very high energy (VHE: E > 100 GeV ) gamma-rays are ideal tracers of ongoing acceleration as well as propagation of cosmic rays in the interstellar medium. Imaging air Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) have achieved sufficient sensitivity to detect a number of cosmic-ray accelerators. In this contribution, we focus on shell-type and mixed-morphology supernova remnants (SNRs) as well as the starburst galaxy NGC 253 that have been observed with the H.E.S.S. (high energy stereoscopic system) array of IACTs.

The lateral distribution function of coherent radio emission from extensive air showers: Determining the chemical composition of cosmic rays

The lateral distribution function (LDF) for coherent electromagnetic radiation from air showers initiated by ultra-high-energy cosmic rays is calculated using a macroscopic description. A new expression is derived to calculate the coherent radio pulse at small distances from the observer. It is shown that for small distances to the shower axis the shape of the electric pulse is determined by the ‘pancake’ function, describing the longitudinal distribution of charged particles within the shower front, while for large distances the pulse is determined by the shower profile. This reflects in a different scaling of the LDF at small and at large distances. As a first application we calculate the LDF for proton- and iron-induced showers and we show that this offers a very sensitive measure to discriminate between these two. We show that due to interference between the geo-magnetic and the charge-excess contributions the intensity pattern of the radiation is not circular symmetric.

In Search of Extraterrestrial High-Energy Neutrinos

We review the search for astrophysical neutrinos. We begin by summarizing the various theoretical predictions that correlate the expected neutrino flux with data from other messengers, specifically γ rays and ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays. We then review the status and results of neutrino telescopes both in operation and decommissioned as well as the methods used for data analysis and background discrimination. Particular attention is devoted to the challenge enforced by the highly uncertain atmospheric muon and neutrino backgrounds in relation to searches of diffuse neutrino fluxes. Next, we examine the impact of existing limits on neutrino fluxes on studies of the chemical composition of cosmic rays. After that, we show not only that neutrinos have the potential to discover astrophysical sources, but also that the huge statistics of atmospheric muons can be a powerful tool. We end by discussing the prospects for indirect detection of dark matter with neutrino telescopes.