Skip to content

Changes of the cosmic-ray mass composition in the 1014 - 1016 eV energy range

K. Bernlohr, W. Hofmann, G. Leffers, V. Matheis, M. Panter, R. Zink

astro-pharXiv:astro-ph/9801042

Abstract

Changes of the cosmic-ray mass composition at the `knee' of the cosmic-ray flux spectrum near 1015 eV energy are investigated using data from ten Cosmic Ray Tracking (CRT) detectors and the HEGRA air-shower array on La Palma, Canary Islands. The analysis is based on the angular distribution of muons in air showers. Results can be easily expressed in terms of <ln A> of primary cosmic rays. We find a rise of <ln A> below 1015 eV, consistent with direct measurements. Simple cosmic-ray composition models are presented which are fully consistent with our results as well as the JACEE flux and composition measurements and the flux measurements of the Tibet AS-gamma collaboration.

Create a lesson