Related papers: Measuring the UHE cosmic-ray composition with trac…
The muonic and electromagnetic components of air showers are sensitive to the mass of the primary cosmic particle. The sizes of the components can be measured with particle detectors on ground, and the electromagnetic component in addition…
The origin and nature of the cosmic rays is still uncertain. However, a big progress has been achieved in recent years due to the good quality data provided by current and recent cosmic-rays observatories. The cosmic ray flux decreases very…
Surface detector arrays are designed to measure the spectrum and composition of high-energy cosmic rays by detecting the secondary particle flux of the Extensive Air Showers (EAS) induced by the primary cosmic rays. Electromagnetic…
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…
The average mass composition of cosmic rays with primary energies between $10^{17}$eV and $10^{18}$eV has been studied using a hybrid detector consisting of the High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) prototype and the MIA muon array.…
Changes of the cosmic-ray mass composition at the `knee' of the cosmic-ray flux spectrum near 10^{15} eV energy are investigated using data from ten Cosmic Ray Tracking (CRT) detectors and the HEGRA air-shower array on La Palma, Canary…
A new family of parameters intended for composition studies in cosmic ray surface array detectors is proposed. The application of this technique to different array layout designs has been analyzed. The parameters make exclusive use of…
Radio antennas have become a standard tool for the detection of cosmic-ray air showers in the energy range above $10^{16}\,$eV. The radio signal of these air showers is generated mostly due to the deflection of electrons and positrons in…
The origin and nature of ultra high energy cosmic rays remains being a mystery. However, great progress has been made in recent years due to the observations performed by the Pierre Auger Observatory and Telescope Array. In particular, it…
The ratio of the number of muons with a threshold of 1 GeV and charged particles at a distance of 600 m from the axis is analyzed. Air showers with energies above 5 EeV and zenith angles with less than 60 degrees are considered. Comparison…
Several methods can be used to perform statistical inference of primary composition of cosmic rays measured with water Cerenkov detectors as those in use at the Pierre Auger Southern Observatory. In the present work we assess the impact of…
Most cosmic-ray air shower arrays have focused on detecting electromagnetic shower particles and low energy muons. A few groups (most notably MACRO + EASTOP and SPASE + AMANDA) have studied the high energy muon component of showers.…
Muon component of extensive air showers (EAS) initiated by cosmic ray particles carries information on the primary particle identity. We show that the muon content of EAS could be measured in a broad energy range from 10-100 TeV up to…
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…
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…
Measurements of cosmic ray particles at energies above E = 5 x 10^{14} eV are performed by large area ground based air shower experiments. Only they provide the collection power required for obtaining sufficient statistics at the low flux…
We present a novel approach for assessing the muon content of air showers with large zenith angles on a combined analysis of their radio emission and particle footprint. We use the radiation energy reconstructed by the Auger Engineering…
One of the uncertainties in interpretation of ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) data comes from the hadronic interaction models used for air shower Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. The number of muons observed at the ground from…
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…
Our study exploits the Constant Intensity Cut principles applied simultaneously to muonic and electromagnetic detectors of cosmic rays. We use the fact that the ordering of events according to their signal sizes induced in different types…