Research on the knee region of cosmic ray by using a novel type of electron–neutron detector array

• Published in: Frontiers of physics Vol. 19; no. 4; p. 44200
• Main Authors: Li, Bing-Bing, Ma, Xin-Hua, Cui, Shu-Wang, Chen, Hao-Kun, Chen, Tian-Lu, Danzengluobu, Gao, Wei, Hu, Hai-Bing, Kuleshov, Denis, Kurinov, Kirill, Liu, Hu, Liu, Mao-Yuan, Liu, Ye, Peng, Da-Yu, Qi, Yao-Hui, Shchegolev, Oleg, Stenkin, Yuri, Yin, Li-Qiao, Zhang, Heng-Yu, Zhang, Liang-Wei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Higher Education Press 01-08-2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Altitude; Arrays; Astronomy; Astrophysics and Cosmology; Atomic; Composition; Condensed Matter Physics; Cosmic ray showers; Cosmic rays; Dark matter; Energy; Energy spectra; Gamma ray astronomy; Gamma rays; Hadrons; High altitude; Knee; Molecular; Monte Carlo simulation; Neutron counters; Neutron distribution; Neutrons; Optical and Plasma Physics; Particle and Nuclear Physics; Particle physics; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Research Article; Scintillation counters; Sensors; Sky surveys (astronomy); Thermal neutrons; knee region; cosmic ray; LHAASO; EAS; ENDA
• ISSN: 2095-0462; 2095-0470
• DOI: 10.1007/s11467-023-1383-2

By accurately measuring composition and energy spectrum of cosmic ray, the origin problem of so called “knee” region (energy >one PeV) can be solved. However, up to the present, the results of the spectrum in the knee region obtained by several previous experiments have shown obvious differences, so they cannot give effective evidence for judging the theoretical models on the origin of the knee. Recently, the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) has reported several major breakthroughs and important results in astro-particle physics field. Relying on its advantages of wide-sky survey, high altitude location and large area detector arrays, the research content of LHAASO experiment mainly includes ultra high-energy gamma-ray astronomy, measurement of cosmic ray spectra in the knee region, searching for dark matter and new phenomena of particle physics at higher energy. The electron and thermal neutron detector (EN-Detector) is a new scintillator detector which applies thermal neutron detection technology to measure cosmic ray extensive air shower (EAS). This technology is an extension of LHAASO. The EN-Detector Array (ENDA) can highly efficiently measure thermal neutrons generated by secondary hadrons so called “skeleton” of EAS. In this paper, we perform the optimization of ENDA configuration, and obtain expectations on the ENDA results, including thermal neutron distribution, trigger efficiency and capability of cosmic ray composition separation. The obtained real data results are consistent with those by the Monte Carlo simulation.