Observation of the ankle and evidence for a high-energy break in the cosmic ray spectrum

• DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2005.05.064
• Publication Date: 2005-06-10T11:55:01Z
• Authors: R.U. Abbasi; T. Abu-Zayyad; J.F. Amman; G. Archbold; R. Atkins; J.A. Bellido; K. Belov; J.W. Belz; S.Y. Ben Zvi; D.R. Bergman; G.W. Burt; Z. Cao; R.W. Clay; B.C. Connolly; W. Deng; B.R. Dawson; Y. Fedorova; J. Findlay; C.B. Finley; W.F. Hanlon; C.M. Hoffman; G.A. Hughes; M.H. Holzscheiter; P. Hüntemeyer; C.C.H. Jui; K. Kim; M.A. Kirn; E.G. Loh; M.M. Maestas; N. Manago; L.J. Marek; K. Martens; J.A.J. Matthews; J.N. Matthews; A. O'Neill; C.A. Painter; L. Perera; K. Reil; R. Riehle; M. Roberts; M. Sasaki; S.R. Schnetzer; K.M. Simpson; G. Sinnis; J.D. Smith; R. Snow; P. Sokolsky; C. Song; R.W. Springer; B.T. Stokes; J.R. Thomas; S.B. Thomas; G.B. Thomson; D. Tupa; S. Westerhoff; L.R. Wiencke; A. Zech
• Keywords: 0103 physical sciences; Astrophysics; 01 natural sciences; 520

Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures. To appear in Physics Letters B. Accepted version<br/>We have measured the cosmic ray spectrum at energies above $10^{17}$ eV using the two air fluorescence detectors of the High Resolution Fly's Eye experiment operating in monocular mode. We describe the detector, PMT and atmospheric calibrations, and the analysis techniques for the two detectors. We fit the spectrum to models describing galactic and extragalactic sources. Our measured spectrum gives an observation of a feature known as the ``ankle'' near $3\times 10^{18}$ eV, and strong evidence for a suppression near $6\times 10^{19}$ eV.<br/>