Physics
Scientific paper
Aug 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001icrc....5.1784w&link_type=abstract
Proceedings of the 27th International Cosmic Ray Conference. 07-15 August, 2001. Hamburg, Germany. Under the auspices of the Int
Physics
Scientific paper
Different scenarios of the origin of the cosmic radiation invoke different chemical abundances of the accelerated material. A determination of the abundances of the nuclei in the cosmic rays observed in the solar system can, in principle, be used to discriminate between these different scenarios. Unfortunately, the compositional changes introduced during the propagation of the nuclei through the interstellar medium introduce serious uncertainties in relating the observed composition to that at the source. It is shown here that there are a number of "signature" elemental ratios among the heaviest elements in the cosmic radiation that should allow for clear discrimination between some of the most popular current theories of the origin. These ratios appear to be robust in that they are not strongly energy dependent nor do they depend critically on the precise details of the propagation models or parameters. The proposed HNX mission will be able to determine these ratios with the required accuracy. --------------------------------- Introduction: Measurements of the abundances of the nuclei in the cosmic radiation observed in the solar system can be used to deduce the abundances at the source, if the corrections for the effects of propagation through the interstellar medium can be adequately modeled. In this paper it is shown that after the application of a relatively simple model of propagation the new data that will be available from forthcoming experiments will make it possible to discriminate between a number of models for the source composition. In particular, it will be possible to distinguish between the effects introduced by a selection bias based on the first ionization potential and one based on the volatility. This will require measurements with sufficient charge resolution to separate the individual elements of the UH nuclei (Z > 28).
Waddington Jake C.
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