Volume 444 - 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2023) - Cosmic-Ray Physics (Indirect, CRI)
Probing cosmic ray composition with inclined air showers of LHAASO-KM2A
Presented by X. Tian* on behalf of Q. Gou, Z. Li, G. Di Sciascio, S. Lin, M. Kang, J. Gou, Q. Zhang  on behalf of the LHAASO Collaboration
*: corresponding author
Full text: pdf
Pre-published on: July 25, 2023
Published on: September 27, 2024
Abstract
The origin of cosmic ray (CR) spectral knee around ∼4 PeV is unknown. Composition studies
around the knee can provide information on the CR sources and propagation. LHAASO-KM2A
is capable of simultaneously measuring the EM and muonic components in extensive air showers.
The triggered events of LHAASO-KM2A are dominated by CRs of higher energies at larger zenith
angles because of the increasing atmospheric attenuation. In this work, we use the KM2A observed
spectrum of muon-to-electron number ratio to constrain CR composition around the knee. The
muon-to-electron number ratio spectra are compared between Monte Carlo (MC) simulation and
experiment data over a wide zenith angle range. We report a MC excess at large zenith angles,
which sets an upper limit on CR Fe flux at PeVs. Systematic uncertainties of interaction models
and atmospheric models are briefly discussed.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22323/1.444.0297
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