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We report on the measurement of the all-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum with the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory in the energy range 10 to 500 TeV. HAWC is a ground based air-shower array deployed on the slopes of Volcan Sierra Negra in the state of Puebla, Mexico, and is sensitive to gamma rays and cosmic rays at TeV energies. The data used in this work were taken from 234 days between June 2016 to February 2017. The primary cosmic-ray energy is determined with a maximum likelihood approach using the particle density as a function of distance to the shower core. Introducing quality cuts to isolate events with shower cores landing on the array, the reconstructed energy distribution is unfolded iteratively. The measured all-particle spectrum is consistent with a broken power law with an index of $-2.49pm0.01$ prior to a break at $(45.7pm0.1$) TeV, followed by an index of $-2.71pm0.01$. The spectrum also respresents a single measurement that spans the energy range between direct detection and ground based experiments. As a verification of the detector response, the energy scale and angular resolution are validated by observation of the cosmic ray Moon shadows dependence on energy.
Thanks to recent technological development, a new generation of cosmic ray experiments have been developed with more sensitivity to study these particles in the primary energy interval from 10 TeV to 1 PeV, such as HAWC. Due to its design and high altitude, the HAWC gamma-ray and cosmic ray observatory can provide a bridge between the data from direct and indirect cosmic ray detectors. In 2017 the HAWC collaboration published its first result on the total energy spectrum of cosmic rays, which covers the range from 10 to 500 TeV. This work updates the previous result by extending the energy interval of the measured all-particle cosmic-ray energy spectrum up to 1 PeV. The energy spectrum was obtained from the analysis of two years of HAWCs data using an unfolding method. We employed the QGSJET-II-04 model for the energy calibration and the spectrum reconstruction. The results confirm the presence of a knee like feature at tens of TeV, as previously reported by the HAWC collaboration in 2017.
We report on a measurement of the cosmic ray energy spectrum with the IceTop air shower array, the surface component of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole. The data used in this analysis were taken between June and October, 2007, with 26 surface stations operational at that time, corresponding to about one third of the final array. The fiducial area used in this analysis was 0.122 km^2. The analysis investigated the energy spectrum from 1 to 100 PeV measured for three different zenith angle ranges between 0{deg} and 46{deg}. Because of the isotropy of cosmic rays in this energy range the spectra from all zenith angle intervals have to agree. The cosmic-ray energy spectrum was determined under different assumptions on the primary mass composition. Good agreement of spectra in the three zenith angle ranges was found for the assumption of pure proton and a simple two-component model. For zenith angles {theta} < 30{deg}, where the mass dependence is smallest, the knee in the cosmic ray energy spectrum was observed between 3.5 and 4.32 PeV, depending on composition assumption. Spectral indices above the knee range from -3.08 to -3.11 depending on primary mass composition assumption. Moreover, an indication of a flattening of the spectrum above 22 PeV were observed.
A combined interpretation of the CALET $e^+, +, e^-$ spectrum up to 3 TeV and the AMS-02 positron spectrum up to 500 GeV was performed and the results are discussed. To parametrize the background electron flux, we assume a smoothly broken power-law spectrum with an exponential cut-off for electrons and fit this parametrization to the measurements, with either a pulsar or 3-body decay of fermionic Dark Matter as the extra electron-positron pair source responsible for the positron excess. We found that depending on the parameters for the background, both Dark Matter decay and the pulsar model can explain the combined measurements. While the Dark Matter decay scenario is constrained by the Fermi-LAT $gamma$-ray measurement, we show that 3-body decay of a 800 GeV Dark Matter can be compatible with the $gamma$-ray flux measurement. We discuss the capability of CALET to discern decaying Dark Matter models from a generic pulsar source scenario, based on simulated data for five years of data-taking.
Precision measurements of the positron component in the cosmic radiation provide important information about the propagation of cosmic rays and the nature of particle sources in our Galaxy. The satellite-borne experiment PAMELA has been used to make a new measurement of the cosmic-ray positron flux and fraction that extends previously published measurements up to 300 GeV in kinetic energy. The combined measurements of the cosmic-ray positron energy spectrum and fraction provide a unique tool to constrain interpretation models. During the recent solar minimum activity period from July 2006 to December 2009 approximately 24500 positrons were observed. The results cannot be easily reconciled with purely secondary production and additional sources of either astrophysical or exotic origin may be required.
The ARGO-YBJ experiment is a full coverage air shower detector operated at the Yangbajing International Cosmic Ray Observatory. The detector has been in stable data taking in its full configuration since November 2007 to February 2013. The high altitude and the high segmentation and spacetime resolution offer the possibility to explore the cosmic ray energy spectrum in a very wide range, from a few TeV up to the PeV region. The high segmentation allows a detailed measurement of the lateral distribution, which can be used in order to discriminate showers produced by light and heavy elements. In this work we present the measurement of the cosmic ray light component spectrum in the energy range 3-3000 TeV. The analysis has been carried out by using a two-dimensional unfolding method based on the Bayes theorem.