Spectrum of cosmic-ray nucleons, kaon production, and the atmospheric muon charge ratio

By Thomas K. Gaisser. 2011

273 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Interpretation of measurements of the muon charge ratio in the TeV range depends on the spectra of protons and neutrons in the primary cosmic radiation and on the inclusive cross sections for production of π± and K± in the atmosphere. Recent measurements of the spectra of cosmic-ray nuclei are used here to estimate separately the energy spectra of protons and neutrons and hence to calculate the charge separated hadronic cascade in the atmosphere. From the corresponding production spectra of μ+ and μ− the μ+/μ− ratio is calculated and compared to recent measurements. The comparison leads to a determination of the relative contribution of kaons and pions. Implications for the spectra of νμ and ν ¯ μ are discussed.

Subfields: Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3444599cec7ea94634f350923bc674e72d8bb2ff

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In Nuclear and High Energy Physics

1. A. Fedynitch
2. M. Unger
3. Tanguy Pierog
4. R. Ulrich
5. Todor Stanev
6. K. Kampert
7. L. Cazon
8. W. Rhode

Citations in the corpus

• A COMBINED MAXIMUM-LIKELIHOOD ANALYSIS OF THE HIGH-ENERGY ASTROPHYSICAL NEUTRINO FLUX MEASURED WITH ICECUBE (2015, methodology): “Both models were slightly modified (see Aartsen et al. 2014c) in order to be in accordance with measurements of the cosmic-ray spectrum in the energy range above 1 TeV; these modifications are based on the cosmic-ray composition model introduced in Gaisser (2012).”
• Evidence for High-Energy Extraterrestrial Neutrinos at the IceCube Detector (2013, methodology): “As part of our blind analysis, we tested a predefined fixed atmospheric-only neutrino flux model (5), including a benchmark charm component (6), reevaluated using current measurements of the cosmic ray spectrum in this energy range (7, 8).”
• The Muon Puzzle in cosmic-ray induced air showers and its connection to the Large Hadron Collider (2021, background): “At high energies (> 100 GeV), uncertainties of the models for the cosmic-ray spectrum and mass composition (Gaisser 2012; Gaisser et al. 2013; Fedynitch et al. 2012; Dembinski et al. 2018; Evans et al. 2017) introduce errors up to several tens of percent (Barr et al. 2006; Fedynitch et al. 2018a).”
• OBSERVATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A COSMIC MUON NEUTRINO FLUX FROM THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE USING SIX YEARS OF ICECUBE DATA (2016, methodology): “Figure 21 shows multiple predictions for the prompt flux as well as the upper limit calculated here using the prediction from Enberg et al. (2008) and taking into account a more realistic cosmic-ray model (Gaisser 2012).”