Fractions of proton, helium, middle and heavy nuclei in primary cosmic rays at energy 10**16eV

TL;DR

This paper classifies gamma-hadron families to estimate the fractions of different nuclei in primary cosmic rays at 10^16 eV, revealing that the composition remains close to normal below the spectrum's knee.

Contribution

It introduces a classification method for gamma-hadron families to determine the composition of cosmic rays at high energies.

Findings

Primary cosmic ray composition remains close to normal below the knee.

Fractions of different nuclei groups are estimated from gamma-hadron family data.

Results support existing models of cosmic ray composition at 10^16 eV.

Abstract

Classification of gamma-hadron families, registered by the Pamir collaboration, on four groups of nuclei (P, He, middle and heavy), responsible for their generation, is made, and fractions of families in each of the groups are estimated. Results show, that below the knee of the energy spectrum the chemical composition of primary cosmic rays remains close to the normal one.