Study of strongly interacting particle in the cosmic radiation at sea level using a flash tube chamber

Abstract

A measurement of the energy spectrum of hadrons at sea level in the energy range 10 GeV to 10 TeV has been performed. The hadrons interacted in a thick iron or lead absorber and the burst size produced was detected by a scintillation counter placed under each absorber. The burst sizes were used to estimate the energy of hadrons. The result on the hadron energy spectrum shows a constant slope of the form E(^-2.7±0.1) over the whole energy range from 10 GeV to 10 TeV. There is no change or step in the slope between 2-8 TeV as has been suggested by Baruch et al, (1973), A measurement of the energy spectrum of neutrons at sea level in the energy range 50-1,00GeV has been made and the experimental result represented as a differential energy spectrum in the form N(E) = K(^--2.9±0.1) in the same energy range. This result agrees with previous Durham neutron spectrum measurements. A statistical method has been used to derive the high energy pion flux at sea level from the total measured hadron spectrum. The results show an increase in the π/p ratio as the energy increases and over the energy range 40 GeV to 7 TeV the differential vertical flux decreases with increasing energy as E(-2.55±0.10). A search for (^e)/(_3) charged particles (quarks) close to the core of air showers of median size 6o5 10^ particles has been carried out. The search was conducted at sea level using a flash tube chamber technique as a visible detector. Air showers were selected in this experiment by requiring a local electron density above the chamber to be greater than 250 m(^-2). In 7,009 hours two quark candidates were observed and both were explained as duo to background incoherent muons. With no definite quark tracks having been observed, the upper limit on the (^e)/(_3) quark flux is < 4.3 10(^-11) cm(^-2) sec(^-1) st(^-1) at 90% confidence level. The energy spectrum of hadrons in EAS of median shower size 6.5 10(^5) particles has been measured m the energy range 10 < E < 1,000 GeV. A slope of Y = 1.07 ± 0.09 has been found for the integral spectrum for energies > 200 GeV.