Ankle-like Feature in the Energy Spectrum of Light Elements of Cosmic Rays Observed with KASCADE-Grande

Abstract

Recent results of the KASCADE-Grande experiment provided evidence for a mild knee-like structure in the all-particle spectrum of cosmic rays at $E=10^{16.92\pm 0.10}\mathrm{eV}$, which was found to be due to a steepening in the flux of heavy primary particles. The spectrum of the combined components of light and intermediate masses was found to be compatible with a single power law in the energy range from $10^{16.3}\mathrm{eV}$ to $10^{18}\mathrm{eV}$. In this paper, we present an update of this analysis by using data with increased statistics, originating both from a larger data set including more recent measurements and by using a larger fiducial area. In addition, optimized selection criteria for enhancing light primaries are applied. We find a spectral feature for light elements, namely a hardening at $E=10^{17.08\pm 0.08}\mathrm{eV}$ with a change of the power law index from $-3.25\pm 0.05$ to $-2.79\pm 0.08$.

arXiv comment6 pages, 5 figures, 1 table; this is the authors' version; the definite version has been published in Phys. Rev. D (http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.87.081101)

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