A Method for energy estimation and mass composition determination of primary cosmic rays at Chacaltaya observation level based on atmospheric Cerenkov light technique

Abstract

A new method for energy and mass composition estimation of primary cosmic ray radiation based on atmospheric Cerenkov light flux in extensive air showers (EAS) analysis is proposed. The Cerenkov light flux in EAS initiated by primary protons and iron nuclei is simulated with CORSIKA 5.62 code for Chacaltaya observation level (536 g/cm2) in the energy range 10 TeV - 10 PeV. An adequate model, approximation of lateral distribution of Cerenkov light in showers is obtained. Using the proposed model and solution of overdetermined system of nonlinear equations based on Gauss Newton method with autoregularization, two different array detector arrangements are compared. The detector response for the detector sets is simulated. The accuracies in energy and shower axis determination are studied and the corresponding selection criteria are proposed. An approximation with nonlinear fit is obtained and the energy dependence of the proposed model function parameters is studied. The approximation of model parameters as function of the primary energy is carried out. This permits, taking into account the properties of the proposed method and model, to distinguish proton primaries from iron primaries. The detector response for the detector sets is simulated and the accuracies in energy determination are calculated. Moreover the accuracies in shower axis determination are studied and criteria in shower axis position estimation are proposed.