Research on the knee region of cosmic ray by using a novel type of electron−neutron detector array

doi:10.1007/s11467-023-1383-2

Front. Phys.

2024, Vol. 19

Issue (4) : 44200 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11467-023-1383-2

Research on the knee region of cosmic ray by using a novel type of electron−neutron detector array

Bing-Bing Li¹, Xin-Hua Ma^2,³(

), Shu-Wang Cui¹(

), Hao-Kun Chen^4,⁵, Tian-Lu Chen^4,⁵, Danzengluobu^4,⁵, Wei Gao^2,³, Hai-Bing Hu^4,⁵, Denis Kuleshov⁶, Kirill Kurinov⁶, Hu Liu⁷, Mao-Yuan Liu^4,⁵, Ye Liu⁸, Da-Yu Peng^4,⁵, Yao-Hui Qi¹, Oleg Shchegolev^6,⁹, Yuri Stenkin^6,⁹, Li-Qiao Yin^2,³, Heng-Yu Zhang^4,⁵, Liang-Wei Zhang¹

¹. College of Physics, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang 050024, China
². Key Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
³. TIANFU Cosmic Ray Research Center, Chengdu 610000, China
⁴. College of Science, Tibet University, Lhasa 850000, China
⁵. Key Laboratory of Comic Rays, Ministry of Education, Tibet University, Lhasa 850000, China
⁶. Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 117312, Russia
⁷. School of Physical Science and Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China
⁸. School of Management Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Economics and Business, Shijiazhuang 050061, China
⁹. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow 141700, Russia

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Abstract

By accurately measuring composition and energy spectrum of cosmic ray, the origin problem of so called “knee” region (energy > one PeV) can be solved. However, up to the present, the results of the spectrum in the knee region obtained by several previous experiments have shown obvious differences, so they cannot give effective evidence for judging the theoretical models on the origin of the knee. Recently, the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) has reported several major breakthroughs and important results in astro-particle physics field. Relying on its advantages of wide-sky survey, high altitude location and large area detector arrays, the research content of LHAASO experiment mainly includes ultra high-energy gamma-ray astronomy, measurement of cosmic ray spectra in the knee region, searching for dark matter and new phenomena of particle physics at higher energy. The electron and thermal neutron detector (EN-Detector) is a new scintillator detector which applies thermal neutron detection technology to measure cosmic ray extensive air shower (EAS). This technology is an extension of LHAASO. The EN-Detector Array (ENDA) can highly efficiently measure thermal neutrons generated by secondary hadrons so called “skeleton” of EAS. In this paper, we perform the optimization of ENDA configuration, and obtain expectations on the ENDA results, including thermal neutron distribution, trigger efficiency and capability of cosmic ray composition separation. The obtained real data results are consistent with those by the Monte Carlo simulation.

Keywords cosmic ray EAS knee region LHAASO ENDA

Corresponding Author(s): Xin-Hua Ma,Shu-Wang Cui

Issue Date: 07 February 2024

Cite this article:

Bing-Bing Li,Xin-Hua Ma,Shu-Wang Cui, et al. Research on the knee region of cosmic ray by using a novel type of electron−neutron detector array[J]. Front. Phys. , 2024, 19(4): 44200.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fop/EN/10.1007/s11467-023-1383-2
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fop/EN/Y2024/V19/I4/44200

Fig.1 Photo of the ENDA-64 detector arrays in a bird view.

Fig.2 Schematic diagram of the EN-detector. 1 – High-voltage input port, 2 – DIU connected to the 8th dynode of the PMT, 3 – IU connected to the 5th dynode of the PMT, 4 – A black tank for the detector housing, 5 – PMT fixed holder, 6 – PMT, 7 – Scintillation light collecting cone, 8 – Scintillator.

Composition	$a 1$	$a 2$	$a 3$	$γ 1$	$γ 2$	$γ 3$

P	7860	20	1.7	2.66	2.44	2.44
He	3550	20	1.7	2.58	2.44	2.44
CNO	2200	13.4	1.14	2.63	2.44	2.44
MgAlSi	1430	13.4	1.14	2.67	2.44	2.44
Fe	2120	13.4	1.14	2.63	2.44	2.44

Tab.1 Parameters for the simulation function.

Fig.3 Primary energy spectra of cosmic ray components normalized to the Gassier model.

Fig.4 The thermal neutron integrated distributions normalized to the number of the simulated events with different adjacent distance between the detectors. Black dots are for the case of 5-m distance, and red squares are for that of 3-m distance.

Fig.5 The effect of different target materials on the thermal neutron integrated distributions normalized to the simulated numbers. Black dots are for case i, red squares for case ii, purple anti-triangles for case iii, and blue triangles for case iv.

Fig.6 The trigger efficiencies of the different trigger types at the energy range from 100 TeV to 10 PeV: (a) M1, (b) M2, (c) M3, and (d) M4. The markers represent different cosmic ray components: black circles for proton, red squares for He, light blue triangles for CNO, blue anti-triangles for MgAlSi, yellow stars for iron, and purple diamonds for all the components.

Fig.7 The

Σ e

and

Σ n

distributions of different cosmic ray components in three component selections: 1) proton (a) and the others as contaminations (b), 2) light component (c) and the others as contaminations (d), 3) iron (e) and the others as contaminations (f). The red lines represent the component separation lines having the slope

a 0

and the intersection

b 0

obtained from Fig.8 and listed in Tab.2.

Target component	$a 0$	$b 0$	$?$	$η$	$H 2$

Proton	−50	2.0	76%	32%	0.62
Light component	−5.0	1.0	86%	56%	0.79
Iron	−20	4.0	52%	47%	0.51

Tab.2 The optimal values

a 0

and

b 0

and the corresponding

?

η

, and

H 2

in the three component selections.

Fig.8 The values of

?

η

, and

H 2

at various

b

and

a

values for the three target components: 1)

?

(a),

η

(b), and

H 2

(c) for the target proton, 2)

?

(d),

η

(e), and

H 2

(f) for the target light component, and 3)

?

(g),

η

(h), and

H 2

(i) for the target iron. The white place in the

?

and

η

plots is where there is no any event selected, and that in the

H 2

plots is where both

?

and

η

are 0. The red crosses are the optimal values of

a 0

and

b 0

for the target components.

Fig.9 The thermal neutron background integrated distributions normalized to the number of events from the trigger type M0 in one month in the PRISMA-YBJ-16 experiment [31]. Red dots are for the detectors mounted on the ground, and black squares for the detectors mounted on the sand cubes.

Fig.10 The thermal neutron integrated distributions normalized to the number of events for the Monte Carol simulation (red dots) and the experimental data (black squares) with ratios of difference between the simulation data and the experimental data to the experimental data. Upper panel: Without the sand cubes; lower panel: With the sand cubes.

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