ELECTRON-PHOTON ENERGIES IN EXTENSIVE AIR SHOWERS,

Abstract

Average electron and photon energies are found at various distances from the cores of extensive air showers by comparing the multiplicities produced under different thicknesses of lead and of water absorbers as measured through the use of two large scintillators. For distances from 2.3.10/2 to 1.4.10/1 shower units from the cores of showers of 100,000 to 10 to 7th power particles the total energy carried by electrons and photons per electron is found to be 61(r/r sub 2/0.74 MeV per electron. The ratio of the average photon energy to the average electron energy is found to vary from 1.5 to 3.3 at different distances. Transition curves obtained with different thicknesses of water as absorber are used to show that for showers of 460,000 particles a total of 1.5 times 10 to the 12th power eV is expended in the production of pions per nuclear interaction to give an inelasticity of 0.33. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 25, 1961
Accession Number
AD0613500

Entities

People

  • J. R. Barcus
  • J. R. Green

Organizations

  • University of New Mexico

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Electron Energy
  • Electrons
  • Energy
  • Particles
  • Production
  • Scintillation Counters
  • Thickness
  • Transitions

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Solar Physics

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics