Energy cross-calibration from the first CREAM flight: transition radiation detector versus calorimeter

TL;DR

This paper presents a cross-calibration of energy measurements between a transition radiation detector and a calorimeter from the first CREAM balloon flight, enhancing cosmic ray energy scale accuracy.

Contribution

It introduces a method for cross-calibrating two independent cosmic ray energy measurement techniques using flight data.

Findings

Successful cross-calibration of detector techniques.

Assessment of systematic effects in energy measurements.

Improved accuracy of cosmic ray energy scale.

Abstract

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, a cross-calibration was performed by comparing the two independent energy estimates on selected samples of oxygen and carbon nuclei.