The All‐Particle Spectrum of Primary Cosmic Rays in the Wide Energy Range from 10 14 to 10 17 eV Observed with the Tibet‐III Air‐Shower Array

作者：M. Amenomori, Xiao-Jun Bi, D. Chen, S. W. Cui, Danzengluobu Danzengluobu, L. K. Ding, X. H. Ding, C. Fan, Cong Feng, Zhaoyang Feng, Z. Y. Feng, X. Y. Gao, Q. X. Geng, Hangwen Guo, Han He, M. He, K. Hibino, N. Hotta, Haibing Hu, H. B. Hu, J. Huang, Q. Huang, H.Y Jia, F. Kajino, K. Kasahara, Y. Katayose, C. Kato, K. Kawata, Labaciren Labaciren, G. M. Le, A. F. Li, J. Y. Li, Y.‐Q. Lou, H. Lu, S. L. Lu, X. R. Meng, K. Mizutani, J. Mu, K. Munakata, A. Nagai, H. Nanjo, M. Nishizawa, M. Ohnishi, I. Ohta, H. Onuma, T. Ouchi, S. Ozawa, J. R. Ren, T. Saito, T. Saito, M. Sakata, T. Sako, M. Shibata, A. Shiomi, T. Shirai, H. Sugimoto, M. Takita, Y. H. Tan, N. Tateyama, S. Torii, H. Tsuchiya, S. Udo, B. Wang, H. Wang, X. Wang, Y. Wang, Y. G. Wang, H. Wu, L. Xue, Y. Yamamoto, C. T. Yan, Xinru Yang, S. Yasue, Z. H. Ye, G. C. Yu, A. F. Yuan, T. Yuda, H. M. Zhang, J. L. Zhang, N. J. Zhang, X. Y. Zhang, Yi Zhang, Yi Zhang, Zhaxisangzhu, Xiaojuan Zhou · 发表于：The Astrophysical Journal · 年份：2008 · DOI：10.1086/529514 · 被引用次数：217 · 研究领域：Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena、Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena、Neutrino Physics Research

We present an updated all-particle energy spectrum of primary cosmic rays in a wide range from 10 14 to 10 17 eV using 5.5 × 10 7 events collected from 2000 November through 2004 October by the Tibet-III air-shower array located 4300 m above sea level (an atmospheric depth of 606 g cm −2 ). The size spectrum exhibits a sharp knee at a corresponding primary energy around 4 PeV. This work uses increased statistics and new simulation calculations for the analysis. We discuss our extensive Monte Carlo calculations and the model dependencies involved in the final result, assuming interaction models QGSJET01c and SIBYLL2.1, and heavy dominant (HD) and proton dominant (PD) primary composition models. Pure proton and pure iron primary models are also examined as extreme cases. A detector simulation was also performed to improve our accuracy in determining the size of the air showers and the energy of the primary particle. We confirmed that the all-particle energy spectra obtained under various plausible model parameters are not significantly different from each other, which was the expected result given the characteristics of the experiment at high altitude, where the air showers of the primary energy around the knee reach near-maximum development, with their features dominated by electromagnetic components, leading to a weak dependence on the interaction model or the primary mass. This is the highest statistical and the best systematics-controlled measurement covering the widest ene...