Reconciling the light component and all-particle cosmic ray energy spectra at the knee

TL;DR

This paper proposes a modified broken power-law model with non-linear effects to explain the sharp knee in cosmic ray spectra, reconciling measurements from ARGO-YBJ and Tibet-III, and predicts heavy elements dominate at the knee.

Contribution

It introduces a novel non-linear acceleration model that better fits cosmic ray spectral data at the knee, advancing understanding of cosmic ray origins.

Findings

The model successfully describes the sharp knee structure.

Heavy elements are predicted to dominate at the knee.

The model reconciles data from different experiments.

Abstract

The knee phenomenon of the cosmic ray spectrum, which plays an important role in studying the acceleration mechanism of cosmic rays, is still an unsolved mystery. We try to reconcile the knee spectra measured by ARGO-YBJ and Tibet-III. A simple broken power-law model fails to explain the experimental data. Therefore a modified broken power-law model with non-linear acceleration effects is adopted, which can describe the sharp knee structure. This model predicts that heavy elements dominate at the knee.