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Investigation on the cosmic-ray shadow of planets and asteroids

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Abstract

The moon shadow and sun shadow of cosmic rays are commonly used to calibrate the angular resolution of the instrument in extensive air shower experiments, measure the proton-antiproton ratio, and study the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). The shadow effect of planets and asteroids in the solar system, on the other hand, has received little attention. If considerable shadow effects can be observed, a novel approach may be developed to calibrate the point spread function and investigate the IMF. In this work, we calculate the sensitivity of observing the shadow effects of planets and asteroids in the next hundred years using LHAASO’s instrumental response as an example. The result shows that the blocking impact of these celestial bodies is minimal; thus, their influence on the direction distribution of cosmic rays is negligible.

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Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to Yi Zhang (zhangyi@pmo.ac.cn) or Jun Li (lij@pmo.ac.cn).

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Funding

This work is supported in China by the National Key R &D program of China under the grants 2018YFA0404202, by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under the grants 11775233 and the Program for Innovative Talents and Entrepreneur in Jiangsu.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Dark Matter and Space Astronomy, Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 210033, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

    Jun Li, Yi Zhang, X. Y. Huang & J. Y. He

  2. School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, Anhui, China

    Jun Li, Yi Zhang, X. Y. Huang & J. Y. He

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  1. Jun Li
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Contributions

Yi Zhang raises the project, guiding the data analysis, paper writing, and revision. Jun Li is the executor of the experimental research, completing data analysis and writing the first draft of the paper. J.Y. He participates in method design, result verification, and paper revision. X.Y. Huang engages in the writing and revision of the article. All authors read and agree on the final text.

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Correspondence to Yi Zhang.

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Li, J., Zhang, Y., Huang, X.Y. et al. Investigation on the cosmic-ray shadow of planets and asteroids. Exp Astron 55, 559–567 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-022-09874-5

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