Cosmic ray spectrum of protons plus helium nuclei between 6 and 158 TeV from HAWC data
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-15-2022
Department
Department of Physics
Abstract
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 nucleus. Data was collected with the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory between June 2015 and June 2019. The analysis was based on a Bayesian unfolding procedure, which was applied on a subsample of vertical HAWC data that was enriched to 82% of events induced by light nuclei. To achieve the mass separation, a cut on the lateral age of air shower data was set guided by predictions of CORSIKA/QGSJET-II-04 simulations. The measured spectrum is consistent with a broken power-law spectrum and shows a kneelike feature at around E=24.0-3.1+3.6 TeV, with a spectral index γ=-2.51±0.02 before the break and with γ=-2.83±0.02 above it. The feature has a statistical significance of 4.1σ. Within systematic uncertainties, the significance of the spectral break is 0.8σ.
Publication Title
Physical Review D
Recommended Citation
Albert, A.,
Alfaro, R.,
Alvarez, C.,
Angeles Camacho, J.,
Arteaga-Velázquez, J.,
Arunbabu, K.,
Huang, D.,
Hüntemeyer, P.,
Wang, X.,
&
et. al.
(2022).
Cosmic ray spectrum of protons plus helium nuclei between 6 and 158 TeV from HAWC data.
Physical Review D,
105(6).
http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.105.063021
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/16024