South Pole Air Shower Experiment - 2

摘要9615101盖瑟南极空气簇射实验(SPASE)由覆盖南极数千平方米的稀疏的闪烁探测器阵列组成。它探测高能带电粒子(主要是电子)，这些粒子是在高层大气中由宇宙射线产生的。该实验有几个目标，其中最重要的是确定能量在大约100TeV以上的初级宇宙射线的元素组成。为了做到这一点，SPASE与南极Muon和中微子探测器阵列(Amanda)同时工作，该阵列在冰盖深处拥有数百个光学探测器，以至于阿曼达可以看到的宇宙射线相互作用的唯一产物是Muon。宇宙线簇射中产生的介子与电子的比率是原始原始宇宙线质量的敏感函数。由于Spase可以测量宇宙线产生的电子数量及其总能量，而阿曼达可以确定Muon的数量，因此可以确定入射初级宇宙线的质量。宇宙线元素组成的测定是宇宙线物理学中最重要的悬而未决的问题之一，这些信息将有助于揭示高能宇宙线的起源。该项目是与英国利兹大学合作的。***

Abstract 9615101 Gaisser The South Pole Air Shower Experiment (SPASE) consists of a sparsely filled array of scintillation detectors covering several thousand square meters at South Pole. It detects energetic charged particles (mostly electrons) which are produced in the upper atmosphere by cosmic rays. The experiment has several goals, the most important of which is to determine the elemental composition of the primary cosmic rays at energies above approximately 100 TeV. In order to do this SPASE works in coincidence with the Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA), which has several hundred optical detectors so deep in the ice sheet that the only products of the cosmic ray interactions which can be seen by AMANDA are muons. The ratio of muons to electrons produced in a cosmic ray shower is a sensitive function of the mass of the original primary cosmic ray. Since SPASE can measure the number of electrons produced by a cosmic ray as well as its total energy, and AMANDA can determine the number of muons, the mass of an incident primary cosmic ray can be determined. The determination of the elemental composition of cosmic rays is one of the most important outstanding questions in cosmic ray physics and such information will shed light on the origin of energetic cosmic rays. This project is cooperative with the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. ***