Galactic Cosmic Ray Energy Spectra Measurements for Z=10-30 at 0.8-10 GeV/nuc with SuperTIGER
Abstract
SuperTIGER (Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder) is a large-area balloon-borne instrument built to measure the galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) abundances of elements from Z=10 (Ne) through Z=56 (Ba) at energies 0.8-10 GeV/nuc. SuperTIGER flew over Antarctica for a record-breaking 55 days, from December 8, 2012 to February 1, 2013. We will report calculations of galactic cosmic ray spectra for abundant elements between Ne and Zn from the SuperTIGER flight data. The energy spectra calculations will incorporate refinements to the energy calibrations for the acrylic and aerogel Cherenkov detectors in the instrument, as well as corrections for interactions derived from a GEANT4 simulation of the instrument. We expect to have absolute spectra in time for the conference. We will compare SuperTIGER spectra with ACE/CRIS and HEAO-3 spectra and with model GCR spectra solar modulated for the time period of the flight. We will also report early spectrum results of SuperTIGER-2, which launched over Antarctica on December 15, 2019 and flew into January 2020. Heinz and Sunyaev (2002) suggested that microquasar jets like those seen in radio observations of GRS 1915+105 and GRO J1655-40 may be observable as near-monoenergetic peaks in heavy ion spectra at 3-10 GeV/nuc. We will provide updates to the search for peaks in SuperTIGER spectra that may arise from microquasar jets. This work is supported by NASA Grant Number NNX15AC15G
- Publication:
-
43rd COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 28 January - 4 February
- Pub Date:
- January 2021
- Bibcode:
- 2021cosp...43E1333L