New constraints on the mass composition of cosmic rays above 10¹⁷ eV from Volcano Ranch measurements

Abstract

Linsley used the Volcano Ranch array to collect data on the lateral distribution of showers produced by cosmic rays at energies above 10¹⁷ eV. Very precise measurements of the steepness of the lateral distribution function were made on 366 events. The current availability of sophisticated hadronic interaction models has prompted an interpretation of the measurements. In this analysis we use the AIRES Monte Carlo code to generate showers, together with GEANT4 to simulate the detector response to ground particles. The results show that, with the assumption of a bi-modal proton and iron mix, iron is the dominant component of cosmic rays between 5 × 10¹⁷ and 10¹⁹ eV, assuming that hadronic interactions are well-described by QGSJET at this energy range.