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J. B. Isbert (Louisiana State University), ATIC Collaboration
The Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter (ATIC) Balloon Experiment is primarily designed to measure the spectra of nuclear cosmic rays (protons to nickel). It is composed of a segmented BGO calorimeter (18 radiation lengths deep) following a carbon target (0.75 nuclear interaction lengths) interleaved with scintillator tracking layers. A Silicon matrix detector at the entrance identifies the incident particle charge. Utilizing simulations such as Fluka and Geant we have investigated the ability of this design to differentiate electron (gamma) initiated showers from hadronic showers. The differences in shower development between the two populations are sufficient to differentiate them for measurements of electron spectra into the TeV region, as confirmed by accelerator tests at CERN and by the ATIC-1 test flight in 2000-01. ATIC had a successful science flight in 2002-03 from McMurdo, Antarctica returning about 19 days of flight data. This exposure is sufficient to record electrons into the TeV region and measure gamma rays at 100's of GeV. The majority of gamma rays are of atmospheric origin and provide a test for this technique. The preliminary electron spectrum from the ATIC-2 flight is presented and compared to previous high energy measurements, principally from emulsion chambers. Possible astrophysical interpretations of the results are discussed.
The ATIC Collaboration:
J.H. Adams,2 H.S. Ahn,3 G.L. Bashindzhagyan,4 K.E. Batkov,4 J. Chang,6,7 M. Christl,2 A.R. Fazely,5, O. Ganel,3 R.M. Gunasingha,5 T.G. Guzik,1 J. Isbert,1 K.C. Kim,3 E.N. Kouznetsov,4 M.I. Panasyuk,4 A.D. Panov,4 W.K.H. Schmidt,6 E.S. Seo,3 N.V. Sokolskaya,4 J.Z. Wang,3 J.P. Wefel,1 J. Wu,3 V.I. Zatsepin,4
(1) Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA (2) Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, USA (3) University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA (4) Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia (5) Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA (6) Max Plank Institute fur Aeronomie, Lindau,Germany (7) Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #3
© 2004. The American Astronomical Soceity.