Abstract

KASCADE-Grande is an air-shower observatory devoted to the detection of cosmic rays with energies in the range of 1016 to 1018 eV. This energy region is of particular interest for the cosmic ray astrophysics, since it is the place where some models predict the existence of a transition from galactic to extragalactic origin of cosmic rays and the presence of a break in the flux of its heavy component. The detection of these features requires detailed and simultaneous measurements of the energy and composition of cosmic rays with sufficient statistics. These kinds of studies are possible for the first time in KASCADE-Grande due to the accurate measurements of several air-shower observables, i.e., the number of charged particles, electrons and muons in the shower, using the different detector systems of the observatory. In this contribution, a detailed look into the composition of 1016 — 1018 eV cosmic rays with KASCADE-Grande is presented.

Details

Title
The KASCADE-Grande observatory and the composition of very high-energy cosmic rays
Author
Arteaga-Velázquez, J C 1 ; Apel, W D 2 ; Bekk, K 2 ; Bertaina, M 3 ; Blümer, J 4 ; Bozdog, H 2 ; Brancus, I M 5 ; Cantoni, E 6 ; Chiavassa, A 3 ; Cossavella, F 7 ; Daumiller, K 2 ; de Souza, V 8 ; F Di Pierro 3 ; Doll, P 2 ; Engel, R 2 ; Engler, J 2 ; Fuchs, B 9 ; Fuhrmann, D 10 ; Gils, H J 2 ; Glasstetter, R 11 ; Grupen, C 12 ; Haungs, A 2 ; Heck, D 2 ; Hörandel, J R 13 ; Huber, D 9 ; Huege, T 2 ; K-H Kampert 11 ; Kang, D 9 ; Klages, H O 2 ; Link, K 9 ; Łuczak, P 14 ; Ludwig, M 9 ; Mathes, H J 2 ; Mayer, H J 2 ; Melissas, M 9 ; Milke, J 2 ; Mitrica, B 5 ; Morello, C 15 ; Oehlschläger, J 2 ; Ostapchenko, S 16 ; Palmieri, N 9 ; Petcu, M 5 ; Pierog, T 2 ; Rebel, H 2 ; Roth, M 2 ; Schieler, H 2 ; Schröder, F G 2 ; Sima, O 17 ; Toma, G 5 ; Trinchero, G C 15 ; Ulrich, H 2 ; Weindl, A 2 ; Wochele, J 2 ; Zabierowski, J 14 

1  Universidad Michoacana, Instituto de Física y Matemáticas, Morelia, Mexico 
2  Institut für Kernphysik, KIT - Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Germany 
3  Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy 
4  Institut für Kernphysik, KIT - Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Germany; Institut für Experimentelle Kernphysik, KIT - Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Germany 
5  Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, Romania 
6  Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy; Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, INAF Torino, Italy; now at: Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologia, INRIM, Torino 
7  Institut für Experimentelle Kernphysik, KIT - Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Germany; now at: DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany 
8  Universidade São Paulo, Instituto de Física de São Carlos, Brasil 
9  Institut für Experimentelle Kernphysik, KIT - Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Germany 
10  Fachbereich Physik, Universität Wuppertal, Germany; now at: University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany 
11  Fachbereich Physik, Universität Wuppertal, Germany 
12  Department of Physics, Siegen University, Germany 
13  Deptartment of Astrophysics, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands 
14  National Centre for Nuclear Research, Department of Cosmic Ray Physics, Łódź, Poland 
15  Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, INAF Torino, Italy 
16  Institut für Kernphysik, KIT - Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Germany; now at: University of Trondheim, Norway 
17  Department of Physics, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania 
Publication year
2015
Publication date
Nov 2015
Publisher
IOP Publishing
ISSN
17426588
e-ISSN
17426596
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/651/1/012001
ProQuest document ID
2576536501
Copyright
© 2015. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.