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 $-2.79\pm 0.08$.

6 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)

References in corpus (3)

• The spectrum of high-energy cosmic rays measured with KASCADE-Grande
• Cosmic Rays: The Second Knee and Beyond
• The FLUKA code: present applications and future developments

Cited by in corpus (28)

• Radio detection of Cosmic-Ray Air Showers and High-Energy Neutrinos
• A method for high precision reconstruction of air shower Xmax using two-dimensional radio intensity profiles
• On the cosmic ray spectrum from type II Supernovae expanding in their red giant presupernova wind
• Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays: The Intersection of the Cosmic and Energy Frontiers
• An Ultrahigh-energy $\gamma$-ray Bubble Powered by a Super PeVatron
• Cosmic ray production in supernovae
• Probing the evolution of the EAS muon content in the atmosphere with KASCADE-Grande
• Cosmic Ray Origins: An Introduction
• Neutrino yield from Galactic cosmic rays
• Cosmic Rays from the Ankle to the Cut-Off
• Origin of very high and ultra high energy cosmic rays
• Spectral features in the cosmic ray fluxes
• The extragalactic ultra-high energy cosmic-ray dipole
• A cosmic-ray database update: CRDB v4.1
• Cosmic Rays around $10^{18}$eV: Implications of Contemporary Measurements on the Origin of the Ankle Feature
• Origin Of The High Energy Cosmic Neutrino Background
• High-Energy Galactic Cosmic Rays (Astro2020 Science White Paper)
• Reacceleration of Galactic Cosmic Rays Beyond the Knee at the Termination Shock of a Cosmic-Ray-Driven Galactic Wind
• Implications of supernova remnant origin model of galactic cosmic rays on Gamma rays from young supernova remnants
• PeV-EeV neutrinos from gamma-ray blazars due to ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray propagation
• Determination of the Cosmic-Ray Chemical Composition: Open Issues and Prospects
• The Important Role of Cosmic-Ray Re-Acceleration
• On the prompt contribution to the atmospheric neutrino flux
• Atmospheric neutrinos and the knee of the Cosmic Ray spectrum
• Spatial and temporal structure of EAS reflected Cherenkov light signal
• The cosmic-ray spectrum in the PeV to EeV energy range
• Recent developments in cosmic ray physics
• Tunka-Rex: Status, Plans, and Recent Results (ARENA 2016)