The Knee and the Second Knee of the Cosmic-Ray Energy Spectrum

Abstract

The cosmic ray flux measured by the Telescope Array Low Energy Extension (TALE) exhibits three spectral features: the knee, the dip in the $10^{16}$ eV decade, and the second knee. Here the spectrum has been measured for the first time using fluorescence telescopes, which provide a calorimetric, model-independent result. The spectrum appears to be a rigidity-dependent cutoff sequence, where the knee is made by the hydrogen and helium portions of the composition, the dip comes from the reduction in composition from helium to metals, the rise to the second knee occurs due to intermediate range nuclei, and the second knee is the iron knee.

arXiv comment10 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Astroparticle physics

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Cited by in corpus (1)

• High-Energy Galactic Cosmic Rays (Astro2020 Science White Paper)