Study of the ultrahigh-energy primary-cosmic-ray composition with the MACRO experiment. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • We present the analysis of multiple-muon events collected with one supermodule (1013 h live time) and two supermodules (1195 h live time) of the MACRO detector at Gran Sasso, Italy. Multimuon rates are shown to be sensitive to primary-cosmic-ray energies between 50 TeV and several thousand TeV. Experimental data are compared with the expected rates from two composition models: a light (i.e., proton-rich) and a heavy (i.e., Fe-rich) composition. The predictions are based on a Monte Carlo simulation of the hadronic interactions of cosmic-ray nuclei, followed by a detailed tracking of the muons through the rock and the experimental apparatus. The results show good sensitivity of the MACRO detector to primary composition. The data exhibit a preference towards the light composition model. 1992 The American Physical Society.

published proceedings

  • Phys Rev D Part Fields

author list (cited authors)

  • Ahlen, S., Ambrosio, M., Antolini, R., Auriemma, G., Baldini, A., Bam, B. B., ... Liu, R.

citation count

  • 36

complete list of authors

  • Ahlen, S||Ambrosio, M||Antolini, R||Auriemma, G||Baldini, A||Bam, BB||Barbarino, GC||Barish, BC||Battistoni, G||Bellotti, R||Bemporad, C||Bernardini, P||Bilokon, H||Bisi, V||Bloise, C||Bussino, S||Cafagna, F||Calicchio, M||Campana, P||Campana, D||Carboni, M||Cecchini, S||Cei, F||Chiarella, V||Chiera, C||Cobis, A||Cormack, R||Corona, A||Coutu, S||DeCataldo, G||DeMarzo, C||Diehl, E||Erriquez, O||Favuzzi, C||Ficenec, D||Forti, C||Foti, L||Fusco, P||Giacomelli, G||Giannini, G||Giglietto, N||Giubellino, P||Grassi, M||Green, P||Grillo, A||Guarino, F||Gustavino, C||Habig, A||Heinz, R||Hong, JT||Iarocci, E||Katsavounidis, E||Kearns, E||Klein, S||Kyriazopoulou, S||Lamanna, E||Lane, C||Lee, C||Levin, D||Lipari, P||Liu, G||Liu, R

publication date

  • August 1992