Measurements of cosmic-ray secondary nuclei at high energies with the first flight of the CREAM balloon-borne experiment

TL;DR

This paper reports high-energy measurements of cosmic-ray heavy nuclei using the CREAM balloon experiment, revealing elemental abundances and energy spectra up to 1 TeV/n, consistent with prior data and providing new insights into cosmic-ray composition.

Contribution

First high-accuracy measurements of cosmic-ray nuclei from boron to oxygen at TeV energies using a balloon-borne detector.

Findings

Elemental abundances from boron to oxygen measured up to 1 TeV/n.

Energy spectra show a steep decline (~E^-0.6 to E^-0.5) at high energies.

Source nitrogen abundance relative to oxygen is about 10% in the TeV/n region.

Abstract

We present new measurements of heavy cosmic-ray nuclei at high energies per- formed during the first flight of the balloon-borne cosmic-ray experiment CREAM (Cosmic-Ray Energetics And Mass). This instrument uses multiple charge detectors and a transition radiation detector to provide the first high accuracy measurements of the relative abundances of elements from boron to oxygen up to energies around 1 TeV/n. The data agree with previous measurements at lower energies and show a relatively steep decline (~E$^-0.6$ to E$^-0.5$) at high energies. They further show the source abundance of nitrogen relative to oxygen is ~10% in the TeV/n region.