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Observation of New Properties of Secondary Cosmic Rays Lithium, Beryllium, and Boron by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station

M. Aguilar et al. (AMS Collaboration)
Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 021101 – Published 11 January 2018
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Abstract

We report on the observation of new properties of secondary cosmic rays Li, Be, and B measured in the rigidity (momentum per unit charge) range 1.9 GV to 3.3 TV with a total of 5.4×106 nuclei collected by AMS during the first five years of operation aboard the International Space Station. The Li and B fluxes have an identical rigidity dependence above 7 GV and all three fluxes have an identical rigidity dependence above 30 GV with the Li/Be flux ratio of 2.0±0.1. The three fluxes deviate from a single power law above 200 GV in an identical way. This behavior of secondary cosmic rays has also been observed in the AMS measurement of primary cosmic rays He, C, and O but the rigidity dependences of primary cosmic rays and of secondary cosmic rays are distinctly different. In particular, above 200 GV, the secondary cosmic rays harden more than the primary cosmic rays.

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  • Received 7 November 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.021101

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

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Space Measurements of Secondary Cosmic Rays

Published 11 January 2018

New data from the International Space Station shed light on how secondary cosmic rays propagate through space.

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Vol. 120, Iss. 2 — 12 January 2018

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