Energy Spectra and Relative Abundances of Heavy Cosmic-Ray Nuclei around 1 TeV/Nucleon

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Scientific paper

We describe a measurement of the intensities of heavy primary cosmicray nuclei with the Transition Radiation Array for Cosmic Energetic Radiation (TRACER) up to energies around a few TeV/nucleon. Absolute cosmic-ray fluxes are presented for O, Ne, Mg, Si, and Fe obtained during a one-day test flight from Ft. Sumner, NM in preparation for a 20-day circum-p olar balloon flight. The results of TRACER are largely consistent with previous observations in this energy range. Introduction Direct measurements of the elemental composition and energy spectra of cosmic-ray nuclei at high energies, beyond a TeV/nucleon, and approaching the cosmic-ray knee above total energies of 1015 eV, are expected to provide a sensitive test of the current paradigm that all cosmic rays are generated with the same energy spectrum at the source, up to a maximum rigidity around 1014 V for shock acceleration in supernova remnants, and that their propagation pathlength through the galaxy decreases with increasing energy. However, new observational data are slow in coming because the low particle intensity necessitates long exposures of very large-area instruments. With this need in mind, TRACER was constructed for a long-duration balloon flight. A successful 30-hour test flight was conducted from Ft. Sumner, NM, in September 1999. A subsequent long-duration balloon flight along the Northern Polar circle could not be accomplished due to lack of required international agreements. The instrument is currently scheduled for a long-duration flight in Antarctica in 2003/4. This report will present and discuss results obtained with the 1999 test flight. The Instrument Figure 1 shows the detector arrangement. The main elements are (a) plas-

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