Abstract
SEVERAL groups have reported the energy dependence of the charge composition of cosmic-ray nuclei with Z⩾ 3 (refs 1–5). The results suggest that the ratio of the numbers of nuclei in groups L and M (defined in Table 1) decreases as the rigidity increases. At 100 GV the ratio is about 25% lower than the value below 10 GV. There is, however, no general agreement about the variation with rigidity of the ratio of VH nuclei to M nuclei; a variable ratio would be evidence for the existence of more than one basic acceleration mechanism, because both charge groups are thought to consist mainly of particles coming directly from the sources. The largest variation in the ratio of VH to M nuclei is reported by Ormes and Balasubrahmanyan1. We report here the measurement of the ratios of L nuclei to M nuclei and of VH nuclei to M nuclei using a magnetic spectrometer. Our results are based on two balloon flights, the first from Palestine, Texas, on August 23, 1969, and the second on November 13, 1970, from Parana, Argentina. The combined exposure factor for these flights was 273 cm2 sr s at an average altitude of 3 g cm−2.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ormes, J. F., and Balasubrahmanyan, V. K., Nature, 241, 95 (1973).
Juliusson, E., Meyer, P., and Muller, D., Phys. Rev. Lett., 29, 445 (1972).
Webber, W. R., Lezniak, J. A., Kish, J. C., and Damle, S. V., Nature, 241, 96 (1973).
Smith, L. H., Buffington, A., Smoot, G. F., Alvarez, L. W., and Wahlig, W. A., Astrophys. J., 180, 987 (1973).
Atallah, K., Cleghorn, T. F., Modlinger, A., and Schmidt, W. K. H., 13th int. Cosmic Ray Conf. Paps, paper 675 (1973).
Golden, R. L., Adams, J. H., Marar, T. M. K., Boykin, W. R., Marbach, J. R., Neumann, W. R., Deney, C. L., Hintz, R. E., Heckman, H. H., and Lindstrom, P. J., Nucl. Inst. Meth. (in the press).
Anand, K. C., Daniel, R. R., Stephens, S. A., Bhowmik, R., Krishna, K. C., Aditya, P. K., and Puri, R. K., Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci., 67, 138 (1969).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
GOLDEN, R., ADAMS, J., BADHWAR, G. et al. Charge composition of cosmic rays between 4 and 100 GV. Nature 249, 814–816 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/249814a0
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/249814a0
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.