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The End of the Cosmic Ray Spectrum

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High Energy Cosmic Rays

Part of the book series: Astrophysics and Space Science Library ((ASSL,volume 462))

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Abstract

The cosmic ray spectrum is so steep that even with the relatively big and stable air shower arrays that were built in 1950s it was not obvious whether it ends or it continues forever to really huge energies. It seemed quite possible that there are showers of energy 1020 eV and higher that cannot be seen only because of their very low flux. With a spectral index of 2.7 each higher decade of energy decreases the flux by a factor of 50. After the knee, which has already been suggested, and the steepening of the spectrum each decade would decrease the flux by more than a factor of 100.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Delaware Bartol Research Institute, Newark, DE, USA

    Todor Stanev

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  1. Todor Stanev
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Stanev, T. (2021). The End of the Cosmic Ray Spectrum. In: High Energy Cosmic Rays. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 462. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71567-0_9

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