A proposed method for measurement of cosmic-ray mass composition based on geomagnetic spectroscopy

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• 作者：Rajat K. Dey ; Sandip Dam
• 关键词：Cosmic ; ray ; EAS ; Geomagnetic effect ; Muons ; Composition ; Simulations
• 刊名：Experimental Astronomy
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：February 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：43
• 期：1
• 页码：75-98
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Physics and Astronomy
• 刊物主题：Astronomy, Observations and Techniques; Statistics for Engineering, Physics, Computer Science, Chemistry and Earth Sciences;
• 出版者：Springer Netherlands
• ISSN：1572-9508
• 卷排序：43

文摘

The effect of the geomagnetic Lorentz force on the muon component of extensive air shower (EAS) has been studied in a Monte Carlo generated simulated data sample. This geomagnetic field affects the paths of muons in an EAS, causing a local contrast or polar asymmetry in the abundance of positive and negative muons about the shower axis. The asymmetry can be approximately expressed as a function of transverse separation between the positive and negative muons barycentric positions in the EAS through opposite quadrants across the shower core in the shower front plane. In the present study, it is found that the transverse muon barycenter separation and its maximum value obtained from the polar variation of the parameter are higher for iron primaries than protons for highly inclined showers. Hence, in principle, these parameters can be exploited to the measurement of primary cosmic-ray mass composition. Possibility of practical realization of the proposed method in a real experiment is briefly discussed.