Fine structure in the cosmic ray electron spectrum measured by the ATIC-2 and ATIC-4 experiments

A strong anomaly in form of a wide peak in the energy range 300–800 GeV was discovered in the first measurements of the electron spectrum in the energy range from 20 GeV to 3 TeV by the balloon-borne experiment ATIC [1]. The experimental data processing and analysis of the electron spectrum with different criteria for selection of electrons completely independent of the results reported in [1] is employed in the present paper. New independent analysis generally confirms the results of [1] but shows that the spectrum in the region of the anomaly is represented by a number of narrow peaks. Measured spectrum is compared to the spectrum of [1] and to the spectrum of the Fermi/LAT experiment.     

Angular distributions in proton-nucleus interactions in emulsion at 800 GeV

Data on angular distributions of heavily ionizing and shower particles in incoherent protonnucleus collisions in emulsion at 800 GeV are reported and discussed in details. Dependence of angular distributions on the mass number of a target nucleus and on the multiplicity of charged particles is investigated. The data presented are systematically compared with results of emulsion experiments at lower energies and with predictions of the Lund Monte Carlo model FRITIOF.     

The search for cosmic strangelets with the supersonic concorde and with JACEE's circumpolar balloon flight in Antarctica

The search for cosmic strangelet nuclei was carried out by two experiments with emulsion chambers. A balloon-borne JACEE emulsion chamber was flown at 3.5 g/cm² for 200 h in Antarctica (JACEE-10 experiment) and the Concorde flights were made by ECHOS at an atmospheric depth of 110 g/cm² between Paris and New York. No nuclei withZ⩾30 survived after traversing 60–120 g/cm² of the detector materials in the JACEE instruments. No evidence for a long mean free path were found in the zenith angle distribution forZ/β⩾26 nuclei. The exposure factor used by the JACEE was 72 m²hsr. The intensity upperbounds,I⩽(2.2–9.7)×10⁻²/m²h sr, were obtained for strangelets having an atmospheric attenuation length of 220−50 g/cm², which corresponds to the case for mass numberA=100–10000 andZ/β > 13. Concorde experiments (ECHOS) used both a thin and a thick emulsion chamber. The total exposure was 209 m² h sr and no candidates with chargeZ⩾30 were found. The largest track hadZ/β=28.6±1.29 withβ ∼ 1. Nuclei observed with charge 13⩽Z⩽30 were consistent with the survival intensity of ordinary nuclei. The flux bounds from the ECHOS experiments were I⩽(2.1–5.0) x 10⁻²/m²h for strangelets with mass number 100⩽A⩽1000.     

Track etching parameters for plastics

Abstract

A series of experiments was performed to study the effect of types of etchant, concentration of etchant, etchant temperature and other parameters on track development in cellulose nitrate, polycarbonate resin, cellulose triacetate, and cellulose acetate butyrate plastic. This work has led to a set of preferred etching conditions for each of these plastics. For example, although there were only slight differences in general etching rate when LiOH, KOH, and NaOH were used as track etchants for cellulose nitrate, the alpha particle registration sensitivity was greatest when NaOH was used. Also in cellulose nitrate the general etching rate and the particle registration sensitivity did not change significantly with increasing concentration for hydroxide solutions > 6 N. This was in marked contrast to other plastics which showed a strong concentration dependence.     

Energy spectra of abundant nuclei of primary cosmic rays from the data of ATIC-2 experiment: Final results

The final results of processing the data from the balloon-born experiment ATIC-2 (Antarctica, 2002–2003) for the energy spectra of protons and He, C, O, Ne, Mg, Si, and Fe nuclei, the spectrum of all particles, and the mean logarithm of atomic weight of primary cosmic rays as a function of energy are presented. The final results are based on improvement of the methods used earlier, in particular, considerably increased resolution of the charge spectrum. The preliminary conclusions on the significant difference in the spectra of protons and helium nuclei (the proton spectrum is steeper) and the non-power character of the spectra of protons and heavier nuclei (flattening of carbon spectrum at energies above 10 TeV) are confirmed. A complex structure of the energy dependence of the mean logarithm of atomic weight is found.     

Interactions of 10.6 GeV/n gold nuclei with light and heavy target nuclei in nuclear emulsion

Zeitschrift für Physik C Particles and Fields - We have investigated the particle production and fragmentation of nuclei participating in the interactions of 10.6 GeV/n gold nuclei in nuclear...     

Albedo in the ATIC experiment: Measurements and simulations

We analyze the characteristics of the albedo, or the backscatter current, which constitutes a background for charge measurements in calorimetric experiments in high-energy cosmic rays. We compare the experimental data obtained in the flights of the ATIC spectrometer with the simulations performed using the GEANT 3.21 code. We discuss the influence of the backscatter on the charge resolution in the ATIC experiment.     

Transverse momenta of helium fragments in gold fragmentation at 10.6 GeV/nucleon

The transverse momentum (p_t) distributions of helium fragments from gold fragmentation on different nuclei of nuclear emulsion have been measured and a clear increase of average p _t with target mass is seen. The p _t distributions can be parameterized by a sum of three exponential functions of the form $\sim {\rm exp}(-p_{t}^{2}/B_{i})$ . The differences in p _t distributions in interactions on different targets can be explained by different contributions of the three exponential functions. These contributions depend on the projectile breakup in the collision, and for a given degree of the projectile breakup do not depend on the target mass.