First ground based measurement of atmospheric Cherenkov light from cosmic rays

Abstract

A recently proposed novel technique for the detection of cosmic rays with arrays of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes is applied to data from the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.). The method relies on the ground based detection of Cherenkov light emitted from the primary particle prior to its first interaction in the atmosphere. The charge of the primary particle (Z) can be estimated from the intensity of this light, since it is proportional to Z${}^2$. Using H.E.S.S. data, an energy spectrum for cosmic-ray iron nuclei in the energy range 13--200 TeV is derived. The reconstructed spectrum is consistent with previous direct measurements and is one of the most precise so far in this energy range.

14 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D

References in corpus (13)

• Observations of the Crab Nebula with H.E.S.S
• High-energy particle acceleration in the shell of a supernova remnant
• On the knee in the energy spectrum of cosmic rays
• QGSJET-II: towards reliable description of very high energy hadronic interactions
• The Status of the H.E.S.S. Project
• Calibration of cameras of the H.E.S.S. detector
• A detailed spectral and morphological study of the gamma-ray supernova remnant RX J1713.7-3946 with H.E.S.S
• The First VERITAS Telescope
• The Trigger System of the H.E.S.S. Telescope Array
• Comparison of techniques to reconstruct VHE gamma-ray showers from multiple stereoscopic Cherenkov images
• The Composition of Cosmic Rays at the Knee
• A High Resolution Method for Measuring Cosmic Ray Composition beyond 10 TeV
• A Measurement of the Flux of Cosmic Ray Iron at 5 x 10^13 eV

Cited by in corpus (18)

• Design Concepts for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Cosmic Rays from the Knee to the Highest Energies
• Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays
• Composition of Primary Cosmic-Ray Nuclei at High Energies
• Cosmic-ray database update: ultra-high energy, ultra-heavy, and anti-nuclei cosmic-ray data (CRDB v4.0)
• Measurement of the Iron Spectrum in Cosmic Rays from 10 GeV$/n$ to 2.0 TeV$/n$ with the Calorimetric Electron Telescope on the International Space Station
• Cosmic-ray composition and its relation to shock acceleration by supernova remnants
• The Elemental Composition of High-Energy Cosmic Rays: Measurements with TRACER
• Measurement of the Iron Spectrum in Cosmic Rays by VERITAS
• Effect of the uncertainty in the hadronic interaction models on the estimation of the sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• A template method for measuring the iron spectrum in cosmic rays with Cherenkov telescopes
• Potential for measuring the longitudinal and lateral profile of muons in TeV air showers with IACTs
• Detectors for high-energy messengers from the Universe
• Rare Events searches with Cherenkov Telescopes
• Studies of Direct Cherenkov Emission with VERITAS
• Precision spectral measurements of Chromium and Titanium from 10 to 250 GeV$/n$ and sub-Iron to Iron ratio with the Calorimetric Electron Telescope on the ISS
• The Track Imaging Cerenkov Experiment
• Experimental Efforts on Very High-Energy Cosmic Rays and their Interactions - Conference Summary