Related papers: Cosmic ray energy spectra derived from KASCADE-Gra…
Linsley used the Volcano Ranch array to collect data on the lateral distribution of showers produced by cosmic rays at energies above 10^17 eV. Very precise measurements of the steepness of the lateral distribution function were made on 366…
We present an updated all-particle energy spectrum of primary cosmic rays in a wide range from 10^14 eV to 10^17 eV using 5.5 times 10^7 events collected in the period from 2000 November through 2004 October by the Tibet-III air-shower…
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…
We discuss the impact of the recent EPOS.LHC-R hadronic interaction model on the scenario in which most of the cosmic rays with energies above 5 EeV originate in the nearby Centaurus A radiogalaxy. The heavier composition inferred when…
Using the large hadron calorimeter of the KASCADE experiment, hadronic cores of extensive air showers have been studied. The hadron lateral and energy distributions have been investigated in order to study the reliability of the shower…
The results of high energy simulated experiments where a given hadronic particle impacts on a given target are statistically analyzed. The energy range of the projectiles goes from below the LHC scale up to the highest cosmic ray energies.…
Cosmic ray data collected by the KASCADE air shower experiment are competitive in terms of quality and statistics with those of modern observatories. We present a novel mass composition analysis based on archival data acquired from 1998 to…
Recent observations of cosmic ray protons in the energy range $10^2$--$10^5$~GeV have revealed that the spectrum cannot be described by a simple power law. A hardening of the spectrum around an energy of order few hundred~GeV, first…
The properties of cosmic rays with energies above 1PeV have to be deduced from the spacetime structure and particle content of the air showers which they initiate. In this review, a summary of the phenomenology of these giant air showers is…
The energy spectrum of cosmic rays in the range 10^15 eV to 6*10^19 eV has been studied using the air Cherenkov light detectors of the Yakutsk array. The total flux of photons produced by relativistic electrons (including positrons as well,…
The cosmic ray primary composition in the energy range between 10**15 and 10**16 eV, i.e., around the "knee" of the primary spectrum, has been studied through the combined measurements of the EAS-TOP air shower array (2005 m a.s.l., 10**5…
Hadronic interaction models at cosmic ray (CR) energies are inherently uncertain due to the lack of a fundamental theoretical description of soft hadronic and nuclear interactions and the large extrapolation required from collider energies…
A Monte Carlo (MC) simulation study of cosmic ray (CR) extensive air showers (EAS) has been carried out in the energy regime of the KASCADE experiment. From the characteristics of lateral distributions of electrons and muons of simulated…
Ultrahigh energy cosmic ray air showers probe particle physics at energies beyond the reach of accelerators. Here we introduce a new method to test hadronic interaction models without relying on the absolute energy calibration, and apply it…
In this paper we review air shower data related to the mass composition of cosmic rays above 10$^{15}$ eV. After explaining the basic relations between air shower observables and the primary mass and energy of cosmic rays, we present…
On the basis of the extensive air shower (EAS) data obtained by the GAMMA experiment, the energy spectra and elemental composition of the primary cosmic rays are derived in the 1-100 PeV energy range. The reconstruction of the primary…
In the last two decades, different advances with extensive air shower (EAS) experiments have allowed to unveil several details about the composition and energy spectrum of galactic cosmic rays from some TeV up to several hundreds of PeV,…
A measurement with high statistics of the differential energy spectrum of light elements in cosmic rays, in particular, of primary H plus He nuclei, is reported. The spectrum is presented in the energy range from $6$ to $158$ TeV per…
The geometric distribution of high-energy hadrons >100 GeV in shower cores measured with the KASCADE calorimeter is analyzed. The data are checked for sensitivity to hadronic interaction features and indications of new physics as discussed…
Cosmic rays represent one of the most important energy transformation processes of the universe. They bring information about the surrounding universe, our galaxy, and very probably also the extragalactic space, at least at the highest…