KASCADE
KASCADE was a European physics experiment started in 1996 at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Germany (now Karlsruher Institut für Technologie), an extensive air shower experiment array to study the cosmic ray primary composition and the hadronic interactions, measuring simultaneously the electronic, muonic and hadronic components.
KASCADE-Grande was a further extension of the previous project by reassembling 37 detectors of the former EAS-TOP experiment running between 1987 and 2000 at Campo Imperatore, Gran Sasso Laboratories, Italy. By this Grande extension of KASCADE the energy range was extended to 1014–1018 eV.
The experiment contributed significantly to the development of the CORSIKA simulation program which is use heavily in astroparticle physics. Co-located with KASCADE-Grande is the LOPES experiment. LOPES consists of radio antennas and measures the radio emission of extensive air showers.
KASCADE (including all extensions) stopped operation in 2013, but a part of the detectors is still used in other experiments for cosmic-ray air showers, e.g., LOFAR or Tunka.
The data acquired by KASCADE-Grande have meanwhile be made accesibile to the public in the KASCADE Cosmic-Ray Data Center (KCDC).
Results
KASCADE studied heavier components of cosmic rays, finding a "knee" near 80 PeV in 2011,[1] and extending the spectrum measurements to 200PeV.[2]
Later, a knee-like feature in the heavy component and an ankle-like feature in the light component of cosmic rays was discovered at an energy of about 1017 eV.
Participants
- Institut für Kernphysik and Institut für Experimentelle Kernphysik of Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), Germany
- Diparimento di Fisica Generale dell' Universita and Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario of Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica Torino, Italy
- Universität Siegen, Germany
- Universität Wuppertal, Germany
- Soltan Institute for Nuclear Studies, Łódź, Poland
- Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, Romania
References
- Apel, W. D.; et al. (2011). "Kneelike Structure in the Spectrum of the Heavy Component of Cosmic Rays Observed with KASCADE-Grande". Physical Review Letters. 107 (17): 171104. arXiv:1107.5885. Bibcode:2011PhRvL.107q1104A. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.171104. PMID 22107501.
- Apel, W. D.; et al. (2013). "KASCADE-Grande measurements of energy spectra for elemental groups of cosmic rays". Astroparticle Physics. 47: 54–66. arXiv:1308.2098. Bibcode:2013APh....47...54A. doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2013.06.004.