The Spectrum of Cosmic-Ray Particles and Their Origin

N. L. Grigorov and E. D. Tolstaya*

Skobeltsyn Research Institute of Nuclear Physics, Moscow State University, Vorob’evy gory, Moscow, 119992 Russia

*e-mail: katya@srd.sinp.msu.ru

Received May 21, 2003

Abstract—An analysis of all the direct measurements of the spectrum for all cosmic-ray particles over the
energy range 0.1–10 TeV reveals an anomaly in the spectrum in the form of a step if the spectrum is represented
as E I₀(E). The pattern of the anomaly unequivocally implies a proton spectrum with a knee at energy close to
1 TeV. The qualitative difference between the spectra of protons and nuclei with Z 2 (the latter have a purely
power-law spectrum over a wide energy range) leads us to conclude that the acceleration conditions for protons
and nuclei are different. We consider the process characteristic only of protons that may be responsible for the
emergence of a knee in the proton spectrum. © 2004 MAIK “Nauka/Interperiodica”.

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