Eur Phys J C (2004) 33: s944-s946
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjcd/s2004-03-1632-2

PS12 Particle Astrophysics (cosmic rays)

Energy spectrum and elemental composition of cosmic rays in the PeV region

¹ Institut für Experimentelle Kernphysik, Universität Karlsruhe, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany
² Institut für Kernphysik, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany
³ Dipartimento di Fisica Generale dell’Università, 10125 Torino, Italy
⁴ National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, 7690 Bucharest, Romania
⁵ Fachbereich Physik, Universität Siegen, 57072 Siegen, Germany
⁶ Cosmic Ray Division, Yerevan Physics Institute, Yerevan 36, Armenia
⁷ Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario, CNR, 10133 Torino, Italy
⁸ Fachbereich Physik, Universität Wuppertal, 42097 Wuppertal, Germany
⁹ Soltan Institute for Nuclear Studies, 90950 Lodz, Poland

Received: 12 October 2003
Accepted: 22 January 2004
Published online: 3 February 2004

Abstract

KASCADE (KArlsruhe Shower Core and Array DEtector) is determining flux spectra for different primary mass groups to disentangle the knee feature of the primary cosmic-ray energy spectrum. The energy spectra of the light element groups result in a knee-like bending and a steepening above the knee. The topology of the individual knee positions suggests a rigidity dependence. To proof the rigidity dependence the KASCADE array is now extended by a factor 10 in area. The major goal of KASCADE-Grande is the observation of the ’iron-knee’ in the cosmic-ray spectrum at around 100 PeV which is expected following the KASCADE observations.

PACS: 98.70.Sa Cosmic rays