A Reexamination of the Cosmic-Ray Helium Spectrum and the 3He/ 4He Ratio at High Energies

Cosmic ray He spectral data collected by satellites in earth orbit were used to examine a recent measurement of He-3 of about 6 GeV/nucleon, an overabundance compared to predictions made with a leaky box approach. The spectral rigidity index at the time of the measurement was no more than 2.55, indicating a near-earth He-3/He-4 ratio of 0.17, although an index in the range 10-20 GV and a ratio of close to 0.24 is the usual value. New magnetic spectrometer data, however, show that a single spectral rigidity value for the near-earth He-3/He-4 ratio cannot be correct. The Fokker-Planck equation is used to demonstrate that solar modulation of the He flux yields an energy/abundance distribution close to observational data.