Related papers: The mass of cosmic rays above 1017 eV
We show that the simplest assumptions for the dynamics of particle production allow us to understand the fluxes of hadrons and photons at mountain altitudes as well as the structure of individual events. The analysis requires a heavy…
This analysis aims to determine the mass composition and energy of cosmic rays at energies above 100 TeV based on the lateral distribution of extensive air showers. Here, we propose quite a few air shower observables for reconstructing the…
Contrary to expectations, several cosmic ray events with energies above $10^{20}$ eV have been observed. The flux of such events is well above the predicted Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff due to the pion production (via the $\Delta$…
A brief review of the energy spectrum of primary cosmic rays above $10^{10}$ eV and the measurement techniques used to investigate the ultra high energy ones is given. This is followed by a discussion of the atmospheric shower profile of…
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…
At higher energies the uncertainty in the estimated cosmic ray mass composition, extracted from the observed distributions of the depth of shower maximum $X_\text{max}$, is dominated by uncertainties in the hadronic interaction models.…
We show that the photodisintegration of heavy cosmic ray nuclei with energies above 10^20 eV is dominated by interactions with photons from the cosmic microwave background radiation, rather than from infrared ones. This implies that the…
Observations of cosmic rays have been improved at all energies, both in terms of higher statistics and reduced systematics. As a result, the all particle cosmic ray energy spectrum starts to exhibit more structures than could be seen…
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…
Although recent measurements of the shower profiles of ultra-high energy cosmic rays suggest that they are largely initiated by heavy nuclei, such conclusions rely on hadronic interaction models which have large uncertainties. We…
Project GRAND presents results on the atomic composition of primary cosmic rays. This is accomplished by determining the average height of primary particles that cause extensive air showers detected by Project GRAND. Particles with a larger…
The method of a determination of the Primary Cosmic Ray mass composition is presented. Data processing is based on the theoretical model representing the integral muon multiplicity spectrum as the superposition of the spectra corresponding…
The origin of cosmic rays is one of the major unresolved questions in astrophysics. In particular, the highest energy cosmic rays observed possess macroscopic energies and their origin is likely associated with the most energetic processes…
Recent measurements of the properties of cosmic rays above 10^17 eV are summarized and implications on our contemporary understanding of their origin are discussed. Cosmic rays with energies exceeding 10^20 eV have been measured, they are…
We review some of the recent progress in our knowledge about high-energy cosmic rays, with an emphasis on the interpretation of the different observational results. We discuss the effects that are relevant to shape the cosmic ray spectrum…
It is proposed a new approach for estimating the composition of cosmic rays. It is found that the zenith angle distributions and muon components of EAS for energies E>10^19 eV and E>4.10^19 eV differ from each other. It is shown that the…
The mass composition of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is usually inferred from the depth of the shower maximum ($X_{\rm{max}}$) of cosmic-ray showers, which is only ambiguously determined by modern hadronic interaction models. We…
We discuss the problem of cosmic ray mass composition variation in wide energy region 10^{14}-10^{20} eV. The mass composition predicted in the framework of recently developed anomalous diffusion model is tested using the results of CORSIKA…
Arrival directions of extensive air showers by using world data are considered. It is found that the shower distribution in zenith angle at the energies E>10^{19} eV and E>4x10^{19} eV differs from each other. By our estimations, the shower…
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…