Cosmic-Ray Proton and Helium Spectra from the First CREAM Flight
Y. S. Yoon, H. S. Ahn, P. S. Allison, M. G. Bagliesi, J. J. Beatty, G. Bigongiari, P. J. Boyle, J. T. Childers, N. B. Conklin, S. Coutu, M. A. DuVernois, O. Gan… 展开作者
Y. S. Yoon, H. S. Ahn, P. S. Allison, M. G. Bagliesi, J. J. Beatty, G. Bigongiari, P. J. Boyle, J. T. Childers, N. B. Conklin, S. Coutu, M. A. DuVernois, O. Ganel, J. H. Han, J. A. Jeon, K. C. Kim, M. H. Lee, L. Lutz, P. Maestro, A. Malinine, P. S. Marrocchesi, S. A. Minnick, S. I. Mognet, S. Nam, S. Nutter, I. H. Park, N. H. Park, E. S. Seo, R. Sina, S. Swordy, S. P. Wakely, J. Wu, J. Yang, R. Zei, S. Y. Zinn
Cosmic-ray proton and helium spectra have been measured with the balloon-borne Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass experiment flown for 42 days in Antarctica in the 2004-2005 austral summer season. High-energy cosmic-ray data were collected at an average altitude of ~38.5 km with an average atmospheric overburden of ~3.9 g cm$^{-2}$. Individual elements are clearly separated with a charge resolution of ~0.15 e (in charge units) and ~0.2 e for protons and helium nuclei, respectively. The measured spectra at the top of the atmosphere are represented by power laws with a spectral index of -2.66 $\pm$ 0.02 for protons from 2.5 TeV to 250 TeV and -2.58 $\pm$ 0.02 for helium nuclei from 630 GeV/nucleon to 63 TeV/nucleon. They are harder than previous measurements at a few tens of GeV/nucleon. The helium flux is higher than that expected from the extrapolation of the power law fitted to the lower-energy data. The relative abundance of protons to helium nuclei is 9.1 $\pm$ 0.5 for the range from 2.5 TeV/nucleon to 63 TeV/nucleon. This ratio is considerably smaller than the previous measurements at a few tens of GeV/nucleon.
Primary cosmic-ray elemental spectra have been measured with the balloon-borne Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM) experiment since 2004. The third CREAM payload (CREAM-III) flew for 29 days during the 2007-2008 Antarctic season. Energies of incident particles above 1 TeV are measured with a calorimeter. Individual elements are clearly separated with a charge resolution of ~0.12 e (in charge units) and ~0.14 e for protons and helium nuclei, respectively, using two layers of silicon charge detectors. The measured proton and helium energy spectra at the top of the atmosphere are harder than o…
The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM) is a balloon-borne experiment designed to measure the composition and energy spectra of cosmic rays of charge Z = 1 to 26 up to an energy of ~ 10^15 eV. CREAM had two successful flights on long-duration balloons (LDB) launched from Mc- Murdo Station, Antarctica, in December 2004 and December 2005. CREAM-I achieves a substantial measurement redundancy by employing multiple detector systems, namely a Timing Charge Detector and a Silicon Charge Detector (SCD) for particle identification, and a Transition Radiation Detector and a sampling tungsten/scintil…
During its second Antarctic flight, the CREAM (Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass) balloon experiment collected data for 28 days, measuring the charge and the energy of cosmic rays (CR) with a redundant system of particle identification and an imaging thin ionization calorimeter. Preliminary direct measurements of the absolute intensities of individual CR nuclei are reported in the elemental range from carbon to iron at very high energy.
The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM) balloon experiment had two successful flights in 2004/05 and 2005/06. It was designed to perform energy measurements from a few GeV up to 1000 TeV, taking advantage of different detection techniques. The first instrument, CREAM-1, combined a transition radiation detector with a calorimeter to provide independent energy measurements of cosmicraynuclei. Each detector was calibrated with particle beams in a limited range of energies. In order to assess the absolute energy scale of the instrument and to investigate the systematic effects of each technique…
CREAM (Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass) is a multi-flight balloon mission designed to collect direct data on the elemental composition and individual energy spectra of cosmic rays. Two instrument suites have been built to be flown alternately on a yearly base. The tungsten/Sci-Fi imaging calorimeter for the second flight, scheduled for December 2005, was calibrated with electron and proton beams at CERN. A calibration procedure based on the study of the longitudinal shower profile is described and preliminary results of the beam test are presented.
The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM) calorimeter is designed to measure the spectra of cosmic-ray particles over the energy range from ~10^11 eV to ~10^15 eV. Its first flight as part of the CREAM-I balloon-borne payload in Antarctica during the 2004/05 season resulted in a recordbreaking 42 days of exposure. Calorimeter calibration using various beam test data will be discussed in an attempt to assess the uncertainties of the energy measurements.
We present new measurements of the energy spectra of cosmic-ray (CR) nuclei from the second flight of the balloon-borne experiment CREAM (Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass). The instrument (CREAM-II) was comprised of detectors based on different techniques (Cherenkov light, specific ionization in scintillators and silicon sensors) to provide a redundant charge identification and a thin ionization calorimeter capable of measuring the energy of cosmic rays up to several hundreds of TeV. The data analysis is described and the individual energy spectra of C, O, Ne, Mg, Si and Fe are reported up to ~ …
Recent observations by CREAM and ATIC-2 experiments suggest that (1) the spectrum of cosmic ray (CR) helium is harder than that of CR proton below the knee 10^15 eV and (2) all CR spectra become hard at > 10^11 eV/n. We propose a new picture that higher energy CRs are generated in more helium-rich region to explain the hardening (1) without introducing different sources for CR helium. The helium to proton ratio at ~100 TeV exceeds the Big Bang abundance Y=0.25 by several times, and the different spectrum is not reproduced within the diffusive shock acceleration theory. We argue that CRs are pr…
Data obtained in the ATIC-2 (Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter), CREAM (Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass)) and PAMELA (Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics) experiments suggest that elemental interstellar spectra of cosmic rays below the knee at a few times $10^{6}$ GeV are not simple power laws, but they experience hardening at magnetic rigidity above about 240 GV. Another essential feature is the difference between proton and Helium energy spectra, so that the He/p ratio increases by more than 50% in the energy range from $10^{2}$ to $10^{4}$ GV. We consid…
Recent measurements of cosmic ray proton and helium spectra show a hardening above a few hundreds of GeV. This excess is hard to understand in the framework of the conventional models of Galactic cosmic ray production and propagation. We propose here to explain this anomaly by the presence of local sources (myriad model). Cosmic ray propagation is described as a diffusion process taking place inside a two-zone magnetic halo. We calculate the proton and helium fluxes at the Earth between 50 GeV and 100 TeV. Improving over a similar analysis, we consistently derive these fluxes by taking into ac…
Recent data on Galactic cosmic rays (CRs) revealed that the helium energy spectrum is harder than the proton spectrum. The AMS experiment has now reported that the proton-to-helium ratio as function of rigidity $R$ (momentum-to-charge ratio) falls off steadily as p/He $\sim R^Δ$, with $Δ\approx$-0.08 between $R\sim$40 GV and $R\sim$2 TV. Besides, the single spectra of proton and helium are found to progressively harden at $R\gtrsim$100 GV. The p/He anomaly is generally ascribed to particle-dependent acceleration mechanisms occurring in Galactic CR sources. However, this explanation poses a cha…
A hardening of the proton and helium fluxes is observed above a few hundreds of GeV/nuc. The distribution of local sources of primary cosmic rays has been suggested as a potential solution to this puzzling behavior. Some authors even claim that a single source is responsible for the observed anomalies. But how probable these explanations are? To answer that question, our current description of cosmic ray Galactic propagation needs to be replaced by the Myriad model. In the former approach, sources of protons and helium nuclei are treated as a jelly continuously spread over space and time. A mo…
The BESS-Polar Collaboration measured the energy spectra of cosmic-ray protons and helium during two long-duration balloon flights over Antarctica in December 2004 and December 2007, at substantially different levels of solar modulation. Proton and helium spectra probe the origin and propagation history of cosmic rays in the galaxy, and are essential to calculations of the expected spectra of cosmic-ray antiprotons, positrons, and electrons from interactions of primary cosmic-ray nuclei with the interstellar gas, and to calculations of atmospheric muons and neutrinos. We report absolute spectr…
An analysis is made of the fine structure in the cosmic ray energy spectrum: new facets of present observations and their interpretation and the next step. It is argued that less than about 10% of the intensity of the helium `peak' at the knee at $\simeq 5PeV$ is due to just a few sources (SNR) other than the single source. The apparent concavity in the rigidity spectra of protons and helium nuclei which have maximum curvature at about 200 GV is confirmed by a joint analysis of the PAMELA, CREAM and ATIC experiments. The spectra of heavier nuclei also show remarkable structure in the form of `…
We present new measurements of the energy spectra of cosmic-ray (CR) nuclei from the second flight of the balloon-borne experiment Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM). The instrument included different particle detectors to provide redundant charge identification and measure the energy of CRs up to several hundred TeV. The measured individual energy spectra of C, O, Ne, Mg, Si, and Fe are presented up to $\sim 10^{14}$ eV. The spectral shape looks nearly the same for these primary elements and it can be fitted to an $E^{-2.66 \pm 0.04}$ power law in energy. Moreover, a new measurement of th…
The balloon-borne Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM) experiment launched five times from Antarctica has achieved a cumulative flight duration of about 156 days above 99.5% of the atmosphere. The instrument is configured with complementary and redundant particle detectors designed to extend direct measurements of cosmic-ray composition to the highest energies practical with balloon flights. All elements from protons to iron nuclei are separated with excellent charge resolution. Here we report results from the first two flights of ~70 days, which indicate hardening of the elemental spectra a…
Recent measurements of cosmic-ray spectra of several individual nuclear species by the CREAM, TRACER, and ATIC experiments indicate a change in the spectral index of the power laws at TeV energies. Possible explanations among others include non linear diffusive shock acceleration of cosmic-rays, different cosmic-ray propagation properties at higher and lower energies in the Galaxy and the presence of nearby sources. In this paper, we show that if supernova remnants are the main sources of cosmic rays in our Galaxy, the effect of the nearby remnants can be responsible for the observed spectral …
Direct Measurement of the Cosmic-Ray Helium Spectrum from 40 GeV to 250 TeV with the Calorimetric Electron Telescope on the International Space Station
The origin of Galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) remains a mystery after more than one century of their discovery. The diffusive propagation of charged particles in the turbulent Galactic magnetic field makes us unable to trace back to their acceleration sites. Nevertheless, nearby GCR source(s) may leave imprints on the locally measured energy spectra and the anisotropies of the arrival direction. In this work we propose a simple but natural description of the GCR production and propagation, within a two-zone disk-halo diffusion scenario together with a nearby source, to understand the up-to-date pr…
Measurements of cosmic rays by experiments such as ATIC, CREAM, and PAMELA indicate a hardening of the cosmic-ray energy spectrum at TeV energies. In our recent work (Thoudam & Hörandel 2012a), we showed that the hardening can be due to the effect of nearby supernova remnants. We showed it for the case of proton and helium. In this paper, we present an improved and detailed version of our previous work, and extend our study to heavier cosmic-ray species such as boron, carbon, oxygen, and iron nuclei. Unlike our previous study, the present work involves a detailed calculation of the background …
Recently the AMS-02 reported the precise measurements of the energy spectra of medium-mass compositions (Neon, Magnesium, Silicon) of primary cosmic rays, which reveal different properties from those of light compositions (Helium, Carbon, Oxygen). Here we propose a nearby source scenario, together with the background source contribution, to explain the newly measured spectra of cosmic ray Ne, Mg, Si, and particularly their differences from that of He, C, O. Their differences at high energies can be naturally accounted for by the element abundance of the nearby source. Specifically, the abundan…
The rise in the cosmic-ray positron fraction measured by the PAMELA satellite is likely due to the presence of astrophysical sources of positrons, e.g. pulsars, on the kpc scale around the Earth. Nevertheless, assessing the properties of these sources from the positron data requires a good knowledge of the secondary positron component generated by the interaction of cosmic rays with the interstellar gas. In this paper, we investigate the impact of the spectral hardening in the cosmic-ray proton and helium fluxes recently reported by the ATIC2 and CREAM balloon experiments, on the predictions o…
Recent data from CREAM seem to confirm early suggestions that primary cosmic ray (CR) spectra at few TeV/nucleon are harder than in the 10-100 GeV range. Also, helium and heavier nuclei spectra appear systematically harder than the proton fluxes at corresponding energies. We note here that if the measurements reflect intrinsic features in the interstellar fluxes (as opposed to local effects) appreciable modifications are expected in the sub-TeV range for the secondary yields, such as antiprotons and diffuse gamma-rays. Presently, the ignorance on the origin of the features represents a systema…
Precise time-dependent measurements of the Z = 2 component in the cosmic radiation provide crucial information about the propagation of charged particles through the heliosphere. The PAMELA experiment, with its long flight duration (15th June 2006 - 23rd January 2016) and the low energy threshold (80 MeV/n) is an ideal detector for cosmic ray solar modulation studies. In this paper, the helium nuclei spectra measured by the PAMELA instrument from July 2006 to December 2009 over a Carrington rotation time basis are presented. A state-of-the-art three-dimensional model for cosmic-ray propagation…
Recently, DAMPE has released its first results on the high-energy cosmic-ray electrons and positrons (CREs) from about $25$ GeV to $4.6$ TeV, which directly detect a break at $\sim 1$ TeV. This result gives us an excellent opportunity to study the source of the CREs excess. In this work, we used the data fo proton and helium flux (from AMS-02 and CREAM), $\bar{\mathrm{p}}/\mathrm{p}$ ratio (from AMS-02), positron flux (from AMS-02) and CREs flux (from DAMPE without the peak signal point at $\sim 1.4$ TeV) to do global fitting simultaneously, which can account the influence from the propagation…
White dwarf spectra have been widely used as a calibration source for X-ray and EUV instruments. The in-flight effective area calibration of the reflection grating spectrometers (RGS) of XMM-Newton depend upon the availability of reliable calibration sources. We investigate how well these white dwarf spectra can be used as standard candles at the lowest X-ray energies in order to gauge the absolute effective area scale of X-ray instruments. We calculate a grid of model atmospheres for Sirius B and HZ 43A, and adjust the parameters using several constraints until the ratio of the spectra of bot…
