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MPBACH MultiPixel Balloon-borne Air CHerenkov

Detection of Iron Cosmic Rays Using Direct Cherenkov Radiation Imaged with

a High Resolution Camera

If the steepening at the cosmic ray knee is caused by a magnetic rigidity dependent mechanism, as a result of an acceleration process limited in a rigidity dependent manner or rigidity dependent propagation, there should be systematic changes in the cosmic ray composition through this region.

It is difficult to see how SN could accelerate protons to energies much beyond ~1015eV/particle. Heavier cosmic rays, for example iron nuclei, could reach energies over an order of magnitude higher than this via the same mechanism.

The objective of this project is to improve our knowledge of the Iron Flux from 5x103 to 3x106GeV

Energy spectrum of Iron cosmic rays multiplied by E2.5 from different observations. JACEE and RUNJOB, emulsion instruments, are a compilation of many balloon flights. CRN was conducted on the space shuttle. CREAM, ATTC and TRACER are balloon payloads flown from Antarctica and Sweden. BACH payload was flown from Ft Sumner. Sood [8] pioneered the BACH technique. KASKADE (two different interaction models) and EAS-TOP (upper and lower limits) are air shower data. HESS data (two different interaction models) are ground level observations of Cerenkov light imaging.

Current knowledge of the iron spectrum

The

taC

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Altitude (km)

Altitude (km)

Altitude (km)

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Light Pool at 35 km Altitude

Figure 3.Left: Integration of the curve in Figure 2 yields a light pool for 35km similar to that shown above. Impact parameter and radius have the same meaning. Light pools are shown for different energies and particle species. The curves are scaled vertically to determine the expected BACH detector response as function of impact parameter. Right: Photo of the BACH payload. Clearly visible are the two 2m long Winston cone light collectors (CAU-1 and CAU-2) and the gondola shell housing the electronics package. The POD (Pressurized Optical Detector) connected to CAU-2 is located inside the large bundle of fiberglass insulation.

z

y

xθφ

(xo,yo) (x1,0)(x2,0)

θc

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Particle trajectory passes through the x,y plane at location xo,yoThe particle incident angle with respect to z is θ and φ is the polar θc = Cerenkov angle which is a function of z (air density)S is the trajectory straight path-length from the x-y plane intersection to the CK emission point as viewed by camera 1

εc is the CK emission vector as viewed from Camera 1 y

x

Camera 2 Camera 1

z

x1

No Magnetic Field

It can be shown that S is related to the other quantities asS

εc

εc is the CK emission vector as viewed from Camera 1 and 2

z

y

xθφ

(xo,yo) (x1,0)(x2,0)

θcL

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Sεcb

θcH

εca

Intersection of Plane C1 and C2 forms a line that lies along the particle trajectorycross product of these two normal C1 and C2 vectors gives a vector which is perpendicular to both of them and which is therefore parallel to the line of intersection of the two planes. So this cross product will give a direction vector for the line of intersection.

Set z=0 and solve for x and y

With only the DCs, reconstruct trajectory

Camera 1 event plane

Camera 2 event plane

Directional cosine observations from the camera and camera location on the gondola

z

y

xθφ

(xo,yo) (x1,0)(x2,0)

θcL

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Sεcb

θcH

εca

Explicitly determine the relationship for the x,y crossing point at z=0

Directional cosine observations from the camera and camera location on the gondola

The trajectory vector S has been determine and is then used to calculate the Cerenkov angle at each intersection point

The index of refraction at each intersection altitude point must be determined to calculate the energy

z

y

xθφ

(xo,yo) (x1,0)(x2,0)

θcb

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Sεcb

θca

εca

Results The calculated energy uses only the directional cosines and camera location

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Deflection in the Earth’s Magnetic Field

* Energy & Charge dependence *