Related papers: Penetrating component in cosmic rays
High-energy cosmic rays are observed indirectly by detecting the extensive air showers initiated in Earth's atmosphere. The interpretation of experimental data relies on accurate modeling of the air shower development. Simulations based on…
We report the observation of a steepening in the cosmic ray energy spectrum of heavy primary particles at about $8 \times 10^{16}$ eV. This structure is also seen in the all-particle energy spectrum, but is less significant. Whereas the…
In this article I review the main theoretical problems that are posed by the highest energy end of the observed cosmic ray spectrum, stressing the importance of establishing their composition in order to decide between proposed scenarios. I…
Extensive air showers are generated through interactions of high-energy cosmic rays impinging the Earth's atmosphere. A new method is described to infer the attenuation of hadrons in air showers. The numbers of electrons and muons,…
Recent results of the KASCADE air shower experiment are presented in order to shed some light on the astrophysics of cosmic rays in the region of the knee in the energy spectrum. The results include investigations of high-energy…
Cosmic rays provide an unique approach to study hadronic interactions at high energies in the kinematic forward direction. The KASCADE air shower experiment was the first to conduct quantitative tests of hadronic interactions with air…
Very high energy cosmic rays are typically studied by measuring extensive air showers formed by secondary particles produced in collisions with air nuclei. The indirect character of the measurement makes the physics interpretation of cosmic…
Extensive air showers are the result of billions of particle reactions initiated by single cosmic rays at ultra-high energy. Their characteristics are sensitive both to the mass of the primary cosmic ray and to the fine details of hadronic…
Research in cosmic rays is now nearly a century old, but most of the fundamental questions in this field remain unanswered, on the other hand the perspectives of future studies in the next decade are very bright. New detectors will provide…
Very energetic charm and bottom hadrons may be produced in the upper atmosphere when a primary cosmic ray or the leading hadron in an extensive air shower collide with a nucleon. At $E\approx 10^8$ GeV their decay length becomes of the…
This rapport summarizes the cosmic-ray indirect (CRI) session of the 36th ICRC conference. Updated measurements from several air-shower arrays with higher precision lead to the discovery of new features in the energy spectrum: HAWC measures…
We apply statistical inference on the Pierre Auger Open Data to discern for the first time the full mass composition of cosmic rays at different energies. Working with longitudinal electromagnetic profiles of cosmic ray showers, in…
A composition analysis of KASCADE air shower data is performed by means of unfolding the two-dimensional frequency spectrum of electron and muon numbers. Aim of the analysis is the determination of energy spectra for elemental groups…
Recent results of advanced experiments with sophisticated measurements of cosmic rays in the energy range of the so called knee at a few PeV indicate a distinct knee in the energy spectra of light primary cosmic rays and an increasing…
Hadronic showers are characterized by a rich particle structure in the spatial as well as in the time domain. The prompt component comes from relativistic fragments that deposit energy at the ns scale, while late components are associated…
We measure the spectrum of cosmic rays with energies greater than $10^{18.2}$ eV with the Fluorescence Detectors (FDs) and the Surface Detectors (SDs) of the Telescope Array Experiment using the data taken in our first 2.3-year observation…
The KASCADE experiment measures extensive air showers induced by cosmic rays in the energy range around the so-called knee. The data of KASCADE have been used in a composition analysis showing the knee at 3-5 PeV to be caused by a…
The role of Horizontal Showers induced by cosmic rays is discussed in detail. A new approach to the calculation of the muon component in horizontal air showers induced by protons, heavier nuclei or photons is presented which allows a simple…
After a short review of the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray puzzle - the apparent observation of cosmic rays originating from cosmological distances with energies above the expected Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff 4x10^{19} eV - we consider…
The description of high-energy hadronic interactions plays an important role in the (astrophysical) interpretation of air shower data. The parameter space important for the development of air showers (energy and kinematical range) extends…