2015/08/13 by Henrike Fleischhack · 7 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #COSMIC cancer database #Charged particle #Cherenkov Telescope Array #Cherenkov radiation #Cosmic ray #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Detector #Electromagnetic spectrum #Gamma ray #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Nuclear physics #Optics #Particle acceleration #Physics #Plasma #Primary (astronomy) #Ultra-high-energy cosmic ray #astro-ph.HE #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1742-6596/632/1/012009
published in Journal of Physics Conference Series 632, 012009 (IOP Publishing) · Presented at the 24th European Cosmic Ray Symposium, 2014
openalex publication_date 2015/08/13 · arxiv created 2015/08/19 · arxiv updated 2015/08/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Understanding the sources, acceleration mechanisms, and propagation of cosmic rays is an active area of research in astro-particle physics. Measuring the spectrum and elemental composition of cosmic rays on earth can help solve this question. IACTs, while mainly used for γ-ray astronomy and indirect searches for dark matter, can make an important contribution here. In particular, they are able to distinguish heavy nuclei in cosmic rays from protons and lighter nuclei by exploiting the direct Cherenkov light emitted by charged particles high in the atmosphere. In this paper, a method to reconstruct relevant properties of primary cosmic ray particles from the Cherenkov light emitted by the primary particles and the air showers induced by them will be presented.