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On the energy spectrum of cosmogenic neutrons

  • Nuclei, Particles, Fields, Gravitation, and Astrophysics
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Abstract

The processes of the generation of cosmogenic neutrons (cg-neutrons) underground are considered. The neutrons produced by cosmic-ray muons in their interactions with matter are called cosmogenic. Deep-inelastic πA-collisions of pions in muon-induced hadronic showers are mainly their source at energies above 30 MeV. The characteristics of the energy spectrum for the generation of cg-neutrons have been determined by invoking the additive quark model of deep-inelastic soft processes and the mechanism for the interactions of high-energy nucleons in a nucleus. The three-component shape of the spectrum is explained, and the energy of the “knee” in the spectrum has been found to depend on the mass number A. The peculiarities of deep-inelastic πA-scattering lead to the conclusion that the spectrum of cg-neutrons steepens sharply at energies above 1 GeV. The calculated quantitative characteristics of the spectrum are compared with those obtained in measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. 60-letiya Oktyabrya 7a, Moscow, 117312, Russia

    A. S. Malgin

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  1. A. S. Malgin
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Correspondence to A. S. Malgin.

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Original Russian Text © A.S. Malgin, 2017, published in Zhurnal Eksperimental’noi i Teoreticheskoi Fiziki, 2017, Vol. 152, No. 5, pp. 863–876.

The article was translated by the authors.

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Malgin, A.S. On the energy spectrum of cosmogenic neutrons. J. Exp. Theor. Phys. 125, 728–740 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063776117100089

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063776117100089

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