Related papers: Cosmic ray energy spectra derived from KASCADE-Gra…
Accurate measurements of the lateral distribution of extensive air showers produced by cosmic rays of energy greater than $10^{17}$ eV were made in the 1970s by Linsley. At the time, the state of knowledge about the best hadronic…
The determination of the primary energy and mass of ultra-high-energy cosmic-rays (UHECR) generating extensive air-showers in the Earth's atmosphere, relies on the detailed modeling of hadronic multiparticle production at center-of-mass…
We have carried out a detailed study to understand the observed energy spectrum and composition of cosmic rays with energies up to ~10^18 eV. Our study shows that a single Galactic component with subsequent energy cut-offs in the individual…
Lateral distributions for electrons and muons in extensive air showers measured with the array of the KASCADE experiment are compared to results of simulations based on the high-energy hadronic interaction models QGSJet and SIBYLL. It is…
The recent observations of muon charge ratio up to about 10 TeV and of atmospheric neutrinos up to energies of about 400 TeV has triggered a renewed interest into the high-energy interaction models and cosmic ray primary composition. A…
The knee of cosmic ray spectra reflects the maximum energy accelerated by galactic cosmic ray sources or the limit to the ability of galaxy to bind cosmic rays. The measuring of individual energy spectra is a crucial tool to ascertain the…
Using the concept developed in earlier papers, that the cosmic rays originate in three different main sites, a) the normal supernova explosions into the interstellar medium, b) the supernova explosions into a stellar wind, and c) powerful…
At very high energies, the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal effect reduces the cross sections for electron bremsstrahlung and photon $e^+e^-$ pair production. The fractional electron energy loss and pair production cross sections drop as the…
Recent progress suggests we are moving towards a quantitative understanding of the whole cosmic ray spectrum, and that many bumps due to different components and processes hide beneath a relatively smooth total flux between knee and ankle.…
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…
Observations of cosmic rays have been improving at all energies, with higher statistics and reduced systematics. Fundamental questions remain regarding the origins of cosmic rays both within the Galaxy and in extragalactic sources, and new…
A Monte-Carlo study is presented using ground based measurements of the electromagnetic part of showers initiated in the atmosphere by high energetic cosmic rays to reconstruct energy and mass of primary particles with energies above 300…
The main purpose of this work is to find the causes of the break of the cosmic ray spectrum at an energy of 3 PeV, which is called the knee. The solution of the problem is associated with the determination of the nuclear composition of…
First results of a cosmic-ray electron + positron spectrum, from 10 GeV to 3 TeV, is presented based upon observations with the CALET instrument on the ISS starting in October, 2015. Nearly a half million electron + positron events are…
We present new measurements of the energy spectra of cosmic-ray (CR) nuclei from the second flight of the balloon-borne experiment Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM). The instrument included different particle detectors to provide…
The production of energetic particles in the universe remains one of the great mysteries of modern science. The mechanisms of acceleration in astrophysical sources and the details about the propagation through the galactic and extragalactic…
The energy spectrum of ultra-high energy cosmic rays above 10$^{18}$ eV is measured using the hybrid events collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory between November 2005 and September 2010. The large exposure of the Observatory allows the…
Interpretation of the energy spectrum and arrival distribution of cosmic rays is complicated by lack of knowledge of the nature of the primaries. We review claims for the mass composition above 1017 eV where it can be determined only…
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…
Measurements of electron, muon, and hadron lateral distributions of extensive air showers as recorded by the KASCADE experiment are presented. The data cover the energy range from about 5x10^14 eV up to almost 10^17 eV and extend from the…