Related papers: Cosmic Rays at the Knee
The energy spectrum of cosmic rays between 10**16 eV and 10**18 eV, derived from measurements of the shower size (total number of charged particles) and the total muon number of extensive air showers by the KASCADE-Grande experiment, is…
The propagation of high-energy cosmic rays in the Galaxy is investigated. Solutions of a diffusion model are combined with numerically calculated trajectories of particles. The resulting escape path length and interaction path length are…
We show that the second knee in the cosmic ray spectrum (i.e. the steepening occurring at $E\simeq 4\times 10^{17}$ eV) could be related to drift effects affecting the heaviest nuclear component, the iron group nuclei, in a scenario in…
Various experiments indicate the existence of a second knee around energy E=3.10^{17} eV in the cosmic ray spectrum. This feature could be the signature of the end of the galactic component and of the emergence of the extragalactic one,…
The transition from galactic to extragalactic cosmic rays is discussed. One of critical indications for transition is given by the Standard Model of Galactic cosmic rays, according to which the maximum energy of acceleration for iron nuclei…
The possibility of estimating the mass composition of primary cosmic rays above the knee of its energy spectrum through the study of high energy gamma rays, muons and neutrinos produced in the interactions of cosmic rays with the solar…
We report the analysis of the Ne-Nmuon coincident events collected by the MACRO/EAS-TOP collaboration at the Gran Sasso Laboratories. The result points to a primary composition becoming heavier around the knee of the primary spectrum (in…
From the data on Cherenkov light from EASs collected over the period of more than 15 years, the spectrum of cosmic rays was obtained in the energy range 1.0E15-1.0E18 eV. This spectrum has two features: at ~3.0E15 eV (first knee) and at…
It is evident that models of the knee should match the observational phenomenology. In this talk I discuss a few aspects of phenomenology, which are important not only for the understanding of the knee origin, but also for the general…
Galactic cosmic ray (CR) acceleration to the knee in the spectrum at a few PeV is only possible if the magnetic field ahead of a supernova remnant (SNR) shock is strongly amplified by CR escaping the SNR. A model formulated in terms of the…
The differential energy spectrum of cosmic rays exhibits a change of slope, called "knee" of the spectrum, around the nominal energy of 3 x 10^15 eV, and individual "knees" for single ions, at different energies. The present work reports a…
The transition between the Galactic and extragalactic cosmic ray components could take place either in the region of the spectrum known as the second knee or in the ankle. There are several models of the transition but it is not possible to…
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…
While there is some level of consensus on a Galactic origin of cosmic rays up to the knee ($E_{k}\sim 3\times 10^{15}$ eV) and on an extragalactic origin of cosmic rays with energy above $\sim 10^{19}$ eV, the debate on the genesis of…
We present a new model of anisotropic cosmic ray propagation in the Milky Way, where cosmic rays are injected at discrete transient sources in the disc and propagated in the Galactic magnetic field. In the framework of our model, we show…
It is shown that the fine stucture of the cosmic ray energy spectrum in the knee region, if explained by the Single Source Model (SSM), can, in principle, be clearly revealed and magnified in the size spectrum of extensive air showers (EAS)…
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…
Energy spectrum of cosmic rays (CR) exhibits power-like behavior with very characteristic "knee" structure. We consider a generalized statistical model for the production process of cosmic rays which accounts for such behavior in a natural…
The energy range encompassing the ankle of the cosmic ray energy spectrum probably marks the exhaustion of the accelerating sources in our Galaxy, as well as the end of the Galactic confinement. Furthermore, this is the region where the…
Supernova remnants have long been regarded as sources of the Galactic cosmic rays up to petaelectronvolts, but convincing evidence is still lacking. In this work we explore the common origin of the subtle features of the cosmic ray spectra,…